Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan - AKESP

The Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan (AKES, P) is a part of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), which promotes education, health, housing, economic enterprise and cultural awareness in a number of countries in Asia and Africa. The network institutions recognise that development is a complex process in which economic, social and cultural factors intermingle and interact. The goal of the network institutions as they train teachers and health workers, build schools and promote rural development, is to make these activities reinforce one another. All are committed to excellence and good management. Further, the network has a clear consistent philosophy. No school is inaugurated and no primary health care program set up unless the people who benefit also contribute whether in cash or more often, in kind. Development is perceived not as bestowing benefits on the needy but as enabling people to take charge of their own lives. The emphasis is on community mobilisation, knowledge of local conditions, rigorous management, appropriate technology and self-sufficiency.