Our Mission: To accelerate and expand the provision of surgical, obstetric and anaesthesia care so that everyone, everywhere can have access to safe, quality, timely and affordable surgical services.
Our Vision: A world with universal and equitable access to safe, quality, timely, and affordable surgical, obstetric, and anaesthesia care.
History & Background
The Global Surgery Foundation was created in response to a growing global recognition that surgical care represents a major and neglected component of health systems. Its roots lie in global health policy milestones such as the publication of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery (2015) and the World Health Organization’s Resolution WHA 68.15, which called for strengthening emergency and essential surgical care and anaesthesia as part of universal health coverage.
GSF was formally launched at the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos and subsequently registered as a Swiss foundation under civil law, positioning itself as a neutral non-profit platform with global reach and capacity to mobilise philanthropic and development finance for surgical systems strengthening.
Our Approach
GSF works to close the global “surgery access gap” — estimated at some 5 billion people who do not have access to safe, affordable surgical and anaesthesia care. To do this, the foundation pursues three core functions:
Coordination & Convening: Acting as a neutral convener of stakeholders (professional providers, governments, academics, funders, industry) to support national surgical capacity-building and planning.
Financing & Catalysing: Through a dedicated catalytic funding mechanism (SURGfund), GSF supports locally-led projects in low- and middle-income countries, aiming to unlock scalable solutions.
Implementation & Support: Providing tools, training, policy support, infrastructure, research, and partnerships to strengthen local surgical and health systems in target countries.
Clinical focus areas
GSF emphasises four clinical “entry points” where the need is highest and significant fast improvement is possible:
• Maternal Health: Interventions to save lives before, during and after childbirth by strengthening surgical, obstetric and anaesthesia capacity.
• Children’s Surgery: Ensuring timely, safe surgery for children to avert lifelong disability or death.
• Trauma Surgery: Building surgical systems to respond to injury and trauma — converting burden into opportunity for recovery.
• Cancer Surgery: Enabling access to safe, affordable surgical intervention for cancer patients in underserved settings.
It organises its work around 4 pillars: Equipment & Infrastructure, Education & Training, Policy development, and Research.
OUR IMPACT (2025 estimate):
• ~ 13 million people with improved access to surgical care.
• Active projects in 6 countries.
• Over 40,000 patients directly served
• More than 11,000 healthcare workers directly served through training.
SURGhub
The United Nations Global Surgery Learning Hub (SURGhub) is the award-winning learning platform to provide a trusted one-stop-shop source of knowledge for surgical care workers in resource-limited settings.
SURGhub in Numbers (as of Oct 2025)
• Over 27,000 learners across 202+ countries and territories
• Including 1,600+ learners in conflict zones
• 130 courses developed with 30+ leading global partners
• Over 10,000 Certificates of Completion awarded
Our Maternal Health Programmes is designed to effectively achieve:
30% Decrease in Maternal Mortality
40% Decrease in Newborn Mortality
50% Reduction in post-treatment Complications
Our Projects:
Koshi Province, Nepal - Optimising Safe Surgical Care (OSSC)
A project to significantly reduce maternal and newborn deaths and complications following caesarean sections (CS). The initiative ensures 10,000 safe, timely, and appropriate CS deliveries each year across four health facilities in Koshi Province.
Nakuru County, Kenya - Obstetric Safe Surgery (OSS)
Covering approx. 25,000 women giving birth annually across five facilities, this project aims to improve maternal and perinatal outcomes through enhanced access to safe CS care.
• This project has been endorsed in 2025 by the Clinton Global Initiative as a Commitment to Action, inviting other partners to join.
Kano State, Nigeria – Safe Caesarean section
Operating across 10 facilities, this project seeks to dramatically reduce maternal mortality for more than 27,000 mothers each year through strengthened surgical and obstetric care.
India and Tanzania – C-Safe Project
Focused on optimizing maternal and perinatal outcomes by training and equipping multidisciplinary teams—including nurses, midwives, surgeons, and anaesthesiologists—to ensure caesarean sections are performed safely and only when medically indicated.
Rwanda - Strengthening Access to Breast Cancer Surgery
A project dedicated to strengthening access to quality surgical care for breast cancer patients, guided by insights from a comprehensive national needs assessment.
Tanzania – Building Bridges for Broken Bones
Aimed at improving outcomes for fracture patients by enhancing the capacity of the healthcare workforce in underserved regions. The initiative expands access to quality orthopaedic care for a remote population of over 260,000 people.
Senegal – Partenaires Santé Casamance (PSC)
Focused on strengthening surgical capacity and expanding access to safe, high-quality surgical care in Casamance. The project includes training local specialists in surgery, anaesthesiology, and radiology; upgrading hospital infrastructure and equipment; and fostering sustainable collaboration between Swiss and Senegalese medical teams.
Kenya – CNIS Trauma Team Training (TTT)
Addresses critical training gaps for clinical associates through a program implemented and sustained across nine counties in Kenya, improving trauma care capacity nationwide.
Our Goals
Our goals for next year 2026:
• Launch new global programme for Child Surgery.
• Reach 100k healthcare professionals with quality learning content through SURGhub learning platform.
Our goal for 2030:
• Make safe, timely and respectful surgical care available for at least 50 million people in most underserved communities across the world.
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