Ms. Stella Itungu

Chair of the High-Level Council

The Chief Executive Officer of the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA)

Ms. Stella Itungu serves as Chair of the Global Surgery Foundation’s High-Level Council and as Chief Executive Officer of the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA). She provides strategic leadership and oversight of the Secretariat, the College’s Surgical Training Programme across 24 countries, and other regional surgical capacity-development initiatives involving a wide range of collaboration partners. She also supports the effective functioning of the College’s Executive and Council organs and provides strategic direction on institutional development, governance, partnerships and operations.

With more than 20 years of progressive leadership experience, Ms. Itungu has worked across international, intergovernmental, donor-funded and private-sector organisations. Her expertise includes organisational transformation, institutional development, governance, strategic human resource management and operational excellence, as well as executive oversight of complex, multi-country and multi-stakeholder programmes.

Before joining COSECSA, Ms. Itungu worked for ten years as an Individual Consultant with the World Bank and the East African Community (EAC), a Regional Economic Community. She coordinated and facilitated implementation of the USD 26 million World Bank–EAC Financial Sector Development and Regionalization Project across Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. In this role, she supported implementation of EAC Heads of State Directives and policy decisions under the Monetary Union and Common Market Protocols and served as a focal person for financial-sector stakeholders across the region.

Ms. Itungu also worked with the African Development Bank team to appraise, develop and establish the USD 23 million EAC Payment Systems Settlement and Integration Project, in addition to implementing USAID and World Bank capacity-building programmes in East African countries. Earlier in her career, she served as Director of Operations and Programmes for a public-private partnership under a Global Fund pilot project focused on malaria, working in collaboration with Uganda’s Ministry of Health and Malaria Consortium.

Ms. Itungu is an Honorary Member of Women in Surgery Africa and serves on the Board of Directors of the AO Alliance in Switzerland. In 2024, she received a Leadership Award in recognition of her contribution to institutional growth, governance excellence and organisational transformation.

She holds an MSc in Finance and Investment from Coventry University in the United Kingdom and a First-Class Honours degree in Public Administration. She also holds PRINCE2 certification and has undertaken training in governance and leadership, international policy and development.