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This statement explains the motivation behind the creation of the institutions encompassed by the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), which reflects the Qur'anic requirement to share one's resources with others, and to care for those in need; thus, it serves as the ethical foundation of the AKDN, as it addresses issues faced by communities in parts of the world deprived of many basic necessities, essential for even a minimal quality of life, by offering them opportunity and hope for a better future. 

 

In the six decades since the first of AKDN's dozens of institutions and programs were created, this global network now operates in 30 countries, primarily in South and Central Asia, East and West Africa, and the Middle East, employing 80,000 people. In this article, we look at some of the major issues these entities address, and how they touch the lives of so many around the world.   

Many of the AKDN's programs are directed at the grass roots, affecting one family and one village at a time. Picture a small village in the Northern Areas of Pakistan, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and crisp air at the "Roof of the World;  it would appear to be an idyllic setting; but life in the shadows of these peaks was far different in the 1980s. One family, that of Mrs. Rehnuma, had been surviving on the meager produce grown in their small plot of land; she had to care for a disabled husband and a family of ten. Most villagers in this region - with literacy rates low and infant mortality rates high - barely eked out a living. The village's future, and that of her family, looked bleak.

 

That is, until the arrival of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) in Pakistan. It began its operations over four decades ago in response to Mawlana Hazar Imam's vision and desire to improve the quality of life of communities in this remote corner of the country. Simply providing aid was not a solution, as that would create permanent dependency. And for any economic project to succeed, the entire village would need to support it, and ultimately manage and sustain it. The concept of Village Organizations was developed, to explain how potential income-generating projects could benefit them, and Women's Organizations were also encouraged. Often it would take several years of discussions with villagers to arrive at this juncture, requiring perseverance and determination on the part of AKRSP staff. 

 

Although illiterate, Mrs. Rehnuma was trained by AKRSP in poultry raising; three years later, she was taught to care for livestock and to operate a chicken hatchery.  In a short time, she had become a major supplier of eggs and milk, and her vegetable yields increased through better farming techniques. Soon, she was earning an income that matched that of a teacher, with significant improvements to her family's health and financial security. More importantly, women were now seen as potential contributors to family income, elevating their status and giving them a voice. In a short time, other villagers wished to emulate her success, thus encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit.  

 

This is the spark that was ignited in this rural area - one that provided hope, coupled with tangible assistance towards self-improvement from AKRSP, allowing those affected to maintain their dignity and self-respect, as masters of their own destinies.  

 

Reviewing the first 13 years of its operations, the World Bank Group reported that "real incomes have nearly doubled, on average, in the program area. The increase cannot be wholly attributed to AKRSP, but it compares with the average gain of 26 percent for Pakistan as a whole." While a remarkable statistic in itself, this represented an exponential improvement in the lives of the villagers.   

 

AKRSP is just one of the AKDN's many institutions created as a mechanism to realise the social conscience that Muslims are required to exercise, and to address a multitude of issues facing marginalized and underserved communities around the world. 

This Diamond Jubilee year is an opportune occasion to reflect on the impact of Mawlana Hazar’s Imam’s 60 years of dedicated service to humanity, illustrated through the work of the AKDN.

 

During his lecture at Harvard University in 2016, the Imam suggested that endemic poverty was still a major challenge facing the world, a cause of much of the migration of people, with accompanying reactions in some countries to having to accommodate the influx of refugees:

However, confronting poverty simply through the lens of income-generation is insufficient, in the Imam's view. As he explained: 

Rather than devising singular and specific ad hoc projects, the mission of the AKDN agencies is to apply multiple inputs to ameliorate a community's condition, addressing many factors simultaneously. Having an extra meal a day would provide some comfort to those in difficult circumstances, but this alone would not assure a brighter future in the absence of basic medical care, housing, income opportunities or quality education. Thus, an integrated and comprehensive approach to development best addresses the Islamic ethic of compassion towards the less fortunate, the fundamental objective of AKDN interventions. 

 

The application of multiple measures to improve community life and alleviating poverty, can be seen in the creation of the 74 acre Al-Azhar Park. The $30 million development project was a gift made by Mawlana Hazar Imam to the city of Cairo, a city that was founded by his forebear, Imam al Muizz, a thousand years ago. This initiative  resurrected the desolate space that had been a 500 year-old garbage dump, between the city's 12th century Ayyubid wall and its 15th century Mamluk “City of the Dead.” Today, it is  a verdant oasis within a concrete metropolis, adding to the quality of life of the two million Cairenes who visit it annually. 

 

The Park's development acted as a catalyst for other AKDN projects in the adjacent poor Darb Al-Ahmar neighborhood, which suffered from neglect, inadequate infrastructure, services and housing. Besides now employing hundreds of local people at the Park, dozens of artisans, masons, and carpenters had to be trained to restore the ancient city wall discovered during excavations. These skills are now in demand elsewhere. AKDN agencies also addressed sanitation, garbage collection, primary health care, housing rehabilitation, adult literacy programs, along with the restoration of cultural monuments and mosques in the neighborhood. 

 

The Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM) provided the capital needed for aspiring entrepreneurs to open shops and use their skills in improving their lives, both in Darb Al-Ahmar and in Aswan. The impact of microcredit can be seen in the example of Aswan's Mahassen Mahmoud, whose husband lost his job, leaving the family of six with no means of support. With a $360 loan she was able to buy lambs to raise and sell. She repeated this process six more times, and expanded her business. She ventured into groceries, sewing clothes, and farming. She purchased two commercial boats, increasing her income thirty-five-fold in a few years, which allowed her to purchase a new house and gain financial independence and security. Over three million similar loans have been granted to applicants in several countries where AKAM operates, leading to significant improvements in the lives of loan beneficiaries. 

Economic development assists countries and citizens to improve their living standards. Consider the example of Frigoken, a bean-processing plant operated by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), in Kenya. Acting as a cooperative, it supports over 75,000 small farmers and directly employs 3,000 women, offering health benefits and care for their young children at the plant site, price guarantees, free technological support, and ready markets, so producers have a reliable and steady income source, independent of weather conditions. Today, it has become Kenya's largest bean exporter. Investments such as this also improve the industrial base of many countries, providing much needed employment and foreign exchange. 

 

On a larger scale, electricity is critical for industrial production; without sufficient power on demand, economic growth and social activity are curtailed. This was the situation in Uganda, with its rolling blackouts, until the $900 million Bujagali dam was opened in 2007 by Mawlana Hazar Imam and President Museveni. This project, which came together through a three-way public-private partnership, generated almost 50% of the country's electricity at the time of its inauguration. 

 

Ugandans have since seen marked improvement in their lives. AKFED has also improved the water supply of nearby residents, as well as school and health center buildings, leading to a doubling of students at schools and improvements in health care. It also operates a power plant in Cote d'Ivoire and is developing another to increase power generation for Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

 

Its Pamir Energy company, that supplies power to over 250,000 residents in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, recently received the Ashden Award for increasing energy access. In addition to power, AKDN agencies have investments in tourism, financial services, media, and in industrial enterprises. Profits from these enterprises are re-invested in further development activities.

 

The need for education had been stressed by Mawlana Sultan Mahomed Shah, with his opening of the first Aga Khan Schools in Zanzibar, Pakistan and India, in 1905. This emphasis has continued with Mawlana Hazar Imam's creation of a vast array of educational institutions, underscoring his conviction that knowledge and critical thinking are the foundations for improving one's condition. At the opening of the Aga Khan School in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, in 2002, Hazar Imam said, “…the best way to manage change, whether positive or negative, is to prepare for it, and there is no greater form of preparation for change than investments in education." 

 

Hazar Imam has focused not just on universities, of which has founded two -- the Aga Khan University (AKU), with eight campuses in six countries, and the University of Central Asia, with campuses planned in three countries -- but also on schools at all levels. The creation of Aga Khan Academies, for example, are dedicated to cultivating the next generation of leaders in the developing world. In service of that goal, these "Centres of Excellence" incorporate concepts such as diversity, pluralism, and tolerance. International exchanges are part of the curriculum, allowing students to better navigate a shrinking and interconnected world. 

 

Addressing  basic education needs of many communities, the Aga Khan Education Services operates more than 200 schools and educational programs, benefiting over 80,000 students. And education, for even younger children is a concern for the Imam; as research indicates that early childhood education is the best predictor of later success, it is no surprise that he insists on every child in our Jamat being enrolled in such programs,  providing spaces for this to occur. 

 

Imparting a quality education requires good teachers, and this is addressed through teacher training programs conducted in Pakistan and Tanzania, at AKU's Institutes for Educational Development. In Pakistan alone, over 1,300 degrees have been conferred and 14,000 public school educators and community leaders have been trained in an effort to raise teaching standards. These teachers go on to train other teachers in their own schools, which creates a much larger multiplier effect. The initiatives are intended not only to benefit the lives of the students being taught, but to help develop a cadre of well-educated people who can make a positive impact on their countries in the future. 

 

Accelerating the process of producing highly qualified individuals are plans for AKU's US$1 billion Faculty of Arts and Sciences in Arusha, Tanzania, with its eight graduate professional schools; once completed, the aspiration is for AKU to become East Africa's intellectual center, increasing the region's caliber of talent and leadership for future generations.

 

The measurement of quality of life includes a number of factors, but perhaps the most critical are material living conditions, including income and housing, education, and healthcare. The cycle of poverty cannot be halted or reversed, without improvements in these areas. The health of a nation is only as good as the health of its citizens, and primary care is essential, though not available readily in many parts of the developing world. So AKDN supports over 200 health facilities, mostly in rural areas in several countries, and operates 15 hospitals. Together, they provide care to five million people annually. 

 

Another example of how quality of life has been  impacted is AKU's Nursing School, established at a time when few women in Pakistan worked outside the home and nursing was not considered to be a respectable profession. With its modern facilities and comparatively high salaries for graduates, the Nursing School provided the impetus for a cultural shift that encouraged more women to enter the workforce.  

 

AKU's hospital in Karachi is considered to be at an international standard, with state-of-the-art facilities and with groundbreaking research being conducted. On the African continent, the Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi, recently opened a Heart and Cancer Center, the first in East Africa, and also an Oncology Center. Additionally, new hospitals are planned for Arusha and Kampala, to provide greater access to quality healthcare in these cities.

Connection to one's history and traditions are critical components of one's identity, even for self-respect; when ignored or considered irrelevant, a society can lose its moorings and sense of direction. Unfortunately, much of the Muslim world is in great need of maintaining its historic monuments and other cultural assets. Not wishing to see these disappear and lose that connection to the past, AKDN's Aga Khan Trust address the retention and promotion of traditional music and poetry, and the restoration of historic sites and monument -- from Humayun's Tomb in Delhi, to the walled City of Lahore, and the Great Mosque of Mopti, in Mali. In addition, Toronto's Aga Khan Museum houses magnificent treasures, and its educational programs will better inform the public about the cultural heritage of the Muslim world.

 

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, now in its 40th year, has drawn attention to architecture in Muslim societies, and the need to both reflect their cultural heritage, and to be sensitive to the needs of communities affected by new construction, including landscape architecture. It has set new standards for architectural excellence and is unique in its encouragement of climate adaptation, sustainability, and quality of life of issues.  

 

Governments, no matter how goodwilled, are often unable to do everything for everybody, and Mawlana Hazar Imam has reiterated the value of civil society organizations “...which operate on a private, voluntary basis but are motivated by high public purposes.” These groups encourage citizens to participate in political discourse, raise issues of public concern, and become involved in civic and social initiatives for the common good. They would include those concerned with culture, media, the environment, health, education and religious faith. 

 

AKDN supports 40,000 civil society organizations, with 1.3 million members in over 30 countries. As an example, it works with the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy to ensure NGOs are effective in serving their constituencies. In East Africa, AKDN uses mobile telephone technology to connect remote communities to e-learning courses, and to educate poor farmers in better agricultural techniques. The Nation Media Group is the largest such organization in East Africa, instrumental in providing fair and balanced reporting to its readers in a continent that has few comparable media outlets. AKU's new Graduate School of Media Communications in Nairobi promises an even higher caliber of journalistic talent in the future. 

 

The Imam's international focus and emphasis on the need for greater cultural understanding and a pluralist ethos, is illustrated in the opening of Ottawa’s Global Center for Pluralism, conceived by him, and funded in partnership with the Government of Canada. It is a unique institution that hosts workshops, presents lectures and conducts research.  It has also participated in discussions with civil society leaders in Kenya, and funded researchers to review Kyrgyzstan's experience with its diverse composition of ethnicities, in an attempt to make its society more inclusive. 

Key to AKDN's development philosophy is the notion of a sustainable society, as Mawlana Hazar Imam expressed at the World Congress of Architects in Chicago, in June 1993: "Indeed it is my very faith – Islam, which articulates that concept – God has entrusted His world to the living, in order that they may improve it from generation to generation."

 

This philosophy is at the heart of the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, which is concerned with climate change. Of particular concern at this time are communities living in regions susceptible to earthquakes, avalanches, landslides, and in dilapidated housing. The Agency has successfully helped to address such issues over the long term, and through disaster training and management programs, particularly in Northern Pakistan and Tajikistan. It has developed more efficient smoke-free stoves - among 70 other low-cost habitat improvements - that lower the demand for firewood, and reduce respiratory infections. 

 

Safe housing design, drip irrigation, water supply and sanitation, community hydroelectric plants, windmills and solar energy, are being introduced in many rural communities, mitigating potential hazards and improving their quality of life. AKDN agencies have also planted over 100 million trees to counter the environmental damage done by deforestation.

 

Sixty years of enlightened leadership that expresses the core ethics of Islam, is evident in Mawlana Hazar Imam's vision and dedication in the service of humanity. Millions of people, knowingly or not, have been touched by that very spark he alluded to in his 1983 speech in India, a result of the "fusion of faith and the world," that he believes is a moral imperative. 

 

Opportunities have been created, where few existed before; the quality of life of many impoverished communities has improved, where generations of families expected nothing better; but most of all, the seeds of hope for a better future have been planted, encouraging individuals and communities to be responsible for their own futures. This is the impact of the AKDN, and one of the Imamat's major legacies in the contemporary period. 

 

The Imam's work has not gone unnoticed, as foundations, universities, governments, and others have recognized his contributions to improving the human condition. This is illustrated by the dozens of honors, decorations, and awards he has received, including the North South Prize presented to him by the Council of Europe, the Adrienne Clarkson Prize for Global Citizenship, the United Nations Foundation’s Champion for Global Change Award, and the Asia Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

In this Diamond Jubilee year, we celebrate, not only Mawlana Hazar Imam's spiritual and material guidance, that have improved the lives of the global Jamat, but also his efforts at improving the lives of so many others around the world. And, as we have seen with previous Imams throughout the centuries, one person, with a vision, can indeed make a difference.

 

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1. Mawlana Hazar Imam, at the Opening of Alltex EPZ Limited, Athi River, Kenya, December 19, 2003.