Home | Impact of Change | Themes | 2005 Theme

2005 Theme: 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.