ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the author’s involvement in the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and his involvement in Central Asia. He was appointed Director of AKF’s Civil Society Programme: his remit was to build and strengthen civil society organisations and build a civil society in eight countries in Africa and Asia. Two of them were ex-Soviet countries: Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. In Tajikistan there were many valuable local citizens’ organisations addressing problems that central government was not doing, but government was largely ignorant of these and, where they were known, considered them with suspicion – for in Soviet times all such organisations were owned by the State. One of Tajikistan’s four provinces is populated by followers of the Aga Khan, which helped our work. The work consisted of educating central government about the work of Tajik CSOs, mutually introducing them, and persuading all parties that government–CSO collaboration and joint planning was a good idea – and even getting government to fund their activities. It was helped by some of the rural CSOs working on issues that were personally important to government apparatchiks – HIV/AIDS and youth drug addiction.
The author also provides background on the Imamat of the Aga Khan and the Ismailis.
