For over 30 years, the Aga Khan Development Network has worked in remote and fragile geographies to effectively reduce poverty, ensure tangible food security and improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and their families. This approach to development has been adapted and replicated widely, and improved the quality of life of more than 8 million people living in poor, rural areas.
Its main pillars have involved participatory governance, which allows people to direct their own development; agricultural assistance, which works with farmers to improve yields; enterprise development and employable skills, which supplements villagers’ farm-based incomes; natural resource management, which includes equitable water use and restoration of degraded land; financial inclusion, which helps smooth erratic incomes; and the creation of rural infrastructure that improves the quality of life, such as bridges, drinking water systems and irrigation canals.
As these programmes continue into their fourth decade, they are also addressing the emerging challenges of rapidly changing demography, climate change and unpredictable geo-political circumstances.
