Aga Khan Development Network
The Aga Khan is founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), one of the largest private development networks in the world, which coordinates the activities of over 200 agencies and institutions, employing approximately 80,000 paid staff, the majority of whom are based in developing countries. Its partners include numerous governments and several international organizations. AKDN agencies operate in the fields of health, education, culture, rural development, institution-building and the promotion of economic development, with special focus on countries of the Third World. It is dedicated to improving living conditions and opportunities for the poor, without regard to their faith, origin or gender. The AKDN’s annual budget for non-profit development activities in 2010 was approximately US$ 625 million. The network operates in more than 35 of the poorest countries in the world.
AKDN includes the Aga Khan University (AKU), the University of Central Asia (UCA), the for-profit Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), the Aga Khan Health Services (AKHS), the Aga Khan Education Services (AKES), the Aga Khan Planning and Building Services (AKPBS), and the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM). One of the companies that the AKFED is the main shareholder of is the famous Serena Hotels Group – a chain of luxury hotels and resorts primarily located in Africa and Asia. Despite the Qur'anic prohibition on alcohol (a prohibition that is accepted by Nizari Ismailis), many of Serena's properties have bars and serve alcohol to guests – including in Muslim nations like Pakistan. The Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA)is the largest architectural award in the world. The Aga Khan is also the chairman of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, which he founded in 1977. He is also a Vice-President of the Royal Commonwealth Society.
Focus Humanitarian Assistance (FOCUS), an affiliate of the AKDN, is responsible for emergency response in the face of disaster. Recent disasters that FOCUS was involved in helping address, include the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan (AKDN earthquake response) and the South Asian Tsunami.
Significant recent or current projects that are related to development and that are being led by the Aga Khan include the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat and the Global Centre for Pluralism (GCP) in Ottawa, the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, the Al-Azhar Park in Cairo, the Bagh-e Babur restoration in Kabul, and a network of full IB residential schools known as the Aga Khan Academies (AKA).
The Aga Khan has expressed concern about the work of the AKDN being described as philanthropy. In his address to the Tutzing Evangelical Academy in Germany, he described this concern:
Reflecting a certain historical tendency of the West to separate the secular from the religious, they often describe either as philanthropy or entrepreneurship. What is not understood is that this work is for us a part of our institutional responsibility – it flows from the mandate of the office of Imam to improve the quality of worldly life for the concerned communities.
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