Local Roots, Global Fruits: Education

Education

Equipping young people with knowledge, skills, and values to help them flourish and contribute to their communities.

AKF works with community leaders to strengthen education systems and equip children with the knowledge and skills they need to learn and thrive.

Your support helps implement locally grown solutions to best address each community’s challenges.

Millicent is a teacher with AKF in Kenya. When the COVID-19 pandemic created barriers to her students’ learning, she engaged them using creative activities with things available in their daily surroundings. “As a teacher,” she says, “I have a mission to change lives.”

See more stories of education and resilience in East Africa on The Learning Hub!

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Your support is needed now more than ever.

For decades, your generosity has contributed to AKF’s wide range of development activities around the world. With your help, we can continue this critical work during a time when the world needs us the most.

Give monthly to join iHope, a community of donors committed to sustaining AKF’s work today and in the future.

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AKF USA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Your donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.

Schools 2030

Our flagship educational program

Schools2030 is a ten-year learning improvement program based in 1,000 government schools across ten countries.

With human-centered design and a focus on the key transition years of ages 5, 10 and 15 years old, Schools2030 supports teachers to design and implement education micro-innovations. These low-cost scalable innovations will transform education systems to improve holistic learning outcomes for the most marginalized learners worldwide.

During the pandemic, one of the most pressing questions for educators was: how can we ensure minimal disruption to children’s learning?

For students without access to the internet, television or radio, the question was even more crucial – how can we prevent these already marginalized children from being further left behind?

To address this question, the Aga Khan Foundation, through the Schools2030 program, conducted exploratory workshops. From this effort a learning kit with activities and games were developed to keep children engaged with their parents. The success of that project can now serve as a model for other communities worldwide.

Learn more about this project and the Schools 2030 initiative

Be a part of our work!

Your donations support our initiatives across sectors and around the world.

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Worldwide, 600 million children and teenagers fail to reach basic levels of learning proficiency. Nearly half of them remain out of school. However, even those in school are not being prepared to succeed in or contribute to society. Among illiterate youth, nearly two out of three are girls – a fact that has remained largely unchanged for the last 20 years.

As one of the Aga Khan Development Network’s leading agencies in education, the Aga Khan Foundation works to strengthen education systems to equip girls and boys with the knowledge and skills to help them interact effectively with the world and contribute to a pluralist society.

To do so, AKF works in partnership with governments, the private sector, civil society, academic institutions, school leaders, teachers, parents, communities, and students to develop and scale affordable, innovative solutions that raise the quality and accessibility of public education systems for the most marginalized children worldwide.

Our goals

a female teacher in a headscarf sits next to a boy student on the ground. They are using wooden blocks as a hands-on teaching tool in a well-appointed classroom

three young men wearing graduation gowns stand with a teacher outside a modern school building

Getting better results for students and connecting them to professional spheres

African students stand together outside of their school.

Our impact

730thousand

learners benefitted from AKF’s education improvement programs—48% of them female

3thousand

schools benefitted from AKF’s education improvement programs

23thousand

teachers benefitted from AKF’s education improvement programs—41% of them female

Areas of Exploration

Education

Equipping young people with the knowledge to flourish in their communities

AKF works to strengthen local education systems so children can gain the knowledge and skills they need to thrive.

Hear how Millicent, a teacher in Kenya, engaged her students during the pandemic with creative activities using easily accessible resources.

Learn more!

Gender Equality

Scaling Mountains to Open Doors of Opportunity

Meet Gul Noori, who trained as a search-and-rescue expert through AKF’s community grown crisis planning.

With over two decades of experience, she routinely scaled mountains to bring life-saving support to those in need. She believes, “If you save one life, it is as if you have saved all of humanity.”

Learn more!

Work and Enterprise

The Sweet Smell of Success…and Pastry

When Nurgul and Nazira met in college, they soon realized they shared a love of baking and a common dream of opening a pastry shop.

With AKF entrepreneurial training and vital business courses, they started their business from scratch with just a large oven and a mixer.

Today, their early seeds of hope have flourished into much more than they could ever have imagined!

Watch their success rise!

Learn more!

Civil Society

We solve problems best working together.

In a world where cultural differences can divide us, we believe diverse perspectives are a strength.

AKF has worked with more than 34,000 civil society organizations across 14 countries, benefiting more than 1.6 million people. These organizations work to ensure all voices have a chance to be heard in local decision-making.

To spread their reach even further, AKF partnered with like-minded organizations and USAID to create Spark, a collection of learning resources about pluralism and civil society.

Learn about pluralism and see how this tool helps facilitate civil society.

Learn more!

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“The value of a meaningful philanthropic partnership begins with a shared vision. Connecting with organizations who share a commitment to promoting global good is one of Highgate’s top priorities.”