Princess Zahra Aga Khan, Head of AKDN’s Social Welfare Department looks on as AFD’s deputy Chief Executive Officer, Jacques Moineville, and Amin Habib, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Aga Khan Health Services in Tanzania exchange agreements following the signing ceremony which took place Friday 9th May in France.
The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the Aga Khan Development Network today signed a US$ 79.8 million agreement, in an effort to substantially enhance the quality and reach of the Network’s health programmes in Tanzania.
Princess Zahra Aga Khan, who heads AKDN’s Social Welfare Department, attended the signing ceremony at the AKDN headquarters in Gouvieux France. The agreement was signed by AFD’s deputy Chief Executive Officer, Jacques Moineville, and Amin Habib, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Aga Khan Health Services in Tanzania.
The US $ 79.8 million agreement, which includes a US$ 53.5 million concessional loan from AFD and a US$ 26.3 million contribution from AKDN, covers the construction of a new 14,000 square metre facility that will accommodate cardiology, oncology, neurosciences, critical care, mother and child health, nuclear medicine and imaging services. It also encompasses the establishment of 30 outreach centres across Tanzania that will provide free monitoring, immunization and family planning services.
The full expansion also envisages the establishment of an enhanced patient welfare programme and the creation of postgraduate medical education residency programmes in surgery and medicine in partnership with the Aga Khan University.
The agreement, which marks the beginning of the second phase of the hospital’s expansion plans, reinforces the leading role the Aga Khan Hospital Dar es Salaam plays in the country’s primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare system. The expansion is part of the broader development of an integrated AKDN health system in East Africa.
The first development phase of the hospital, which was completed in June 2000, included upgrades to inpatient accommodation, consulting clinics, the laboratory, pharmacy and an accidents and emergency unit.