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Safe, timely, 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.

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Safe, timely, and appropriate caesarean section SAVES LIVES, preventing 100,000 maternal deaths (over 30%) and reducing newborn deaths by 30-70% annually.

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Maternal Health

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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.

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Breast Cancer

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Early stage surgical care for cervical cancer SAVES LIVES, addressing a gap that kills 1 woman every 2 minutes globally.

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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.

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Our targets

Maternal Health

>30%

reduction in
institutional maternal deaths

Breast Cancer

80%

of women
undergo multimodality treatment
without abandonment

Cervical Cancer

90%

of women
identified with cervical cancer disease receive treatment and care

Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
Quotation marks

Women are dying due to insufficient access to surgical care. We can and must change this.

Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

GSF Board Member | Former UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women | Former Deputy-President of South Africa

Our approach

Catalysing meaningful impact for women and communities.

We focus on locally led, locally driven programs that address local priorities and gender equality.

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We prioritise a comprehensive approach:

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Partnerships

Workforce capacity development

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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:

Our projects

Explore how our locally led, locally driven, women-centered projects are improving the health and well-being of women.

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Breast Cancer Programme at the GSF

Our breast cancer programme is focused on addressing diagnostic and treatment delays for breast cancer and barriers to access for patients. We address these and other barriers, aligned with WHO’s Global Breast Cancer Initiative Implementation Framework.

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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.

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A woman holding a young child, both with medium-dark skin, in front of a wooden wall. The woman is wearing a red patterned headscarf and a pink tank top. The child is wearing a pink hoodie and a white hat. Overlaid on the image is a red text box with white text that reads 'Safe Caesearean Section (CS) in Nigeria'.
A smiling woman wearing a pink beanie holding a sleeping baby wrapped in a blanket, standing at a doorway in Kenya, with text overlay 'Obstetric Safe Surgery (OSS) in Kenya'.

Safe CS in Kano, Nigeria

This project aims to improve maternal and perinatal outcomes through safe, timely, appropriate, and respectful CS care for over 27,000 women giving birth each year in Kano, Nigeria.

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A young woman in traditional Rwandan clothing, wearing a bright pink headscarf and orange dress, outdoors with greenery in the background, smiling slightly. Text overlay reads 'Strengthening Surgery for Breast Cancer in Rwanda'.

Strengthening Access to Breast Cancer Surgery in Rwanda

This project will aim to improve outcomes for women with breast cancer in Rwanda through a robust programme to improve training, patient navigation, and data systems.

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Obstetric Safe Surgery (OSS) in Nakuru County, Kenya

This SURGfund-supported project aims to improve maternal and perinatal outcomes through safe, timely, appropriate, and respectful caesarean section (CS) care for over 25,000 women giving birth each year across five facilities in Nakuru County, Kenya.

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Optimising Safe Surgical Care in Nepal’s Koshi Province (Nepal OSSC)

This project aims to greatly reduce the number of mothers and newborns who die or suffer complications linked to caesarean section in Koshi Province.

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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.

Our Women’s Health team

Working to make surgical care available to all women.

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Prof. Hadiza Galadanci

GSF Advisor, Women’s Health

Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Bayero University Kano

Dr. Anmol Patted

Academic Fellow

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Ms. Nefti Bempong-Ahun

Project Manager

Dr. Sara
Nasser

GSF Advisor, Women’s Health

Charite Comprehensive Cancer Center

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Ms. Yuval Cohen

Project Associate

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 

News and updates

Latest updates from our women’s health programme.

Videos

Watch videos from our women’s health programme.

Publications

Read publications related to our work in women’s health.

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.