The Aga Khan Foundation is committed to reducing rural poverty, particularly in resource-poor, degraded or remote environments. The Foundation concentrates on a small number of programmes of significant scale.

The model of participatory rural development combines a set of common development principles with the flexibility to respond to specific contexts and needs. Programmes typically link elements such as rural savings and credit, natural resources management, productive infrastructure development, increased agricultural productivity and human skills development with a central concern for community-level participation and decision-making. The ultimate goal is to enable community members to make informed choices from a range of appropriate options for sustainable and equitable development.

A central strategy has been to create or strengthen the institutional structure at the village level through which people can determine priority needs and decide how best to manage common resources in the interests of the community as a whole. Whether broad-based or task-specific, the village organizations also serve to represent the community to the Government and to other development partners, including NGOs and the private sector.

Assets are built through community management of natural resources _ water storage, irrigation infrastructure, soil conservation or forestry _ or the construction of basic economic infrastructure, such as rural roads or agricultural storage facilities.