International Women's Day 2018 | Aga Khan Development Network

Gauri Behen, a beneficiary of AKDN's Sanitation Initiative, Gir Somnath, Gujarat. AKDN’s Sanitation Initiative is supporting communities to construct sanitation units for 100,000 households and 538 schools in India and will benefit 700,000+ people across 6 states.
Mary Musyoka was one of the first students accepted to join the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa, Kenya. Six years later, she has been accepted to the University of Toronto on a full scholarship. When interviewed, Mary said: “I see myself as a leader in many ways. When I come back from my education, I want to be able to improve the infrastructure in my community for starters because I believe the rural areas in Kenya have really been segregated from the economic development that is happening to the cities. The very act of me getting accepted to a university abroad means that the girls in my community can look at themselves and say ‘If Mary could do it, I can too’.
In Sept-Oct 2017, the University of Central Asia’s (UCA) School of Professional and Continuing Education recognised 629 learners across six Satellite Learning Centres (SLC) in Darwaz, Ishkashim, Shughnan, Faizabad and Zebak, Afghanistan. In Darwaz, 45% of awarded graduates are women. In 2017, 1131 unique learners (37% women) were admitted to English, IT and cashier programmes at SPCE’s six satellite learning centres in Afghanistan.
In Pakistan, Women Social Enterprise, now renamed CIQAM, trains young women, mainly from poor and marginalised families, in a variety of non-traditional technical skills including masonry and carpentry, providing much-needed services to a number of local and national businesses. The programme engages these trainees in heritage development project activities of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. By transforming their skills into formal business, CIQAM supports young women to overcome social restrictions, gain economic empowerment and provide an income for their families.
School of Arts and Sciences Winter Upgrading Programme in Khorog, Tajikistan. Following the admissions campaign for UCA's undergraduate School of Arts and Sciences class of 2023 (starting in the 2018-2019 academic year), 68% of applicants are from rural areas and secondary cities. This is why the University is located in rural secondary cities, and not in capital cities.
In India, community engagement and ownership are crucial to achieving universal sanitation coverage, and AKDN pays strong attention to this at every stage. Women are key drivers of change in their communities and are helping spread messages on the importance of safe sanitation and hygiene practices.
In 2017, FMFB-A opened the country’s first women-only branch served and supervised by 21 all-women staff. The branch caters only to women customers, which allows Afghan women to manage their finances in a safe and facilitating environment, thereby overcoming social and cultural hurdles to their economic empowerment.
The AKDN project company Frigoken, Kenya’s largest exporter of processed green beans, endeavours to forge a better future for the country’s small-scale farmers. The company employs over 3,000 people, most of whom are women, and supports around 70,000 small-scale farmers. The company also implements a comprehensive workplace wellness programme and provides young families with a day-care facility.
UCA’s Graduate School of Development’s Institute of Public Policy and Administration is launching an Executive Masters in Economic Policy (EMEP) Programme beginning on March 17th 2018. The Programme will be delivered in three terms at UCA in Bishkek and Naryn, Kyrgyzstan. The EMEP Programme will be offered primarily to Afghan civil servants through a partnership with Canada’s International Development Research Centre, the Aga Khan Foundation Canada, and the Afghan Ministry of Finance. Citizens from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan were also eligible to apply. Forty-three percent (10 of 23) participants from the Afghan Ministry of Finance are women.
If girls in remote places are provided with access to education close to their homes and in a context which recognises community values and concerns, they are more likely to go to school, stay in school and learn. Across 15 provinces in Afghanistan, AKDN is employing this community-based approach to help tens of thousands of girls gain access to quality education.
In Afghanistan, with just two doctors for every 10,000 people, it is difficult for the country’s 30 million people to obtain timely access to quality health care. The French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children (FMIC), the country’s leading maternal and child hospital, is managed by the Aga Khan University. It is part of AKDN’s broader health system which provides quality primary and curative health care to over 1.6 million Afghans every year.
These mothers in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique (where one out of every two children suffer from stunting) are learning how to prepare enriched porridge to ensure good nutrition for their children. They are amongst the 8 million people who directly benefit each year from the AKDN’s rural support programmes, which have received a number of awards, including the Global Development Award and the Devex Top 40 Development Innovator Award.
In Tanzania, the Aga Khan Health Services (AKHS) work closely with the Ministry of Health to improve the health of vulnerable population groups, especially mothers and children, and promote health services development on the national and regional levels.

International Women's Day 2018

In celebration of International Women's Day 2018 we are showcasing women from Afghanistan, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Pakistan and Tanzania who receive assistance from various AKDN agencies to empower them and provide a more secure future for themselves and future generations.

Photographs

Gauri Behen, a beneficiary of AKDN's Sanitation Initiative, Gir Somnath, Gujarat. AKDN’s Sanitation Initiative is supporting communities to construct sanitation units for 100,000 households and 538 schools in India and will benefit 700,000+ people across 6 states.

In India, community engagement and ownership are crucial to achieving universal sanitation coverage, and AKDN pays strong attention to this at every stage. Women are key drivers of change in their communities and are helping spread messages on the importance of safe sanitation and hygiene practices.

In Tanzania, the Aga Khan Health Services (AKHS) work closely with the Ministry of Health to improve the health of vulnerable population groups, especially mothers and children, and promote health services development on the national and regional levels.

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