The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) focuses on health, education, culture, rural development, institution-building and the promotion of economic development. It is dedicated to improving living conditions and opportunities for the poor, without regard to their faith, origin or gender.

The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is a group of private, international, non-denominational agencies working to improve living conditions and opportunities for people in some of the poorest parts of the developing world.

The Network’s organisations have individual mandates that range from the fields of health and education to architecture, rural development and the promotion of private-sector enterprise. Together AKDN’s institutions and programmes work towards a common goal – to build a civil society that responds to the challenges of social, economic and cultural change.

The Network brings together a number of agencies, institutions and programmes that have been built up over the past 50 years and, in some cases, date back to the early twentieth century. AKDN agencies conduct their programmes without regard to the faith, origin or gender of the people they serve.
 The AKDN works in 30 countries around the world. It employs approximately 80,000 people, the majority of whom are based in developing countries. The AKDN spends US$ 925 million dollars annually on non-profit social and cultural development activities. It operates more than 200 health care institutions, 2 universities spanning 6 countries, and 200 schools and school improvement programmes in some of the most remote and poorest parts of the developing world.

Founded and guided by His Highness the Aga Khan, the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) brings together a number of development agencies, institutions, and programmes that work primarily in the poorest parts of Asia and Africa. While each institution pursues its own mandate, all work together within the overarching framework of the Network so that their different pursuits interact and reinforce one another.

The agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network are:
 

1. Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM)
2. Aga Khan Education Services (AKES)
3. Aga Khan Foundation (AKF)
4. Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED)
5. Aga Khan Health Services (AKHS)
6. Aga Khan Planning and Building Services (AKPBS)
7. Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC)
8. Aga Khan University (AKU)
9. Focus Humanitarian Assistance (FOCUS)
10. The University of Central Asia (UCA)

The work of all AKDN agencies is concentrated in over 25 countries, mostly in poor areas of South Asia and Central Asia, Eastern and Western Africa and the Middle East. Other programmes, notably in education and culture, operate in Europe and North America as well as in Asia and Africa.

Aga Khan Development Network Focus Areas are:
 

- Architecture
- Civil Society
- Culture
- Economic Development
- Education
- Health
- Historic Cities
- Humanitarian Assistance
- Microfinance
- Music
- Planning & Building
- Rural Development