Aga Khan Foundation (UK)
Overview
The Aga Khan Foundation is the principal grant-making agency for social development within the Shia Ismaili Imamat. His Highness the Aga Khan is its founder and chairman. He provides the Foundation with regular funding for administration and new programme initiatives as well as contributions to its endowment.
Grants are normally given to local organisations interested in testing new solutions, in learning from experience and in being agents of lasting change. These organisations must share the Foundation's and AKDN's goals in the fields of health, education, rural development and strengthening of civil society. If no established group exists, the Foundation occasionally creates new organisations to tackle particularly important problems.
With few exceptions, the Foundation funds programmes in countries where it has offices and local professional staff to monitor implementation (South and Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East). Only a small percentage goes to organisations in the UK.
Thematic areas and objectives
AKF works primarily in six areas: Agriculture and Food Security; Economic Inclusion; Education; Early Childhood; Health and Nutrition; and Civil Society. Its activities are intended to improve the quality of life of beneficiary communities by assisting in the struggle against hunger, disease, illiteracy, ignorance and social exclusion.
AKF’s objectives for its programming include as follows:
- Make it possible for the poor to act in ways that lead to long-term improvements in their income and health, in the education of their children and in the environment;
- Provide communities a greater range of choices and the understanding necessary to undertake informed actions;
- Enable beneficiaries to develop confidence and competence to participate in the design and operation of activities that affect the quality of their lives; and
- Put institutional, management and financial structures in place to ensure activities are sustainable without AKF assistance within a reasonable timeframe.
Geographic Areas of Focus
For over 50 years, AKF has worked in some of the most remote parts of Asia and Africa to partner with communities to improve the quality of life for decades and generations. AKF is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland but is largely field-based with programme units located in Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Kenya, the Kyrgyz Republic, Madagascar, Mozambique, Pakistan, Portugal, Russia, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania and Uganda.
AKF also has resource mobilisation offices in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. AKF’s activities are most often concentrated in rural communities in mountainous, coastal and other remote, resource-poor areas. In Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic, this work is carried out by the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) or the Mountain Societies Development Support Programme (MSDSP). While the Foundation continues its critical work in rural contexts, it has increasingly expanded programming to include issues of globalisation, migration, climate change and the challenges faced by migrant communities in urban contexts.
Information for Partners
The Foundation is largely an implementing organisation rather than a grant-making foundation. It receives grant funding from numerous development agencies, private foundations and corporations; raises funds locally in annual events in North America and Western Europe; and receives funding from His Highness the Aga Khan. In addition, an endowment contributes towards its operating costs.
When AKF does make grants or pursue collaborations, they are generally targeted to grassroots organisations testing innovative approaches in the field to specific development problems within AKF’s focus. AKF units are field-based, so queries are best sent directly to country offices.
Example Grants
Grants are normally made to agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network or those selected by the Network. Only a small proportion of grant expenditure is given in the UK.
For FAQ's visit the website here