[3] AKF seeks to provide long-term solutions to problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy and ill health in the poorest parts of South and Central Asia, Eastern and Western Africa, and the Middle East.

While these agencies are guided by different mandates pertaining to their respective fields of expertise (the environment, culture, microfinance, health, education, architecture, rural development), their activities are often coordinated with one another in order to "multiply" the overall effect that the Network has in any given place or community.

[4] The Foundation has seven areas of focus that include: early childhood development, education,[5] health[6] and nutrition, agriculture and food security, civil society,[7] work and enterprise, and climate resilience.

Grants from government, institutional and private sector partners including from the United Nations, Global Affairs Canada, USAID, the UK's FCDO, the German Federal Foreign Office, Agence Française de Développement and others represent substantial sources of funding.

[10][11] The Aga Khan Foundation has a presence in 17 countries globally, implementing programmes in 14 of those including in: Eastern Africa (Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda); Central & South Asia (Afghanistan, India, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan and Tajikistan); the Middle East (Egypt and Syria); and Europe (Portugal).