Women’s Health Programme
Safe, timely, quality, respectful surgical care for all women who need it.
The GSF Women’s Health Programme prioritises the following areas to address women’s surgical needs and to catalyse meaningful and sustained impact: Maternal Health, Cervical Cancer, and Breast Cancer.
Safe, timely, and appropriate caesarean section SAVES LIVES, preventing 100,000 maternal deaths (over 30%) and reducing newborn deaths by 30-70% annually.
Maternal Health
Timely, appropriate surgical care for breast cancer SAVES LIVES, addressing a gap in care for the most common cancer globally that kills 1 in 3 women diagnosed with it.
Breast Cancer
Early stage surgical care for cervical cancer SAVES LIVES, addressing a gap that kills 1 woman every 2 minutes globally.
Cervical Cancer
Our mission
To improve the health of women, families, and communities in low- and middle-income countries by accelerating access to innovative, practical, evidence-based, and sustainable safe surgery programs.
Our impact
5
Countries
1,818
Women reached
31
Partners engaged
Our approach
Catalysing meaningful impact for women and communities.
We focus on locally led, locally driven programs that address local priorities and gender equality.
We prioritise a comprehensive approach:
Partnerships
Workforce capacity development
Strengthening networks of care and referral systems
Integrating innovative approaches and digital tech to bridge gaps
Use of data for continuous learning, adapting, and generating evidence
Ensuring facility readiness
Our approach applies a scalable and sustainable model for improving women’s health:
IF WE strengthen capacity of health facilities and generate relevant data for continuous quality improvement.
THEN surgical teams will deliver safe, timely and appropriate surgical care.
RESULTING IN improved availability of safe, respectful surgical care for women’s health needs.
Our projects
How our locally led, locally driven, women-centered projects are improving the health and well-being of women.
Value-based healthcare: Shaping local healthcare for universal health coverage
This project aims to improve health outcomes for breast cancer patients in Rwanda and Türkiye.
C-Safe project
This project aims to develop, implement, and evaluate a multi-faceted interventional strategy targeting healthcare professionals, pregnant women, and health systems to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity following CS in LMICs.
Improved Access to Cancer Treatment for Women in Pakistan (ImpACT Pakistan)
This project aims at strengthening early detection and management of breast and cervical cancer at the District Headquarter Hospital Kotli in Pakistan.
Where we work
Our partners
We work with governments and our local and international partners to deliver locally led, locally driven projects in women’s health.
News and updates
Latest updates from our women’s health programme.
Our Women’s Health team
Working to make surgical care available to all women.
Ms. Nefti Bempong-Ahun
Project Manager
Ms. Yuval Cohen
Project Coordinator
Dr. Mélanie Samson
Senior Technical Officer
Dr. John Varallo
Team Lead
Dr. Rahel Nardos
GSF Advisor, Women’s Health
Director of Global Women’s Health at the Center for Global Health & Social Responsibility, University of Minnesota
Dr. Kusum Thapa
GSF Advisor, Women’s Health
Senior Technical Advisor Maternal and Newborn Health, Jhpiego
Dr. Anmol Patted
Academic Fellow
Videos
Watch videos from our women’s health programme.
Publications
Read publications related to our work in women’s health.
— Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, former Executive Director of UN Women, GSF Board Member
“Women are dying due to insufficient access to surgical care. We can and must change this."
We cannot do it alone!
Sign up with your email in the website footer below to receive updates. And get in touch with our women’s health team at m.samson@globalsurgeryfoundation.org.