Johnson & Johnson Foundation and the Global Surgery Foundation Deepen Their Work, Partnering to Scale Surgical Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
A renewed $1 million commitment to SURGfund, announced at WHA79, will train surgical healthcare workers and improve care for patients at 31 facilities. As an anchor contribution it also strengthens the case for further investment into the collaborative funding mechanism.
Aleksandra Krygiel-Nael, Head of Government Affairs and Policy EMEA at J&J MedTech, second from left, announces the renewed commitment to SURGfund at WHA79.
At the 79th World Health Assembly (WHA79), the Johnson & Johnson Foundation announced a renewed $1 million contribution to SURGfund, the world's first and only pooled financing mechanism for surgical care systems, operated by the Global Surgery Foundation (GSF). The announcement was made at the GSF's WHA79 side-event, What's Next for Philanthropy: Investing in Local Leaders for Impact, held on 18 May 2026 at the Hôtel InterContinental Geneva.
The renewed commitment builds on the Johnson & Johnson Foundation’s inaugural contribution in 2025 and reflects a deepening, multi-year partnership between the Johnson & Johnson Foundation and the GSF - one anchored in shared priorities: strengthening health systems, equipping frontline health workers, and closing the gap between underserved communities and the specialized surgical care they need.
A Shared Vision for Building a Strong Surgical Healthcare Workforce
Surgical care remains one of the most underfunded and overlooked areas of global health, with an estimated 17 million people dying each year due to lack of safe surgical care. Similarily, women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are up to 100 times more likely to die from a caesarean section than women in high-income countries because of the lack of safe surgical care systems.
This partnership directly addresses that gap. The Johnson & Johnson Foundation brings decades of experience in surgical innovation and access programs. Through the Johnson & Johnson CareCommunity, its global social impact platform, the company and its Foundation have committed $20 million in 2026 to empower health workers to deliver cardiac, vision, and surgical care in the communities where they are needed most. SURGfund provides the catalytic financing vehicle to translate that commitment into lasting system-level change.
“We had the honour of giving our first contribution to SURGfund last year, and the impact and growth we have observed since has been amazing. ”
SURGfund: A Proven Catalytic Model Delivering at Scale
SURGfund mobilises world-class clinical, policy, and funding expertise on a UN-incubated, neutral platform to support locally led surgical system strengthening. It pools resources to eliminate fragmentation and channel investment into country-driven priorities - and when results are demonstrated, that evidence becomes the basis for government investment, converting donor-backed pilots into permanent budget lines.
The impact results from the 2025 expansion - supported by the Johnson & Johnson Foundation's inaugural contribution at WHA78 - are now in, estimated to achieve by end of 2026:
2,332 health workers and leaders receiving intensive, multi-year training and mentorship through GSF’s signature programmes
294,767 patients, primarily mothers and newborns, benefiting from improved surgical care, extending safe surgical care access to a population of more than 26 million across eight active projects
31 healthcare facilities strengthened across Kenya, Nigeria, Nepal, and beyond
All these numbers translate into systemic impact, resulting in health outcomes, such as a 75% decrease in newborn mortality in Kenya.
The renewed Johnson & Johnson Foundation’s commitment will allow GSF to expand operations further - doubling the facilities reached in Kenya, scaling up in Nigeria and Nepal, and strengthening the health workforce infrastructure that makes surgical care sustainable long after external support ends. All three signature healthcare workforce capacity-building programmes - in Kenya, Nepal, and Nigeria - will grow further in 2026 and are positioned for additional scale-up in 2027 and beyond.
SURGfund supported programmes are already achieving groundbreaking health outcomes, such as 75% decrease in newborn mortality in Kenya. Photo: Jhpiego Kenya
Aligned Priorities: Health Workforce, Health Equity, Local Leadership
This partnership reflects a precise alignment of strategic priorities between the two organisations. The Johnson & Johnson Foundation's global health equity strategy centres on closing the gap between communities and care - by championing nurses and frontline health workers, expanding access to specialized surgical care, and building resilient health systems.
GSF's model complements this directly. By embedding clinical and workforce capacity development within every SURGfund project - working alongside local leaders from inception through co-implementation - GSF builds the durable frontline capacity that the Johnson & Johnson Foundation’s broader health worker investment aims to create. These programmes are supported by SURGhub, the UN Global Surgery Learning Hub, that serves as the digital backbone for surgical training worldwide. SURGhub has recently surpassed 65,000 learners - including 19,000 nurses and midwives, its largest professional group. Over 316,000 hours of training delivered with course completion rate far above the industry average for online learning, and nine in ten learners reporting they intend to apply the acquired skills – SURGhub is radically accelerating the transfer of best knowledge into clinical practice.
Together, the Johnson & Johnson Foundation and GSF are investing in a model where the health workforce is equipped, communities are served, and local leaders hold the keys to sustainable change.
“Instead of pulling back in 2025, we scaled up. We drove the biggest expansion of SURGfund since its launch in 2023.”
A Growing Coalition Around an Innovative Model for Philanthropy
The Johnson & Johnson Foundation's renewed commitment was announced alongside other major new contributions to SURGfund at WHA79, including a first-time contribution of $250,000 from the GE HealthCare Foundation, $1.1 million from a private philanthropic organisation, and $250,000 from the Mangino Family Fund - the largest single wave of new commitments to surgical care through SURGfund.
Together, the growing SURGfund coalition demonstrates that catalytic, locally led investment in surgical care is attracting the cross-sector support it deserves. WHA79 marks the moment this model moves from proof of concept to scale – a model that is genuinely collaborative, built around measurable outcomes. It moves quickly enough to respond to country needs, is anchored in local leadership rather than external prescription, and converts demonstration results into government budget lines – multiplying the original investment well beyond what any single funder could achieve independently.
Both organisations invite governments, multilateral institutions, foundations, and the private sector to explore what their contribution could mean inside a coalition that is already delivering.
About Johnson & Johnson Foundation
The Johnson & Johnson Foundation is a registered charitable organization that reflects the commitment of Johnson & Johnson to create a world without health inequities by closing the gaps between communities and the care they need. Funded solely by Johnson & Johnson, the Foundation supports both global and in-country partnerships and community-led initiatives to champion health workers, especially nurses and community health workers, and advance access to quality healthcare. Learn more at www.jnjfoundation.com.
About the Global Surgery Foundation
The Global Surgery Foundation (GSF) is the lead global platform for surgical care systems strengthening. Operating on a UN-incubated, neutral platform, GSF mobilises world-class clinical, policy, and funding expertise to support local leaders in building surgical systems that are efficient, resilient, and sustainable. Through SURGfund — the world's first and only pooled financing mechanism for surgical care — and SURGhub — the UN Global Surgery Learning Hub — GSF is translating catalytic investment into measurable, lifesaving impact across low- and middle-income countries.
www.globalsurgeryfoundation.org
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