We celebrate World Health Day on April 7th, 2023, and I thought it is a good time to reflect on what “Health for All” means on the African continent.  In 2015 and 2017, the World Health Assembly (WHA) passed Resolution 68.15, and decision 70(22) respectively. Resolutions which recognised surgical and anaesthesia care as essential for universal health coverage and required the director-general to report on the progress of its implementation.  While much progress has been made to document and elevate the status of surgical and anaesthesia care internationally, things have unfortunately not progressed equally on the African continent. Life-transforming surgery has a massive impact, not just on the patient, but on their caregivers, direct family, their community, and beyond.   It is now more important than ever to ask, how we can we improve this? How do we do this better?  

WASHINGTON DC, USA December 15, 2022 – A Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Don Stephens, founder of Mercy Ships this past weekend at the opening event of the GE7 Africa Visionary Leaders Annual Summit, held in Washington DC.  This award was presented by H.E. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of International Cooperation of Government of Egypt.

DAKAR, Senegal, May 31, 2022/APO Group/ H.E. President of Senegal Macky Sall has inaugurated the world’s largest purpose-built hospital ship and committed to accelerate access to surgical, obstetric, and anesthetic care for the nations of Africa.  Ceremonies commemorated more than 30 years of service in Africa.  International humanitarian organization Mercy Ships and its partners in Africa used the opportunity to come together in an unprecedented and strategic effort to improve access to safer surgery across the continent through a series of milestone events.