“It is an honour for me to have been invited here today to participate in the inauguration of this important international seminar and I have welcomed the opportunity because the issue of improving the living conditions of the poor has long been of the deepest concern to me, just as it was to my grandfather, Sir Sultan Mohammed Shah Aga Khan.
The problem of providing shelter for the homeless is a global problem…I would like to direct my attention particularly to the rural poor. If present conditions are any guide, these people will continue to have lower incomes and suffer greater deprivation than urban citizens. In many parts of this sub-continent, to take only one example, agricultural incomes are 50 percent lower than in other sectors of the economy, and the number of landless poor is increasing…
At present, many millions of unfortunate people enter the world in such poverty that they are deprived of both the means and the motivation to improve their lot. Not only are they miserable, the social and economic cost of their plight is incalculable. Adequate accommodation is a principle factor in human health and well-being. It can bridge that terrible gulf between utter poverty and the possibility of a better future.
The poor are not mere inanimate, unmotivated, units of deprivation. They are living, thinking, people like the rest of us and the closer we can come to making a synthesis between that which they are capable of doing for themselves, and that which the State or voluntary agencies can provide, the closer we shall be to achieving shelter for the world’s homeless.”
Extracts from His Highness the Aga Khan’s speech at an international seminar sponsored by The Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD) on “Shelter for the Homeless”
Karachi, Pakistan
March 16, 1983
Speech published in A selection of speeches by His Highness the Aga Khan, Islamic Publications Ltd, 1985
Aga Khan Planning and Building Services
The Aga Khan Planning and Building Services (AKPBS) works to improve housing design and construction, village planning, natural hazard mitigation, environmental sanitation, water supplies, and other living conditions. AKPBS achieves these goals through the provision of material and technical assistance and construction management services for rural and urban areas.
The activities of the national service companies are coordinated by the Social Welfare Department at the Aga Khan’s Secretariat in France. Princess Zahra Aga Khan is Director of the Social Welfare Department which includes Aga Khan Education Services, Aga Khan Health Services, and Aga Khan Planning and Building Services.
In 2011, AKPBS’s Building and Construction Improvement Programme in Pakistan was a finalist for the global green energy award. Press Centre, AKDN
In 2005, AKPBS Pakistan was awarded the Alcan Prize for sustainability. Press Release, AKDN
Compiled by Nimira Dewji
Ismailimail 