New default alt

At the Ak-Dil kindergarten in Naryn, Kyrgyz Republic, the Aga Khan Foundation provides teachers with …

AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer

languageSwitcherThis page is also available in
The Reading for Children Programme in India. AKDN / Mansi Midha
The Reading for Children Programme in India.

AKDN / Mansi Midha

Families and Communities

We strengthen parents' and caregivers’ knowledge and skills on holistic child development and responsive caregiving. We focus on gender-responsive parenting, fathers’ engagement, caregivers’ mental health and wellbeing, and developing contextually relevant and accessible play and learning resources for parents and caregivers.


In 2022, we reached 1.3 million parents and caregivers.


Health Services


We partner with AKDN-owned and supported health institutions and facilities. We train health workers to provide holistic child development services, to develop new and adapt existing resources for health workers on holistic child development, and to create child and family friendly spaces in health facilities. We have created play corners in 95 health facilities, and trained and supported over 1,500 health workers across six countries. In 2022 we reached over two million children through supported health and nutrition services.


At the state-owned Jomok kindergarten in Osh, Kyrgyz Republic, the Aga Khan Foundation provides teacher training in the latest ECD pedagogies and techniques, as well as classroom materials. AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
At the state-owned Jomok kindergarten in Osh, Kyrgyz Republic, the Aga Khan Foundation provides teacher training in the latest ECD pedagogies and techniques, as well as classroom materials.

AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer

Pre-Primary Education and Quality Childcare Services

We facilitate the establishment of sustained learning spaces for out-of-school preschool children, train pre-primary educators on holistic child development, nurture safe and playful learning environments and develop locally rooted school readiness resources and solutions. We also support the establishment of affordable quality childcare models linked to women’s economic empowerment.


In 2022 we trained 44,000 preschool educators, and established almost 200 ECD centres and community spaces.


Research, Policy and Practice


We convene and contribute to local and national level policy dialogue, provide advisory services to local and national level systems and institutions, support capacity building for national-level policy makers, and share actionable evidence about ‘how' and 'what' works.


We are leading Schools2030, a global, 10-year participatory action research and learning improvement programme based in 1,000 government schools across 10 countries, including Kenya. Using the principles of human-centred design and focusing on the key transition years of ages five, 10 and 15, Schools2030 seeks to annually generate 1,000 locally-rooted education solutions that can inform and transform systems-level approaches for improving holistic learning outcomes for all learners. The initiative also includes early childhood development through a pre-primary cohort and interventions to equip young people with employable skills. Find out more