 |
|
|||
 |
|
|||
|
|
Theme 2006 – Diversity is Strength |
 |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
Diversity is Strength 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. Cultural pluralism rests on the premise that tolerance, openness and understanding towards the cultures, social structures, values and faiths of other peoples are now essential to the very survival of an interdependent world. Pluralism is no longer simply an asset or a prerequisite for progress and development. It is vital to our existence. Finding ways to accommodate difference without division has become one of the greatest challenges of our time. Development involves not only access to goods and services, but also the opportunity to choose a full, satisfying and valued way of living together. It entails developing a set of capacities that allows groups, communities and nations to define their futures in an integrated manner. Development is not simply economic growth, but is also a means of achieving a satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence. Therefore, like other indicators of well-being, such as income, health and education, culture is an integral part of holistic development. As a private, non-denominational, non-profit international development organization, Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A. (AKF USA) is committed to alleviating poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy, primarily in Africa and Asia. In seeking sustainable solutions to long-term problems of poverty, it works with communities at the grassroots level to build their capacity and to strengthen local institutions that provide them with a greater range of choices and the understanding necessary to take informed action. The Foundation collaborates with other agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) to address economic, social and cultural development challenges holistically, at multiple levels in the regions in which it works. The Network is engaged in a variety of investments and programs that seek to create an enabling environment for institutions that work toward and represent a pluralistic society. For example, investments in infrastructure, telecommunications, tourism, media, and financial and industrial promotion services are guided by the recognition that pluralism can only thrive where people are economically, politically, legally, socially and physically secure. Its social and cultural programs provide opportunities to foster pluralism by opening minds to the diversity of cultures, heritage, languages, thought and history.
An initiative of Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A
and
|
|||
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
