During the four decades of international assistance and development programmes in the Himalaya and adjacent mountain regions, amidst failures all around, some projects have received high praise. With this look at the AKRSP in Chitral and Gilgit, Himal begins an occasional series, "Questioning Success", to see what makes for success, and the prospects for reproducing success.
Celebrating his 75th birthday in 1940, Aga Khan III weighed himself against a load of gold and jewellery and donated the treasure to start an educational programme. That act of philanthropy marked the beginning of the Aga Khan welfare activities in a corner of the Central Asian highlands — today's Northern Areas of Pakistan, which has a large population of his followers, the Ismailis.
With its focus on education, the Switzerland-based Aga Khan Foundation established more than 150 schools in the Northern Areas. Most were for girls, as existing governmental schools served only boys, according to prevailing Islamic tradition. In 1960, the Foundation began public health-related activities in Chitral, extending it to Gilgit a decade later. The health programme, like the Foundation´s work in education, tried to complement government activities, filling in the gaps in delivery. Again, the health programme targeted to serving women's needs.
In 1980, the Aga Khan Education Service was joined by the Aga Khan Housing Board, which concentrated on construction work and training local people in the crafts. The Foundation's work came full circle in the December of 1982, with the establishment of the Agha Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), whose mandate was to generally provide rural development services as a non-governmental and non-denominational undertaking.