Dig.ni.fy Winter Issue - January 2023 | Page 79

Aga Khan Rural Support Program

The Aga Khan Foundation established the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) in 1982. The program’s basic approach is based on the belief that ‘local communities have tremendous potential to plan and manage their own development.’ As a result, the program supports a "variety of community-led development efforts across a diversity of thematic areas, including climate resilience, civil society, agriculture and food security, early childhood development, education, climate resilience, community infrastructure development, credit and savings, enterprise promotion, and women’s economic empowerment.”

Since its inception, AKRSP has trained over 126,000 women and men in different technical and vocational fields, completed 4,706 community infrastructure projects benefiting more than 380,000 households, and planted tens of millions of trees.

It has helped establish and mobilise 5,249

Village and Women’s Organizations

representing more than 78% of the households in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. These organizations have saved more than PKR 500 million and disbursed PKR 2 billion as loans.

Above Left:

Participants in

Bytes4Future

Above Right:

Farmer with Apricot Tree

Left:

Woman Tending to Goats

Info & Photos

Courtesy of:

Aga Khan Foundation

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