Akhtar Iqbal, a resident of Chitral town, has been elevated to the coveted position of the chief executive officer (CEO) of Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), Pakistan.
“In the international organizations of the stature of AKF, it is commitment to work and personal acumen which makes matters in the promotion of its personnel and the elevation of Akhtar Iqbal from a meek position to the top rung of the organization is the example”
CHITRAL, Oct 25: The Aga Khan Foundation, Pakistan, has picked a resident of Chitral, Akhtar Iqbal, as its chief executive officer.
A source in Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), Chitral, which is a component of AKF, confirmed the news to Dawn, saying that Mr Iqbal may assume the charge of his office in the first week of November.
The source said that Mr Iqbal, in his early 30s, was earlier posted in Kabul, Afghanistan. He rose to the top position of the prestigious international organisation after starting his career in a lower rank from AKRSP’s Chitral office in 1999. He has a master degree in public administration from Peshawar University.
Akhtar Iqbal went to Afghanistan in early 2001 and continued his job in AKF in various positions and his exceptional performance elevated him to the position of chief executive officer of the organisation in Afghanistan four years ago.
The source said that commitment to work and personal acumen ensured elevation of Akhtar Iqbal from a menial position to the top rung of the organisation.
AKF has played a major role in various development sectors of Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan fighting the rampant poverty prevailing in the area
Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2014 and also in Chitral Today chitraltoday.net, online English newspaper of Chitral, Pakistan October 25th, 2014.
Via
- Chitral Today, chitraltoday.net, online English newspaper of Chitral, breaking news from chitral, KPK, Pakistan – Chitrali man becomes CEO of Aga Khan Foundation
- Dawn.com – Aga Khan Foundation’s New CEO
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About Aga Khan Development Network’s (AKDN) and Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) Activities in Northern Pakistan
AKDN’s programme in Pakistan is, in experiential terms, the most studied development programme in the Network. Many of the methods employed elsewhere by AKDN agencies, and replicated by other NGOs and governments, were tried first and then refined in Pakistan.
AKDN’s earliest coordinated area development programme included community mobilisation, infrastructure development, microfinance lending and savings, agricultural programmes that encompass land reclamation, irrigation and forestry, curative health care, preventive community health schemes and world-class medical training, education from pre-primary to postgraduate levels, the introduction of clean-water supplies and sanitation facilities, the construction of mini hydro-electric plants in remote communities, and the restoration of historic buildings, monuments and housing. Activities are largely concentrated in the mountainous Northern Areas, North West Frontier (Chitral) and Baltistan provinces as well as in the Punjab, Baluchistan and Sind provinces.
Before the Karakorum Highway was built in the late 1970s, the areas of Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral were isolated from the rest of Pakistan. Most people lived from subsistence agriculture. When AKDN first came to the area, it made community mobilization, experimentation and innovation hallmarks of the early programme. Later, when solutions were found for development challenges, these programmes scaled up with the help of national and international partners.
Often described as a process of “learning by doing”, the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) approach of working in partnership with communities has made remarkable changes in the lives of the 1.3 million villagers who live in Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan region – among some of the highest mountain ranges of the world, including the Karakorum, Himalayas, Hindukush and Pamirs.
Most of these beneficiaries are widely dispersed across a region covering almost 90,000 square kilometres, an area larger than Ireland. Among many notable achievements have been a significant increase in incomes, the construction of hundreds of bridges, irrigation channels and other small infrastructure projects, the planting of over 30 million trees and reclamation of over 90,000 hectares of degraded land, the mobilization of over 4,500 community organizations and the creation of savings groups which manage over US$8 million.
Perhaps the most impressive achievement has been its pioneering community-based, participatory approach to development. For over 30 years, AKRSP has successfully demonstrated participatory approaches to planning and implementation of micro-level development in rural areas, including the mobilization of rural savings and provision of micro-credit; the application of cost-effective methods for building rural infrastructure; natural resource development; institution and capacity building; and successful partnership models for public-private sector initiatives.
The development model adopted by AKRSP has itself been widely replicated both within AKDN and outside it. A network of Rural Support Programmes now exists all over the country with the mandate to design and implement strategies for alleviation of rural poverty. In South Asia and other parts of the world programmes based on this model have been set up to promote grassroots development through involvement of local communities.
Accolades
AKRSP has received a number of awards, including the 2005 Global Development Awards for Most Innovative Development Project. The award, which was announced at the Seventh Annual Global Development Conference held in St. Petersburg, Russia on 20 January 2006, was given to the development projects that were judged to have the greatest potential for benefiting the poor in developing countries. For more information, please see the Global Development Network website.
It also received an Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy, or “Green Oscar”, for its programme of mini-hydels, or micro-hydroelectric plants, in the Northern Areas and Chitral. The Ashden Award cited the AKRSP for the sustainable and eco-friendly solution: “Unlike dams, which invariably damage the local eco-system, the micro-hydel technology used by AKRSP involves simply digging a narrow channel to divert water along a hillside and into a pipe, creating enough pressure to turn a turbine and so produce 20 -100kw of power.” The impact in areas off the electricity grid has been significant. Over 180 micro-hydel units supplying electricity to 50 percent of the population of Chitral have been built. The projects are implemented, maintained and managed by the communities themselves.
Discover, Explore and Learn more at AKDN: Country Focus – Pakistan and AKF: Country Summary – Pakistan
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