Global Surgery Foundation Releases 2025 Annual Report: A Turning Point for Health Equity
The Global Surgery Foundation’s 2025 Annual Report marks a decisive turning point for global health. Discover how increased catalytic financing and award-winning training are building local leadership capacity to bring safe, sustainable surgical care to everyone, everywhere.
Transforming global health equity: The GSF 2025 Annual Report highlights how frontline surgical teams are leading the charge to build self-sustaining health systems across the globe.
Geneva, Switzerland — The Global Surgery Foundation (GSF) has officially released its 2025 Annual Report, highlighting a year of significant programmatic growth, expanded educational reach, and a continued commitment to strengthening health systems worldwide. As traditional funding models face new challenges, 2025 marked a clear turning point where surgical care increasingly emerged as a cornerstone of sustainable, locally-led health equity.
Driven by the expansion of its flagship initiatives, SURGfund and SURGhub, the GSF reached a population of nearly 25 million people in 2025. By strengthening 23 healthcare facilities and delivering improved surgical care to over 116,000 patients, the organization continues to translate the goal of health equity into measurable progress.
The GSF 2025 Annual Report highlights a record-breaking year of impact in surgical care.
A Year of Gratitude and Optimism
In a joint message, Executive Director Dr. Geoff Ibbotson and Board President Prof. Rifat Atun reflected on the year’s achievements amidst a challenging global landscape.
“Despite the serious financial setbacks faced by the global health sector, the GSF has been blessed with continued growth,” they shared. “Instead of pulling back in 2025, we scaled up. We drove the biggest expansion of SURGfund since its launch in 2023, translating our funding model into tangible, life-changing impact for people on the ground.”
“We drove the biggest expansion of SURGfund since its launch in 2023”
A healthcare worker at a project site in Nakuru, Kenya, with a newborn following a safe birth. Photo by Frank Kimaro/Jhpiego
Key Highlights from 2025
The 2025 report details the organization's progress in bridging the surgical care gap:
Transforming Patient Care: Reached 116,046 patients with improved surgical care across eight active projects.
Award-Winning Training: SURGhub earned the Gold Title for the World's Best E-Learning Project at the 2025 QS Reimagine Education Awards. The platform reached 32,905 healthcare workers across 202 countries and territories, issuing over 15,000 certificates since launch in 2023.
Strengthening Maternal Health: Scaled up Women's Health programming to advance safe Caesarean sections, supporting 22,000 safer births in Nakuru, Kenya, over 13,000 safer births in Koshi, Nepal, and 30,000 safer births in Kano, Nigeria.
Catalytic Financing: Secured new funding commitments for SURGfund at the 78th World Health Assembly from a growing coalition of partners.
A historic milestone at WHA78: A strong coalition of partners announced new funding commitments to SURGfund, fueling our largest program expansion to date.
Build Strong Surgical Care Systems With Us
The momentum of 2025 has proven that when we mobilize expertise, accompany local leaders, and deploy catalytic financing, we can transform fragmented systems into sustainable, lifesaving care. But millions are still waiting. Help us bring scalable solutions to the frontline.
Here is how you can get involved:
Invest in Impact: Support SURGfund to provide the catalytic financing needed to build self-sustaining surgical systems where they are needed most. Contact us at info@globalsurgeryfoundation.org to start.
Become a Partner: Collaborate with us to implement and scale evidence-based solutions on the ground. Explore Partnerships here.
Join the Community: Help us reach 100,000 healthcare workers by the end of 2026. Join SURGhub to share your expertise or access critical training for frontline healthcare workers. Access SURGhub here.
You don’t have to be a global organization to make a global impact. Support our work with a tax-deductible personal donation today.
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