AKDN | Health

Exposure to disease and injury, and health outcomes, are affected by numerous social and environmental factors. Our agencies combine inputs to mitigate factors contributing to ill health.

We seek to address a lack of access to basic services, including health care; promote good nutrition practices and supplement diets; educate communities about hygiene and alleviate poverty and inequality. We pay particular attention to maternal, child and adolescent health, the needs of those in remote areas, and gender equality.

To take a few examples:

• AKF and AKES teach children the importance of hand washing in early childhood development programmes;


• women in Egypt are receiving training and materials from the Om Habibeh Foundation to create kitchen gardens, supplementing and diversifying their families’ diets;


• AKDN’s Digital Resource Centre is developing electronic tools to provide teleconsultations for remote populations; and


• AKF and AKAH are providing over two million people with drinking water and sanitation services. In the Pamirs, safe water has reduced water-related illness and missed days of school. Find out more about AKDN’s contribution to sanitation infrastructure.

Our agencies work together to link healthcare provision, from education and preventative approaches in remote areas, to world-class tertiary care. AKF supports 2,000 health facilities in 12 countries through capacity building, provision of materials and supplies, supportive supervision of community health workers and enhancing case management, monitoring and case referral systems. The Aga Khan Health Services (AKHS) has established local dispensaries and health centres in rural areas. A hub-and-spokes approach, supported by innovative digital communications, links AKDN’s primary care facilities with high-level teaching and research facilities.

In Asia, Afghanistan has experienced decades of conflict, Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic no longer receive Soviet health care, and access to health care in Pakistan and India is polarised. AKDN’s hub-and-spokes system optimises resources, transcends national borders and ensures access to high-quality care for populations living in hard-to-reach places. For example, medical staff at the remote Aga Khan Medical Centre, Khorog in Tajikistan virtually consult their peers in major AKDN university hospitals in Kabul and Karachi, to ensure more timely and effective diagnosis and treatment.

In East Africa, primary healthcare facilities are similarly linked to major teaching hospitals, such as the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, which is considered one of the best hospitals on the continent. Larger hubs like the Hospital support AKDN’s expanding East Africa Integrated Health System, which is dedicated to providing high-quality health coverage at affordable prices to an economically diverse population.

The Aga Khan University (AKU) trains nurses and midwives in East Africa and Pakistan, through two Schools of Nursing and Midwifery. It offers a Master of Medicine degree in East Africa and an undergraduate medical degree and a dental hygienist programme in Pakistan. AKHS hospitals offer internships, residencies and training for students at AKU, as well as continuing professional development sessions for doctors at other institutions.

The AKDN Digital Health Resource Centre develops digital health applications and products. It aims to strengthen health systems and improve the health outcomes of poor and medically underserved communities. Find out more

As our universities and teaching hospitals are located in the developing world, we conduct world-class research on the endemic and emerging health issues of these areas. We also collaborate with research institutions in the developed world on particular studies of interest. The Network’s healthcare institutions have published in leading medical journals on topics ranging from malaria to heart disease.

Our aim is to create efficient and appropriate health systems that raise the quality of life of populations in the developing world. Find out more about the Aga Khan University’s research into neuroscience, stem cells, women and child health, and global health and development.