- Aga Khan Hospital will use the funding to support covid-19 pandemic response
- The funding will benefit hospital and outreach centres in Tanzania and Kenya
- Qualifying groups to receive care at no cost
Aga Khan Hospital will start offering quality care treatment to qualifying needy patients at no cost. The development comes thanks to EUR 2.3 million of grant funds issued to the Aga Khan Hospitals in East Africa (Tanzania and Kenya) by France, through the French Development Agency.
The funding has been issued through Proparco, the private sector financing arm of AFD Group, the French Development Agency to help increase access to health care services by boosting oxygen supply and supporting needy patients with quality care.
“France has made supporting health systems one of the priorities of its covid-19 pandemic response and has been at the forefront of the European and international efforts to support developing and emerging countries through this unprecedented crisis,” said Nabil Hajlaoui, French Ambassador to Tanzania.
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In a media communiqué issued at the start of the week, the diplomat said; “Thanks to the historic partnership between AFD Group and the Aga Khan Development Network, much needed support will be specifically targeted towards underprivileged patients, thus helping make health systems more inclusive and better equipped to meet the need of communities in the future.”
On her part, Aga Khan Health Services, Regional CEO Dr. Zeenat Shahabuddin said; “On this occasion, we further deepen our cooperation with the AFD Group. The grant will support access to health care for needy patients across all disease profiles and will be invested in the scale-up of oxygen supply to cover demand for critical lifesaving support”
The grant will benefit The Aga Khan Hospital, Dar es Salaam and The Aga Khan Hospitals in Mombasa, Kisumu and Nairobi as well as some other 94 outreach and medical centres of the Aga Khan Health Services in both Tanzania and Kenya.
The grant contributes to AFD Group’s Health in Common initiative that is designed to help health systems in developing and emerging countries to better cope with the Covid-19 crisis. The Health in Common initiative is also closely linked to the WHO-led multilateral ACT-A response and is implemented in a #TeamEurope approach.
Commenting, AFD’s Country Director for Tanzania, Stéphanie Mouen said; “The AFD Group is very happy to further reinforce its partnership with the Aga Khan Development Network, which has helped improve the capacity and accessibility of the Aga Khan Hospitals and medical centers in East Africa.”
“Thanks to the new subsidy granted today, we’ll ensure that the welfare funds run by the hospitals can continue to play their critical role ensuring that needy patients can benefit from quality health care at no cost,” she added.
The Aga Khan Development Network and AFD Group have built a strong relationship over the past 15 years through multiple joint operations in the health sector. The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development has also been a partner of Proparco since 1990.
Among the projects are, in Tanzania, AFD provided concessional funding of US$ 53.5 million issued in 2014 for the expansion of Dar es Salaam Hospital and the establishment of 25 Outreach Centers in Tanzania.
Together with a grant of $19.5 million loan in 2017, AFD has helped to extend and strengthen the Aga Khan Hospitals in Mombasa and Kisumu as well as a €10 million grant in 2019 that was issued to develop and support an integrated comprehensive cancer programme in Tanzania (TCCP) through a public-private initiative between AKDN, the Government of Tanzania and the French Institut Curie.
Further still, In addition, a 300k€ grant was also issued in June 2020 by AFD to AKHS to support the Dar es Salaam hospital and Primary Medical Center in Mwanza to mitigate the impact sustained during the global pandemic Covid19 plus various other infectious diseases.
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Proparco is the private sector financing arm of Agence Française de Développement Group (AFD Group). It has been promoting sustainable economic, social and environmental development for over 40 years.
Proparco provides funding and support to both businesses and financial institutions in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Its action focuses on the key development sectors: infrastructure, mainly for renewable energies, agribusiness, financial institutions, health and education.
Its operations aim to strengthen the contribution of private players to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the international community in 2015. To this end, Proparco finances companies whose activity contributes to creating jobs and decent incomes, providing essential goods and services and combating climate change.
The Aga Khan Health Services, East Africa (AKHS EA) is one of the agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) that support activities in health. AKHS EA institutes are a private, not-for-profit organization with an integrated health system approach across Kenya and Tanzania with strong linkages and partnerships with government health agencies and other relevant national and international stakeholders. It is comprised of 3 hospital hubs (Dar es Salaam, Kisumu and Mombasa), 2 sub hubs (Mwanza and Kisii) and 45 Outreach Health Centres (OHCs).
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