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Investing in
People
Each year Partnership Walk
explores international development issues around a specific theme based
on one of Aga Khan Foundation�s (AKF) focus areas of health, education,
rural development and civil society enhancement.
Investing in People was the theme for Partnership Walk
2005. This theme embraces a wide variety of investments the Foundation
has made over the past 25 years to enable communities in Africa and Asia
lift themselves out of poverty. Such investments range from training
teachers and nurses to improving school facilities and classroom
curriculum to helping farmers improve their agricultural productivity by
using new seed varieties, crop diversification and new farming
techniques. Other investments have included helping communities organize
savings and credit services, often in isolated regions where the poor do
not have access to financial services and loans.
The United Nations declared 2005 as the International Year of
Microcredit. In parallel with the International Year of Microcredit, we
acknowledged the vast potential that microcredit has for lifting the
poor out of poverty.
Microcredit and microfinance have changed the lives of people and
revitalized communities in the world's poorest as well as richest
countries. We have seen the enormous power that access to even modest
financial services can bring people. With access to a range of financial
tools, families can invest according to their own priorities � school
fees, health care, business, nutrition or housing.
However, of the 4 billion people who live on less than $1400 per year,
only a fraction have access to basic financial services. There still
remains a huge unmet demand. The Foundation joins with the international
community in raising awareness about the importance of microcredit and
microfinance in eradicating poverty. The Aga Khan Development Network (ADKN)
operates microfinance programs and institutions in over 20 countries
throughout the developing world. The programs were previously supported
by the Foundation and other AKDN agencies. In February 2005, the
Aga
Khan Agency for Microfinance was established to oversee all of
AKDN�s microfinance programs. Its programs operating in Afghanistan,
Burkina Faso, Egypt, India, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Mozambique,
Pakistan, Syria and Tajikistan, are designed to �graduate� the
ultra-poor beyond subsistence and reduce their vulnerability to
unforeseen events such as family crises or natural disasters. Next year
programs will be expanded into India, Kazakhstan, Mali and Zanzibar.
An initiative of Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A
and
its volunteers in communities across America
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