Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan | |
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Akhtar Hameed Khan, 1973
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Born |
Agra, British India |
15 July 1914
Died | 9 October 1999 Indianapolis, Indiana, US |
(aged 85)
Residence | Karachi, Pakistan; Comilla, Bangladesh |
Nationality | Pakistani |
Fields | Rural development, Microcredit |
Institutions | Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development; National Centre for Rural Development, Pakistan; Michigan State University |
Alma mater | Magdalene College, Cambridge |
Known for | Microcredit, Microfinance, Comilla Model, Orangi Pilot Project |
Influenced | Shoaib Sultan Khan |
Notable awards | Ramon Magsaysay Award, Nishan-e-Imtiaz, Sitara-e-Pakistan, Jinnah Award |
Akhtar Hameed Khan (Urdu: اختر حمید خان, pronounced [ˈəxt̪ər ɦəˈmiːd̪ ˈxaːn]; 15 July 1914 – 9 October 1999) was a Pakistani development practitioner and social scientist. He promoted participatory rural development in Pakistan and other developing countries, and widely advocated community participation in development. His particular contribution was the establishment of a comprehensive project for rural development, the Comilla Model (1959). It earned him the Ramon Magsaysay Award from the Philippines and an honorary Doctorate of law from Michigan State University.
In the 1980s he started a Bottom Up community development initiative of Orangi Pilot Project, based in the outskirts of Karachi, which became a model of participatory development initiatives. He also directed many programmes, from microcredit to self-finance and from housing provision to family planning, for rural communities and urban slums. It earned him international recognition and high honours in Pakistan. Khan was fluent in at least seven languages and dialects. Apart from many scholarly books and articles, he also published a collection of poems and travelogues in Urdu.