Shared values, shared progress: AKDN and France in partnership with Africa
Kenya · 13 May 2026 · 8 min
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
Following the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, we look back on nearly two decades of collaboration with France – and a century of commitment to Africa’s progress.
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Nairobi, Kenya, 13 May 2026 - On 11 and 12 May, Kenya and France co-hosted the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, bringing together heads of state, business leaders, innovators and civil society to forge partnerships for innovation and growth across the continent. Co-chaired by President William Ruto and President Emmanuel Macron, the Summit reflects Africa’s agency in shaping its own development and its indispensable role in addressing global challenges – from climate change to digital transformation.
The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) shares this vision. For more than a century, it has been a partner in Africa’s progress, working alongside governments and communities to strengthen institutions, build economic capacity and improve the quality of life. In Kenya, where AKDN’s engagement spans over 100 years, the Network reaches more than 27 million people with over 14,000 staff working across health, education, economic development and environmental stewardship. Across Tanzania, Uganda and the wider region, AKDN operates hospitals, schools, enterprises and environmental programmes serving millions.
It is within this context that the partnership between France and AKDN has become a very productive one. Since the signing of a Partnership Convention in 2008, France – principally through the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Proparco, its private sector financing arm – and AKDN have collaborated on more than 60 projects across 20 countries, with French funding exceeding $584 million and joint investment surpassing $1 billion. The partnership is built on shared values: pluralism, long-term investment in human development and a commitment to working with and through local institutions.
Innovation and impact in Eastern Africa
Support from AFD helped transform the Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam into a 170-bed tertiary care and teaching centre, expanding access to specialist health services in the region.
AKDN / Aly Z. Ramji
Eastern Africa has been an important focus of this collaboration. In health, AFD has provided more than $120 million in financing to AKDN in the region, which alongside significant additional investment from AKDN and other partners, has supported the expansion of the Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam into a 170-bed tertiary care centre, the upgrading of hospitals in Mombasa and Kisumu and the establishment of the Heart and Cancer Centre in Nairobi. These investments have helped raise the quality of health care in East Africa, making advanced and specialist services available in the region and reducing the need for patients to travel abroad to access them. In 2025, AKDN, AFD and the Gates Foundation launched the East Africa Comprehensive Cancer Project, a $12 million initiative to combat women’s cancers in Tanzania and Kenya expected to benefit approximately 7.4 million people.
At the Aga Khan Academy Maputo, a bilingual English-Portuguese curriculum and additional language learning promote academic excellence and the development of future leaders with a global outlook.
AKDN / Tammy Goldswain
At Amboseli Serena Safari Lodge in Kenya, a gardener tends an indigenous tree nursery, part of a forestation programme that has planted millions of trees across East Africa to restore ecosystems and strengthen climate resilience.
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
Beyond health, the partnership extends across education, financial services, tourism and agriculture. AFD has provided financing for the Aga Khan Academy in Maputo, Mozambique. Through Proparco, France has invested in AKDN’s Serena Hotels in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Kampala and in Diamond Trust Bank to expand SME lending and green finance in Kenya and Uganda. In West Africa, the collaboration has supported cotton sector resilience and clean energy projects in Côte d’Ivoire, while in Madagascar, AFD has backed microfinance and rural development programmes improving agricultural livelihoods and food security.
In Madagascar, where most households depend on agriculture, farmers are increasingly adopting regenerative practices to strengthen productivity and climate resilience.
AKDN / Humberto Caldas
AKDN at the Africa Forward Summit
President William Ruto speaks at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, co-chaired with President Emmanuel Macron.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
At the Summit which brought together African heads of state, the President of France, the African Union, international financial institutions and development partners, AKDN was represented by Dr Sulaiman Shahabuddin, President of the Aga Khan University; Amin Mawji OBE, Diplomatic Representative of AKDN in East Africa; Dr Matt Reed, Global Director of Institutional Partnerships at the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF); Lutaf Kassam, Group Managing Director of Industrial Promotion Services; Shamir Samdjee, Official Representative of the Ismaili Imamat to the French Republic; and Rashid Khalani, Chief Executive Officer of the Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi.
President Emmanuel Macron speaks at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, co-chaired with President William Ruto.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
Dr Shahabuddin and Amin Mawji were invited to attend the Health Roundtable as observers, where heads of state and senior leaders discussed the advancement of health sovereignty across Africa — including the local manufacturing of vaccines, medicines and diagnostics, the strengthening of regulatory systems and the development of a skilled health workforce.
Amin Mawji, Diplomatic Representative of AKDN in East Africa, talking with Dr Mohamed Janabi, WHO Regional Director for Africa, at the Health Roundtable.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
AKDN’s wider engagement with France on global governance issues was also reflected on the sidelines of the Summit. On 10 May, AKDN hosted a reception with the Paris Peace Forum and the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs at the Aga Khan University campus in Nairobi. As a founding member of the Paris Peace Forum, AKDN works alongside France to build new coalitions to strengthen multilateral cooperation and address global challenges.
Éléonore Caroit, France’s Minister Delegate for Francophonie, International Partnerships and French Nationals Abroad.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
Justin Vaïsse, Founder and Director General of the Paris Peace Forum, in discussion with Dr Abraham Korir Sing’Oei, Principal Secretary for Kenya’s State Department for Foreign Affairs.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
Looking ahead: climate resilience and coastal communities
On 12 May, on the margins of the Summit, AFD, AKF, France and the Ismaili Imamat signed a memorandum of understanding to advance the sustainable management of marine and coastal ecosystems and regenerative agriculture in Tanzania. A preliminary envelope of €38.5 million is envisaged for the marine ecosystems component, combining resources from AFD and AKF, which would be implemented by AKF and technical partners.
The agreement builds on a Declaration of Intent signed in Paris in July 2025. The work will form part of AKF’s six-country, 10-year Indian Ocean “ReGeneration” Initiative which supports coastal communities to build climate resilience – through diversified livelihoods, improved health and nutrition, and equitable access to clean water and energy – empowering the people most vulnerable to a changing climate to protect the mangrove ecosystems on which their futures depend. AKF has already begun working closely with communities on the Tanzanian coast, planting more than 1.7 million mangroves since 2023.
AFD’s Christophe Lecourtier and AKF’s Dr Matt Reed sign the memorandum of understanding to advance marine and coastal ecosystem restoration and regenerative agriculture in Tanzania, building on ongoing efforts under AKF’s ReGeneration Initiative.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
Éléonore Caroit, France’s Minister Delegate for Francophonie, International Partnerships and French Nationals Abroad, and Shamir Samdjee, Official Representative of the Ismaili Imamat to the French Republic, sign the memorandum of understanding to advance marine and coastal ecosystem restoration and regenerative agriculture in Tanzania, building on ongoing efforts under AKF’s ReGeneration Initiative.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer
As the Africa Forward Summit convened under the banner of “Partnerships for Innovation and Growth”, the AKDN-France collaboration offered a compelling example of what sustained, values-driven partnership can achieve. AKDN is a partner of longstanding friendship to both France and Africa’s nations – and a bridge between them. It is committed to playing its part as the continent moves ahead with the innovation and ambition that this Summit rightly celebrated.
Representatives from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, AFD, the Ismaili Imamat, AKF, AKDN and AKU at the Africa Forward Summit convened under the banner of “Partnerships for Innovation and Growth”. The AKDN-France collaboration offered a compelling example of what sustained, values-driven partnership can achieve.
AKDN / Christopher Wilton-Steer