When he was two years old, Danyal’s parents brought him to the Aga Khan Hospital, Dar es Salaam, to find out why he couldn’t speak. “We found that he had severe hearing loss and he needed a cochlear implant,” said Danyal’s father, Mehran. The hospital carried out its first cochlear surgery, and Danyal can now hear. “Seeing how he's responding to the different sounds around him is magical. The journey to come where he starts learning how to speak, and being able to communicate with our son, is everything I could ask for,” Mehran said.

Clinical audiologist Ali Jaffer hopes that this success will increase confidence in undertaking such surgery in Eastern Africa. “A lot of patients in prior years have been going outside the country to do these surgeries. They have to stay there for a long time without their families, it's very costly and it's not home.”

Danyal is one of thousands who have benefited from the decades-long partnership between AKDN and the Government of France, often represented by Agence Française de Développement (AFD). The joint endeavours span social, cultural and economic development across many countries.

In Pakistan, the restoration of Lahore Fort is boosting heritage tourism and local economic activity. The creation of the Bujagali hydropower plant in Uganda has doubled power generation, cut load shedding and reduced electricity prices. Roshan, Afghanistan’s first and largest mobile telephone provider, has over five million subscribers and has invested over $700 million in the country.

The collaboration has had a major impact on health.

The French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children (FMIC) in Kabul, Afghanistan, managed by the Aga Khan University, was set up as a partnership between the Government of Afghanistan, the Government of France, French NGO La Chaîne de l'Espoir and AKDN. In a country facing a healthcare crisis, with women disproportionately affected, FMIC has served over two million patients, often at no charge. It has trained over 4,000 medical professionals, and currently employs over 95 percent Afghan staff.

The French Government has helped finance many improvements to Aga Khan hospitals in East Africa.

“One project that really stands out is the Tanzania Comprehensive Cancer Project (TCCP),” says Dr Zeenat Sulaiman Khan, Regional Chief Executive Officer of Aga Khan Health Services, East Africa. “We have partnered with Institut Curie and Expertise France to build the capacity of AKHS and public sector healthcare workers to provide better care for cancer patients.

“The results have been promising – a big jump in early cancer diagnosis, from 15 percent in 2020 to 31 percent in 2024. This means more people can receive life-saving treatments, even in underserved communities. Our cancer awareness campaigns have reached over 10 million people nationwide. Plus, training community healthcare workers in oncology care has been a huge success.”

“Seeing this progress has inspired us,” says Zeenat. “We're now working with AFD, the Gates Foundation and the governments of Kenya and Tanzania on the East Africa Comprehensive Cancer Project (EACCP).”

Launched in 2025, the EACCP will serve almost 7.4 million women in Tanzania and Kenya. Awareness initiatives and screenings will tackle breast and cervical cancer, the two most common types in these countries. The programme will also vaccinate over three million girls for HPV, which increases cancer risk. “We believe this partnership will be a game-changer for health care in the region,” says Zeenat.