Akhtar Hameed Khan Comilla Cooperative Pilot Project what was the goal of the comilla cooperative pilot project? The Comilla Model (1959) was Khan's initiative in response to the failure of a Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) programme what were V-AID's failures? V-AID remained a government-level attempt to promote citizen participation in the sphere of rural development. how was the comilla model different? developed a methodology of implementation in the areas of agricultural and rural development on the principle of grassroots-level participation. what were the major aims of the citizens that participated? Initially, the aim was to provide a development model of programmes and institutions that could be replicated across the country.
but was the ultimate goal to improve economic conditions for farmers?
but was the ultimate goal of The Comilla Model to improve economic conditions for farmers?
The Comilla Model (1959) was Khan's initiative in response to the failure of a Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) programme that was launched in 1953 in East and West Pakistan with technical assistance from the US government. V-AID remained a government-level attempt to promote citizen participation in the sphere of rural development. Khan launched the project in 1959 on his return from Michigan, and developed a methodology of implementation in the areas of agricultural and rural development on the principle of grassroots-level participation. Initially, the aim was to provide a development model of programmes and institutions that could be replicated across the country. Advisory support in this respect was provided by experts from Harvard and Michigan State Universities, the Ford Foundation, and USAID. Practical help was also sought from Japan to improve the local farming techniques.  Comilla Model simultaneously addressed the problems that were caused by the inadequacy of both local infrastructure and institutions through a range of integrated programmes. The initiatives included the establishment of: a training and development centre; a road-drainage embankment works programme; a decentralized, small scale irrigation programme; and, a two-tiered cooperative system with primary cooperatives operating in the villages, and federations operating at sub-district level.  After Khan's departure from Comilla, the cooperative's model failed in independent Bangladesh because only a few occupational groups managed to achieve the desired success. By 1979, only 61 of the 400 cooperatives were functioning. The model actually fell prey to the ineffective internal and external controls, stagnation, and diversion of funds. This prompted the subsequent scholars and practitioners in microfinance, such as Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC, to abandon the cooperative approach in favour of more centralised control and service delivery structures. The new strategy targeted the poorest villagers, while excluding the 'less poor'. However, Khan's leadership skills during the course of his association with the project remained a source of inspiration for these leaders, as well as other participatory development initiatives in the country. CANNOTANSWER
Advisory support in this respect was provided by experts from Harvard and Michigan State Universities, the Ford Foundation, and USAID.
Akhter Hameed Khan (, pronounced ; 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.

Early life
Khan was born on 15 July 1914 in Agra. He was among the four sons and three daughters of Khansaahib Ameer Ahmed Khan and Mehmoodah Begum. His father, a police inspector, was inspired by the reformist thinking of Syed Ahmed Khan. In his early age, Khan's mother introduced him to the poetry of Maulana Hali and Muhammad Iqbal, the sermons of Abul Kalam Azad, and the Sufist philosophy of Rumi. This upbringing influenced his interest in historical as well as contemporary social, economic, and political affairs.

Khan attended Government High School at Jalam (Uttar Pradesh), and completed his education in 1930 at Agra College where he studied English literature and history. He read English literature, history, and philosophy for a Bachelor of Arts degree at Meerut College in 1932. At that point, his mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She died in the same year at the age of 36. Khan continued his studies and was awarded a Master of Arts in English Literature from Agra University in 1934. He worked as a lecturer at Meerut College before joining the Indian Civil Service (ICS) in 1936. As part of the ICS training, he was sent to read literature and history at Magdalene College, Cambridge, England. During the stay, he developed a friendship with Choudhary Rahmat Ali.

Khan married Hameedah Begum (the eldest daughter of Allama Mashriqi) in 1940. Together, they had three daughters (Mariam, Amina, and Rasheeda) and a son (Akbar). After Hameedah Begum's death in 1966, he married Shafiq Khan and had one daughter, Ayesha. During his ICS career, Khan worked as collector of revenue, a position that brought him into regular contact with living conditions in rural areas of East Bengal. The Bengal famine of 1943 and subsequent handling of the situation by the colonial rulers led him to resign from the Indian Civil Service in 1945. He wrote, "I realised that if I did not escape while I was young and vigorous, I will forever remain in the trap, and terminate as a bureaucratic big wig." During this period, he was influenced by the philosophy of Nietzsche and Mashriqi, and joined the Khaksar Movement. This attachment was brief. He quit the movement and turned to Sufism. According to Khan, "I had a profound personal concern; I wanted to live a life free from fear and anxiety, a calm and serene life, without turmoil and conflict. ... when I followed the advice of old Sufis and sages, and tried to curb my greed, my pride and aggression, fears, anxieties and conflict diminished."

For the next two years, Khan worked in Mamoola village near Aligarh as a labourer and locksmith, an experience that provided him with firsthand knowledge of the problems and issues of rural communities. In 1947, he took up a teaching position at the Jamia Millia, Delhi, where he worked for three years. In 1950, Khan migrated to Pakistan to teach at Islamia College, Karachi. In the same year, he was invited by the Government of Pakistan to take charge as Principal of Comilla Victoria College in East Pakistan, a position he held until 1958. During this time (1950–58) he also served as President of the East Pakistan Non-Government Teachers' Association.

Rural development initiatives
During his tenure as principal of Comilla Victoria College, Khan developed a special interest in grassroots actions. Between 1954 and 1955, he took a break to work as director of the Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) Programme. However, he was not satisfied with the development approach adopted in the programme that was limited to the training of villagers. In 1958, he went to Michigan State University to acquire education and training in rural development. Returning in 1959, he established the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (PARD, eventually renamed as Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development) at Comilla on 27 May 1959 and was appointed as its founding director. Khan became vice-chairman of the board of Governors of PARD in 1964, and in the same year, was awarded an honorary Doctorate of law by Michigan State University. In 1969, he established collaborative links with Arthur Lewis.

Advisory roles
Following his move to Pakistan, Khan was asked to implement the Comilla Model in rural settlements of North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Punjab, and Sindh. He declined the offer on the grounds that the proposals were predominantly motivated by political interests rather than the common well-being. However, he continued to advise the authorities on various aspects of rural development, such as participatory irrigation management. He worked as a research fellow at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad from 1971 to 1972, and as Director of Rural Economics Research Project at Karachi University from 1972 to 1973. Khan went to Michigan State University as a visiting professor in 1973 and remained there until 1979. During this time, he carried on advising the Rural Development Academy at Bogra in northern Bangladesh, and the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development, Peshawar, on the Daudzai Integrated Rural Development Programme. In 1974, he was appointed as a World Bank consultant to survey rural development situations in Java, Indonesia. He also briefly worked as a visiting professor at Lund University, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford.

In 1980, Khan moved to Karachi and started working on the improvement of sanitary conditions in Karachi suburbs. He laid the foundations of the Orangi Pilot Project for the largest squatter community of Orangi in the city. He remained associated with this project until his death in 1999. Meanwhile, he maintained his support for rural communities around Karachi, and also helped to develop the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme. OPP became a model for participatory bottom-up development initiatives.

Major development programmes

Comilla Cooperative Pilot Project

The Comilla Model (1959) was Khan's initiative in response to the failure of a Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) programme that was launched in 1953 in East and West Pakistan with technical assistance from the US government. V-AID remained a government-level attempt to promote citizen participation in the sphere of rural development. Khan launched the project in 1959 on his return from Michigan, and developed a methodology of implementation in the areas of agricultural and rural development on the principle of grassroots-level participation. Initially, the aim was to provide a development model of programmes and institutions that could be replicated across the country. Advisory support in this respect was provided by experts from Harvard and Michigan State Universities, the Ford Foundation, and USAID.

Comilla Model simultaneously addressed the problems that were caused by the inadequacy of both local infrastructure and institutions through a range of integrated programmes. The initiatives included the establishment of: a training and development centre; a road-drainage embankment works programme; a decentralized, small scale irrigation programme; and, a two-tiered cooperative system with primary cooperatives operating in the villages, and federations operating at sub-district level.

After Khan's departure from Comilla, the cooperative's model failed in independent Bangladesh because only a few occupational groups managed to achieve the desired success. By 1979, only 61 of the 400 cooperatives were functioning. The model actually fell prey to the ineffective internal and external controls, stagnation, and diversion of funds. This prompted the subsequent scholars and practitioners in microfinance, such as Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC, to abandon the cooperative approach in favour of more centralised control and service delivery structures. The new strategy targeted the poorest villagers, while excluding the 'less poor'. However, Khan's leadership skills during the course of his association with the project remained a source of inspiration for these leaders, as well as other participatory development initiatives in the country.

Orangi Pilot Project

The Orangi poverty alleviation project (known as the Orangi Pilot Project, or OPP) was initiated by Khan as an NGO in 1980. Orangi is located on the northwest periphery of Karachi. At that time, it was the largest of the city's approximately 650 low-income squatter settlements (known as katchi abadi). The locality was first developed in 1963 as a government township of . The influx of migrants after the creation of Bangladesh swelled the settlement to about one million people crowded over an area of more than . The working class multi-ethnic population was predominantly composed of day labourers, skilled workers, artisans, small shopkeepers, peddlers and low-income white collar workers. The project proved an impetus to the socio-economic development of the population of the area. As the project director, Khan proved to be a dynamic and innovative leader. The project initially focused on creating a system of underground sewers, using local materials and labour, and succeeded in laying hundreds of kilometres of drainage pipes along with auxiliary facilities. Within a decade of the initiative, local residents had established schools, health clinics, women's work centres, cooperative stores and a credit organisation to finance enterprise projects. By 1993, OPP had managed to provide low-cost sewers to more than 72,000 houses. The project subsequently diversified into a number of programmes, including a people's financed and managed low-cost sanitation programme; a housing programme; a basic health and family planning programme; a programme of supervised credit for small family enterprise units; an education programme; and a rural development programme in the nearby villages.

Comparing the OPP with Comilla project, Akhter Hameed Khan once commented:

The Orangi Pilot Project was very different from the Comilla Academy. OPP was a private body, dependent for its small fixed budget on another NGO. The vast resources and support of the government, Harvard advisors, MSU, and Ford Foundation was missing. OPP possessed no authority, no sanctions. It may observe and investigate but it could only advise, not enforce.

The successful OPP model became an inspiration for other municipalities around the country. In 1999, Khan helped to create Lodhran Pilot Project (LPP) to collaborate with Lodhran municipal committee. Learning from past experiences, the project extended its scope to the whole town instead of concentrating on low-income settlements only. The municipal partnership was itself a new initiative that ensured wider civic co-operation.

The success of OPP did come at a cost for Dr Khan as his liberal views and self-help initiatives were questioned and criticised by certain interest groups. At two occasions, he was accused of blasphemy. However, all allegations against him were acquitted by the courts of law and cleared by independent religious scholars.

Death
In 1999, Khan was visiting his family in the United States when he suffered from kidney failure. He died of myocardial infarction on 9 October in Indianapolis at the age of 85. His body was flown to Karachi on 15 October, where he was buried on the grounds of the OPP office compound.

Legacy
Khan's ideology and leadership skills were a source of inspiration for his students and colleagues, and continue to serve as guiding principles even after his death. Edgar Owens, who became an admirer of Khan's ideology while working at USAID's Asia Bureau, co-authored a book with Robert Shaw as a result of observations and discussions with Khan at Comilla Academy. A later study of various rural development experiences from South Asia, edited by Uphoff and Cambell (1983) was jointly dedicated to Khan and Owens.

Soon after Khan's death, on 10 April 2000, the Government of Pakistan renamed the National Centre for Rural Development the Akhter Hameed Khan National Centre for Rural Development and Municipal Administration.

Later in 2005, the Council of Social Sciences, Pakistan, in collaboration with the National Rural Support Programme and other institutions, announced the Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial Award. The annual cash award is given on Khan's birthday to a Pakistani author for a book on issues related to rural and urban development, peace, poverty alleviation, or gender discrimination. At the occasion of the award ceremony in 2006, a documentary film about the life and times of Akhter Hameed Khan was premiered. The film includes archival footage and interviews with family members, colleagues, and contributors and beneficiaries of the Comilla and OPP projects.

The Akhter Hameed Khan Resource Centre (AHK Resource Center)was established in Islamabad, under the auspices of the Institute of Rural Management, as a repository of published and digital resources on rural development. The Akhter Hameed Khan Resource Center was initially formed in 2010 as a repository of works and writings by Khan and his mentee Shoaib Sultan Khan; after 2015 the resource center transitioned into an NGO that established an experimental site in urban development in Dhok Hassu, Rawalpindi.

Awards and honours
Khan received the following civil awards:
 Jinnah Award (Posthumous, 2004) for services to people as founder of the Orangi Pilot Project.
 Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Posthumous, 2001) for services to the community.
 Ramon Magsaysay Award (31 August 1963, Manila, Philippines) for services to rural development.
 Sitara-e-Pakistan (1961) for pioneering work in rural development.

Publications
Khan was fluent in Arabic, Bengali, English, Hindi, Pali, Persian, and Urdu. He wrote several reports and monographs, mostly relating to rural development in general or his various successful and model initiatives in particular. He also published collections of poems and travelogues in Urdu.

In English
 1956, Bengal Reminances, vol 1, 2 & 3. Comilla Academy (now the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development), Comilla, Bangladesh.
 1965, Rural Development in East Pakistan, Speeches By Akhter Hameed Khan. Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University.
 1974, Institutions for rural development in Indonesia, Pakistan Academy for Rural Development. Karachi.
 1985, Rural development in Pakistan. Vanguard Books. Lahore.
 1994, What I learnt in Comilla and Orangi. Paper presented at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) seminar. Islamabad.
 1996, Orangi Pilot Project: Reminiscences and Reflections. The Oxford University Press: Karachi. (editions: 1996, 1999, 2005). 
 1997 The sanitation gap: Development's deadly menace . The Progress of Nations . UNICEF.
 1998, Community-Based Schools and the Orangi Project. In Hoodbhoy, P (ed.), Education and the State: Fifty Years of Pakistan, Chapter 7, Karachi: Oxford University Press. 
 2000, Twenty Weeks in America: A Diary, 3 September 1969 – 21 January 1970. Translated from Urdu by Aqila Ismail. City Press.

In Urdu
 1972, Safar-e-Amrika ki Diary (A Diary of Travels in America). The City Press: Karachi. 2nd Edition: Atlantis Publications, Karachi 2017.
 1988, Chiragh aur Kanwal (Collection of poems in Urdu). Saad Publishers. Karachi.

See also

 Civil society
 Social entrepreneurship
 Social innovation

Notes

References

 Abadi, H. (2006). Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan. Karachi: Oxford University Press.  
 BARD (1983). The Works of Akhter Hameed Khan. Volumes I–III. Comilla: Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development.
 Barmazel, S. (2005). "Orangi Pilot Project: An NGO Helping to Build Community" in O.P. Richmond and H.F. Carey (eds.) Subcontracting Peace: The Challenges of NGO Peacebuilding. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 191–98. 
 Chowdhury, A.N. (1990). Let Grassroots Speak: People's Participation Self-Help Groups and NGO's in Bangladesh. Dhaka: South Asia Books. 
 Chaudhuri, M.A. (1969). Rural Government in East Pakistan. Dhaka: Puthighar Ltd.
 Dowla, A. and Barua, D. (2006). The Poor Always Pay Back: The Grameen II Story. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press. 
 Hasan, A. (1994). "Replicating the Low-Cost Sanitation Programme Administered by the Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi, Pakistan" in I. Serageldin, M.A. Cohen, and K.C. Sivaramakrishnan (eds.) The Human Face of the Urban Environment, Proceedings of the Second Annual World Bank Conference on Environmentally Sustainable Development. (19–21 September). Washington, D.C.: The World Bank. 
 Hasan, A. (1996). "Introduction" in A.H. Khan Orangi Pilot Project – Reminiscences and Reflections. Karachi: Oxford University Press. pp. xi–xli. 
 Hasan, A. (1999). Akhter Hameed Khan and the Orangi Pilot Project. Karachi: City Press. 
 Hasan, A. (2002). "A model for government-community partnership in building sewage systems for urban areas: The experiences of the OPP-RTI". Water Science and Technology Vol. 45, No. 8, pp. 199–216.
 Khan, A.H. (1996). Orangi Pilot Project: Reminiscences and Reflections. Karachi: Oxford University Press. (editions: 1996, 1999, 2005). 
 Nigam, A. and Rasheed, S. (1998). "Financing of Fresh Water for All: A Rights Based Approach" in UNICEF Staff Working Papers. Evaluation, Policy and Planning Series, No. EPP-EVL-98-003.
 NRSP (2000). In commemoration of The Life and Times of Akhter Hameed Khan: Talks of Akhter Hameed Khan at the National Rural Support Programme. Islamabad: National Rural Support Programme (NRSP).
 Raper, A.F. (1970). Rural Development in Action: The Comprehensive Experiment at Comilla, East Pakistan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 
 Valsan, E.H. (2005). "Leadership in Public Administration for Alleviating Poverty and Development: A Conceptual Approach", in J. Jabes (ed.) The Role of Public Administration in Alleviating Poverty and Improving Governance, NAPSIPAG. Manila: Asian Development Bank. 
 Yousaf, N. (2003). Allama Mashriqi and Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan: Two Legends of Pakistan. New York: Xlibris.

External links
 Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial Award, at Council of Social Sciences (COSS) website
 AHK Resource Centre and Digital Library
 AHK Photo Gallery at Institute of Rural Management (IRM) website
 

1914 births
1999 deaths
Development specialists
Sewerage
Appropriate technology
Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge
People from Karachi
Academics from Karachi
Recipients of Nishan-e-Imtiaz
Pakistani humanitarians
Recipients of Hilal-i-Imtiaz
Cooperative organizers
Microfinance people
Muhajir people
Pakistani scientists
Pakistani economists
Pakistani scholars
Pakistani Sunni Muslims
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Michigan State University alumni
People from Agra
Fellows of Pakistan Academy of Sciences
20th-century economists
Comilla Victoria Government College faculty
Recipients of the Sitara-e-Pakistan
Squatter leaders
The Democratic Farmers League of Sweden (, abbreviated SDJ) was an organization of farmers in Sweden.

SDJ was founded in February 1918, at a congress with delegates from different parts of the country. The Cultivators' League (Odlareförbundet) merged into SDJ. Their publication, Odlaren ('The Cultivator'), was overtaken by SDJ.

The organization was linked to the Social Democratic Left Party of Sweden (SSV, later the Communist Party of Sweden). SDJ had a sectorial and economic programme, but also a radical political programme. Regarding politics in general, the SDJ programme was largely the same as that of SSV. The agrarian programme of SDJ was detailed, but did not deviate from the SSV line significantly. The organization argued that independent farmers, owning their own plots, should have the right to trade full ownership to a modernized åborätt (copyhold), thus relieving them from debts. SDJ also sought to improve the economic position of its members, for example by promoting setting up cooperatives and economic associations.

The members were generally independent farmers. In situations when independent farmers who were members of SDJ took up jobs as labourers at estates, the organization managed negotiations over wages and price lists.

SDJ was never able to make any significant breakthrough among smaller peasants. The organization was dissolved after a few years. In SSV there had been dissatisfaction with SDJ, which was seen as not agitating enough for the party.

References

1918 establishments in Sweden
Left Party (Sweden) Holistic Management International (HMI) is a not-for-profit organization promoting holistic management in agriculture, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It maintains an international network of educators and "land stewards" who "use holistic management strategies to manage more than 30 million acres around the globe". HMI's mission is to envision and realize healthy, resilient lands and thriving communities by serving people in the practice of Holistic Decision Making & Management.

About
Holistic Management International was founded in 1984 by Allan Savory and Jody Butterfield to promote the practice of holistic management on a global level. It was originally called the Center for Holistic Management and later The Savory Center.

HMI has the goal of educating people in ways to manage natural resources in such a way as to build biodiversity, improve natural growth production, enhance land and financial sustainability, and improve the overall land quality for those who use it.

In 1992 it launched the Africa Centre for Holistic Management, based in Zimbabwe. This became a regional office of HMI, but separated in 2010.

Savory left HMI in 2009 to form the for-profit Savory Institute.

In February 2010, PBS broadcast a documentary called First Millimeter: Healing The Earth detailing the work HMI was doing around the world.

Programs

Education and educator training
HMI offers introductory and advanced courses in holistic management practices and an Individualized Certified Educator Training Program.

In October 2011 HMI ran a series of seminars as part of their 'Beginning Farmers and Ranchers' programs in Texas. They were designed to teach women resource management skills.

Whole Farm/Ranch Planning
Beginning farmers in the Northeast learned more about whole farm/ranch planning in a program developed specifically for women and funded by a USDA grant.
This program was expanded to include 6 Northeast states and Texas

Publications
HMI publishes an online journal called In Practice.

Awards and grants
In 2005 HMI was awarded a substantial grant from U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for work in Africa.

In 2008 HMI was awarded $329,750 from USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance to address drought disaster issues in Zimbabwe.

In 2009 HMI was awarded $639,301 for their beginning farmers program.

In 2011 Farm Aid awarded a grant to HMI for $5000 in support of their Beginning Farmers and Ranchers program in Texas. In 2012 $7,500 to help new farmers incorporate environmental, economic and social sustainability through the Whole Farm Planning curriculum.

In 2012 HMI was awarded a $537,101 federal grant from USDA to train first-time women farmers in whole farm planning.

In 2013 HMI was awarded a $60,400 federal grant from USDA Western SARE to train agricultural professionals in Holistic Management® Whole Farm/Ranch Planning.

See also 

 Resource management
 Sustainable agriculture
 Systems ecology
 Sustainability

References

External links 
 Holistic Management International

Charities based in New Mexico
Farms in the United States