Support letters

High-level support for The Global Surgery Foundation

The Global Surgery Foundation has received powerful statements of support from global health and development leaders. Visit our team and partnerships pages to learn more about who is involved in our work.

Dr. Tedros
Director-General
World Health Organization

Dear Mr Seth,

I am writing to express my support for the mission of the Global Surgery Foundation (GSF) and its goal of ensuring that surgical, obstetrical, and anaesthesia care becomes more accessible, safe, timely and affordable across the world.  

Strengthened surgical standards lead to better health in communities and will play an indispensable role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and universal health coverage (UHC), as highlighted in resolution WHA68.15 on “Strengthening emergency and essential surgical care and anaesthesia as a component of universal health coverage”. Nine of the thirteen targets of SDG3 can only be achieved if surgical care capacity is significantly increased, especially in the world’s least developed countries.  

Recent data show that approximately 30% of the world’s total burden of disease results from conditions that can be treated by surgery or require the intervention of a surgeon. Furthermore, the global burden of noncommunicable diseases and injury is increasing at an alarming rate, eclipsing communicable diseases. especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Appropriate surgical care is, therefore, a vital foundation of the strategy to address this new increasing need.  

Global statistics show that approximately five billion people do not have access to appropriate surgical care and if we focus solely on those people living under the poverty line. almost 90% of them do not have access to appropriate surgical services. It has been estimated that close to 17 million people die every year from surgically preventable causes, with the greatest burden of this seen in the most vulnerable countries. Without upscaling safe and affordable surgical care, especially in LMICs, the world will be hard pressed to achieve UHC or many of the SDGs.  

In light of this, and as the patterns of disease burdens shift, and surgically treatable conditions place an increasing burden on the world’s poor, there is a clear need for a coordinated integrated effort to meet the largely unmet surgical needs all over the world. This effort will require world class research to examine sustainable and affordable solutions to meet the need for global surgery, including innovative funding mechanisms that can assist countries in building their surgical capacity in a self-reliant manner.  

Therefore, I welcome the creation of the Global Surgery Foundation and would be interested in exploring further potential for collaboration between WHO and the GSF. Iam pleased to note that the GSF aims to provide an inclusive platform that will bring together world leaders in surgical care, UN Member States, the private sector and civil society to facilitate worldwide efforts to build greater capacity in global surgery, including through training and increased funding.  

Yours sincerely,  

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Director-General, WHO

Mr. Nikhil Seth
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General

Dear Dr. Ibbotson, 

I am writing to state UNITAR's commitment towards the proposed Global Surgery Foundation (GSF) and its goal to ensure that surgical, obstetrical, and anaesthesia care is accessible, safe, timely, and affordable. 

Allow me to take this opportunity to thank you for the important role you are playing as UNITAR's Senior Advisor on Health and Development. Your inputs and guidance greatly aid our Institute in pursuing its goal to strengthen national and local capacity to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being at all ages. Particularly, we thank you for the help you are giving us to design our new Programme on Health and Development and its training platforms.

Surgical, obstetrical and anaesthesia care needs to be strengthened in the developing world and must be given priority in global health efforts as they play an indispensable role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Universal Health Coverage (UHC). We believe there is an urgent need to build capacity to improve surgical care systems globally and we welcome GSF's commitment to increase surgical capacity in those countries which need the most assistance. More specifically, we appreciate that GSF will work alongside national Ministry of Health stakeholders from low and middleincome countries (LMIC) to develop National Surgical, Obstetrical and Anaesthesia Programs (NSOAPs) and to support their implementation.

In addition, we agree with your vision that UHC and other important health related objectives outlined in the SDGs are not achievable without ensuring that surgical, obstetrical and anaesthesia care is accessible, safe, timely and affordable. UNITAR is glad to work with GSF on this important and timely issue and will remain committed to support capacity building in this realm, by developing and publishing learning materials, implementing training activities, facilitating partnerships, and increasing awareness and outreach.

With kind regards,

Mr. Nikhil Seth
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General
UNITAR Executive Director   

John G. Meara
Director, Program in Global Surgery and Social Change
Harvard Medical School

Dear Dr. Geoff Ibbotson, 

I am writing as the director of the Program in Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC) at Harvard Medical School to offer my strongest support for the proposed Global Surgery Foundation (GSF) and its goal to ensure universal access to safe, timely, and affordable surgical, anesthesia, and obstetrics care.

At the PGSSC, we recognize the invaluable role of scaling up surgical, anesthesia, and obstetrics care in low-and middle-income countries around the world in support of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Nine of the thirteen targets of SDG 3 cannot be realized without improving access to surgical services. It is therefore vital that action and attention are directed towards investment in surgery and supporting research, collaborative policy development, and evidence-based advocacy to increase surgical capacity globally. We embrace GSF’s commitment to these aims and specifically, their focus on working alongside Ministries of Health and local stakeholders to develop and implement national surgical, anesthesia, and obstetrics plans (NSOAPs) that are fully embedded into a country’s national health strategic plan.

In the past week, the PGSSC, with support from the World Health Organization and the Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery – Dubai, convened 77 participants from over 30 countries in Dubai, UAE for a National Surgical, Obstetrics, and Anesthesia Planning Conference to recognize the indispensable role of surgical care and anesthesia in achieving UHC. This conference brought together funding agencies, WHO regional officers, high-level authorities from organizations such as the World Bank, and Ministry of Health officials to promote global and regional collaboration, and discuss the role of each in supporting country-led plans for the scaling up of surgical, anesthesia, and obstetrics care as part of health system strengthening.

Powerful support for this issue was provided at the start of the conference with remarks from Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO. In his opening commentary, Dr. Tedros highlighted surgical, anesthesia, and obstetrics care as an essential part of health systems, emphasized the urgent need for investment in surgery to achieve UHC and SDG targets, and clearly set surgery as a WHO priority. The PGSSC stands firmly behind this vision and is pleased to work alongside committed partners, like WHO and GSF.

I fully support the concept of the Global Surgery Foundation as it serves as a common platform for multiple stakeholder groups, including academic leaders, UN member states, the private sector and civil society as they continue their efforts to research and develop national surgical, anesthesia, and obstetrics plans, in addition to looking at innovative funding mechanisms to implement those plans.

Sincerely,

John G. Meara, MD, DMD, MBA
Kletjian Professor of Global Surgery
Director, Program in Global Surgery and Social Change
Harvard Medical School