The Social, Economic and Cultural Aspects of Development
AKDN agencies operate in social and economic development as well as in the field of culture. The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), including the Aga Khan Rural Support Programmes and the Mountain Societies Development Support Programme, the Aga Khan University (AKU), Aga Khan Heath Services (AKHS), Aga Khan Education Services (AKES), and the Aga Khan Planning and Building Services (AKPBS) operate in social development.

The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) with its affiliates the Tourism Promotion Services, Industrial Promotion Service, and Financial Services, seek to strengthen the role of the private sector in developing countries by supporting private sector initiatives in the development process. The Fund and the Foundation also encourage government policies that foster what the Aga Khan first called an "enabling environment" of favourable legislative and fiscal structures.

The Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) co-ordinates the Imamat''s cultural activities. Its programmes include the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Historic Cities Programme, and the Education and Culture Programme. The Trust also provides financial support for the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.

While each agency pursues its own mandate, all of them work together within the overarching framework of the Aga Khan Development Network so that their different pursuits can interact and reinforce one another. Their common goal is to help the poor achieve a level of self-reliance whereby they are able to plan their own livelihoods and help those even more needy than themselves. A central feature of the AKDN''s approach to development is to design and implement strategies in which its different agencies participate in particular settings. To pursue their mandates, AKDN institutions rely on the energy, dedication, and skill of volunteers as well as remunerated professionals, and draw upon the talents of people of all faiths.

Long-term Commitment
Development models require time to demonstrate their effectiveness and to enable local communities to take on full responsibility for their own future development. The AKDN agencies, therefore, make a long-term commitment to the areas in which they work, guided by the philosophy that a humane, sustainable environment must reflect the choices made by people themselves of how they live and wish to improve their prospects in harmony with their environment. Sustainability is, thus, a central consideration from the outset.

The experience of the past three decades of development effort shows that even when government, non-government, commercial organisations, and international development agencies work together, they are not able to meet most, let alone all, of the needs for shelter, health, and sustenance of the world''s populations. AKDN institutions work in close partnership with the world''s major national and international aid and development agencies. (See Partners for more information.) The AKDN itself is an independent self-governing system of agencies, institutions, and programmes under the leadership of the Ismaili Imamat. Their main sources of support are the Ismaili community with its tradition of philanthropy, voluntary service and self-reliance, and the leadership and material underwriting of the hereditary Imam and Imamat resources.