Founded on ethics and values that drive progress and positive change, these civil society institutions – of education, health, science and research, and culture, to name a few – harness the private energies of citizens committed to the public good.

The AKDN has been building these institutions for over 100 years – including schools, clinics and hospitals, companies offering essential goods and services, early childhood programmes that give poor children a head start, tree-planting programmes that plant millions of trees, public parks and museums, hotels that set standards for environmental stewardship, farmers’ associations that allow farmers to speak with one voice, an architectural award that has influenced architectural discourse for over four decades, universities and nursing schools that provide essential human resources for developing nations, and savings groups that help the poorest of the poor weather financial hardship and build a better future.  Some of these institutions that the AKDN currently operates in 30 countries have been setting or raising standards in their fields for decades.