Mr. Nicholas McKinlay - Chief Executive Officer, Aga Khan Foundation (India)

What is the focus of Aga Khan Foundation in India ?
Is the focus same across the globe ?
In India, the Aga Khan Foundation is working on four thematic areas of education, community health, rural development and the enhancement of civil society. The foundation provides support on a long-term basis to new and innovative ideas. All AKF programmes have a strong community involvement and place a high emphasis on quality. An inclusive approach translates into the full involvement of community groups and supports them to take responsibility towards finding their own solutions. The development of civil society to enhance pluralism is an important element. The Foundation's programmes foster innovative, cost effective and culturally appropriate approaches.

Education has been an important and growing area of involvement for the Aga Khan Foundation, which is currently funding over 25 educational programmes across 13 countries, largely in South and Central Asia and in East Africa. The programmes are implemented in partnership with local and national governments, NGOs, and private service providers like Aga Khan Education Services (AKES).

Please tell us more about your education programme ?
The foundation's education portfolio is focused on improving the quality of basic education. The portfolio comprises of two sub-themes of strategic interest namely: 'School Improvement' and 'Young Children and the Family'. These two areas of intervention aim to Increase the quality of formal and non-formal education, and of early childhood care and development and secondly, increase access, completion and learning achievement rates for disadvantaged groups, especially girls, isolated rural children and the urban poor.

In India, the Programme for the Enrichment of School Level Education (PESLE), supported by financial assistance from the European Commission, addresses the key challenges of enrollment, retention and learning achievement. PESLE, in its sixth year has enabled 1200 schools to improve the level of education and is reaching out to around one million students.

What states are being covered under PESLE ?
Is there any particular reason for this focus ?
PESLE is working to improve the quality of school education in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. The Foundation has supported initiatives also in rural development in these semi-arid rain-fed farming regions. To ensure a geographical focus, most of the Foundation's programmes are concentrated in these regions.

In terms of the numbers involved in PESLE, 78% of direct student beneficiaries come from disadvantaged groups. In fact, 72% of students come from low-income families and one-fourth of them are first generation learners. Close to one half have an illiterate parent.

You mentioned about your working through NGO partners. Who are these ?
How do you go about selecting them ?
In education, our programme partners are Aga Khan Education Services (India), Bodh Siksha Samiti, Dr. Reddy's Foundation and Society for All Round Development.

As I mentioned earlier, we work on four thematic areas. There are broad international strategies for each of these themes. Keeping this in mind we go about the process of identifying NGOs. We look for new and innovative ideas and at times provide 'seed funding' to test a new idea or approach. A full assessment of the organisation is carried out and attention is paid to the quality aspects. The entire process of assessment and final selection can take as long as one year to complete.

How can NGOs that are employing similar strategies approach you for support ?
As we are focused in terms of our programme strategy and geographical area of coverage, we are in touch with a broad spectrum of civil society organisations.

If we come across NGOs working on school improvement and early childhood development, we consider them for support. If we were approached by NGOs with programmes relevant to our focus areas, we would definitely take a look at them.

How do you monitor the programme of the NGOs you support ?
How do you monitor functioning of the foundation as an entity ?
We work very closely with our NGO partners. Foundation staff spends a lot of their time with the partners in the field. We work closely with our partners on their future vision and strategies. The programmes are continually assessed and evaluated by Foundation staff and external consultants. There is a system for regular quarterly and six monthly reporting. For example, in the education programme PESLE, there is an extensive monitoring and measurement system to derive data that generates reports and helps in evaluating the programme. These impact indicators would include the percentage of girls' enrolled, average attendance, students repeating, students dropping out and students promoted to the next grade. Also, we receive audited statements by qualified chartered accountants from our NGO partners on a regular basis.

The Foundation is governed in India by a National Committee. At our headquarters in Geneva there are technical staff who regular monitor programme activities. We have regular financial audits for each of our programmes by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

What kind of exit strategies do you have in place when withdrawing from a programme ?
Many of the NGO partners, when we started with them were small organisations. Over a period of time, we have been able to help them grow. This has resulted in their ability to attract outside funding.

We have also asked them to raise funds to contribute to the programme, to ensure that the Foundation is not the only donor. In some cases we have an upper limit of the amount that will be contributed by the Foundation. This prevents dependence on a single source. In education, some of our partners are developing strategies to institutional their approaches, for example creating Education Resource Centers, to help in the replication of tested approaches and more specifically to development in-service curriculum and provide training for teachers.

Can you site few examples of your partners who have acquired this level of independence ?
There are several organisations that continue to do good work long after our support. Chetna in Gujarat and Centre for Learning Resources in Pune are two such organisations. Also, the Sadguru Foundation in Gujarat, whom AKF supported for many years, is today a renowned resource organisation in the field of rural development. AKF was one of the first organisations to support Bodh Siksha Samiti. Today they are a leading NGO addressing the issue of the urban deprived child.

What is AKF's contribution to creating NGO networks and advocacy on policy issues ?
We are not directly part of any major networks in India. Our activities have been largely that of a grant maker and providing technical support. We have funded the start-up of certain networks. For example, we provide funding and technical expertise to the National Core Group on Deprived Urban Children. This is a network of NGOs, various government departments, UNICEF and UNDP. At the international level the Foundation is part of the World Bank's Consultative Group on Early Childhood Education.

We work with the government on policy issues through our partners. Our partners collaborate closely with government. One example of this, although outside of our work in education is Development Support Centre working with the Government of Gujarat on a consultative committee on promoting participatory irrigation management.

How do you and your team members build your capacities on the Indian social and development sector ?
As an international organisation and as part of the Aga Khan Development Network there is a lot of cross-learning from programmes in other countries.

At our headquarters there are technical specialists who provide mentoring, help build perspectives on various issues and provide links to new learning. The staff attend national and international seminars and participate in training courses. The Foundation subscribes to leading publications and we try to ensure a flow of information internally to build organisational strength and a wide perspective.

What are you views on NGO governance ?
I would not propose to provide a quick generic view on the subject and would prefer to talk about how AKF and its partners are attempting to deal with this issue.

In education, for example, an emphasis is placed on the governance at the school level. A decentralised, democratic and community-based approach is encouraged. Measures are taken to build trust amongst various stakeholders, promoting transparency and accountability. We help in the creation of forums where communication with the community becomes a regular feature. In all our programme areas we build and encourage strong relationships with the community.

How do you think NGO credibility can be enhanced ? Is an issue globally ?
NGO credibility can be enhanced in one way by focusing on quality. Demonstrating quality at the grassroot level can enhance the credibility of an NGO.

Another important aspect is to ensure the centrality of the community in a programme intervention. For example, in education, allowing the community to participate in decisions on location, curriculum and teaching methods of a school.

While Funding Agencies and NGOs partner; Corporates and NGOs partner. But why does the twain not meet ?
The is an emergence of corporate foundations and corporate social responsibility is an emerging issue. India has a great tradition of philanthropy. No other country in the world can boast of such a varied and extensive history of philanthropy, take the work of the Tatas for example. This tradition is being strengthened by a new wave of professional philanthropy and we are witnessing a growth in corporate foundations. Some of them are doing very good work. The future looks good in this respect.

We have a partnership with Dr. Reddy's Foundation. Such foundations already bring with them a funding base which helps to address the sustainability issue. We are also exploring collaboration and sharing with Wipro and the Azim Premji Foundation. The issue is quality work. If it is carried out by a corporate foundation or by an NGO, both make a contribution.

IndianNGOs.com is moving to become news and views channel on the sector.
What kind of information would you want us to provide ?
I did a quick survey for you amongst my staff. Nearly one-third of them knew about the site and had used it for one reason or other. According to them the portal should have an updated list and contact details of NGOs.

It should also have an e-library of resources and papers. The information on NGOs working on issues like rural livelihood, natural resources management and development communication could be highly useful to the visitors.

- Ashutosh Bharadwaj
( Delhi )