Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, Pakistan (AKPBS,P) - formerly Aga Khan Housing Board, Pakistan - was established in 1980 with the mandate to plan and implement infrastructure and technology-related development initiatives, especially with reference to housing and environment.

Today AKPBS,P assists communities in Gilgit-Baltistan (formerly the Northern Areas of Pakistan), Chitral, Sindh and Kashmir in programme areas such as drinking water supply and sanitation, habitat risk reduction, energy-efficient building and construction improvement, rural electrification, as well as capacity building of locals adopting an integrated, community-based approach to sustainable development.

As a partner of the Releasing Confidence and Creativity (RCC) Programme - the Aga Khan Foundation, Pakistan’s flagship Early Childhood Development (ECD) initiative - AKPBS,P has been given a very vital role in providing an enabling environment for the overall development of children. The interventions seek to ensure that the schools the children attend are safe from natural disasters, comfortable (even in the harshest of winters) and have adequate features and facilities (such as safe drinking water and toilets). Specifically, AKPBS,P has been given the mandate to work on the major components listed below. These components - all of them concerned with improving the built environment – are being implemented in 5 selected villages and 72 schools in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral (GBC) that are part of the RCC-ECD initiative.

1. Hazard Risk Reduction to provide support to GBC villages (in reducing disaster, particularly earthquake related, risks and vulnerabilities.
   This activity includes:
   1. Risk and vulnerability mapping and scenario building (such as risk scenario building of likely damage due to the earthquakes and other hazards using GIS, and development of zoning action plans through community consultations),
   2. Demonstrations and promotion of safer building practices for community schools and individual houses including retrofitting,
   3. Mitigation of imminent hazards (such as landslides, mudslides, and avalanches),
   4. Community preparedness, awareness & capacity building of residents  
2. Promotion of energy efficient household products and technology as a means towards improving the indoor environment (by reducing indoor air pollution and improving thermal efficiency), reducing household expenditure and illnesses as well as minimizing pressure on natural resources.
   This component includes:
   1. Installation of locally relevant and adaptable energy efficient house and home improvement products and technology (such as water warming facilities, fuel efficient stoves, roof hatch windows, floor/wall insulation, light roofs etc),
   2. Entrepreneur, artisan training and supporting entrerprise establishment for greater employment generation,
   3. Awareness raising and demand generation, populations to micro-finance.
3. Implementation of community-managed drinking water supply and sanitation (DWSS) schemes to provide safe water and sanitation to local communities as a means towards minimizing water related health illnesses of young children.

This component includes DWSS schemes implementation, some of which will be implemented in partnership with local communities. The component will finance civil works, equipment, feasibility, design and capacity building in supervision of works, operations 7 maintenance, school health education, community health education, and project monitoring etc.

Moreover AKPBS,P Interventions in schools and otherwise under the Building and Construction Improvement Programme (BACIP) and Water and Sanitation Extension Programme (WASEP) have been cited as Good Practice Cases in the 2010 UNDG MDG Good Practices publication. This publication – prepared by the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) -  includes nearly 200 good practice cases covering 75 countries, plus nearly 40 regional and global programmes.

Overall, AKPBS,P envisions to employ several infrastructural and technology related improvements to provide a safe, secure, healthy, comfortable and cost-effective living conditions for young school-going children of the GBC region.

For any Early Childhood Development initiative to have lasting results, it is of the essence that the children’s schools and learning centers are secure, pleasant, healthy, welcoming and appreciative of all activities of the child. It is this specific reason that forms the basis of AKPBS,P’s role in providing opportunities for young children’s overall development in the Releasing Confidence and Creativity Programme – making the katchi classes more child-friendly and improving their quality of education.

About the Writer:

Mr. Youshey Zakiuddin works at the Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, Pakistan, an agency that helps improve the built environment in rural areas, particularly by building houses that are energy-efficient & earthquake resistant; providing safe water supply & sanitation infrastructure; and by educating people how to improve their living conditions. AKPBS, P is part of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).