On behalf of the organising committee, it gives me great pleasure to invite you to Cape Town, South Africa, for the 3rd International Congress in Innovations for Global Surgery, from the 5^th to the 7^th of May 2024. This is a truly international congress, which aims to address the unmet need for surgery, obstetrics and anaesthesia care in low- and middle-income settings. Our theme this year is ‘Value-based innovation in Global Surgery’.

Global Surgery, as an emerging discipline in Medicine, aims to address the unmet need for surgical care. According to the Global Surgery Lancet Commission published in 2016, approximately 5 billion people do not have safe and timely surgery. To meet the unmet need and to improve surgical care and outcome’s we need innovative solutions and affordable innovations, that will benefit the communities and populations with the highest unmet need.

We plan to share and showcase innovations in Global Surgery, advances, and best practice. We have a variety of themes including access to surgical care, improving the quality of surgical care, technology and infrastructure, and systems thinking. We look forward to hosting, surgeons, anaesthetists, engineers, obstetricians and gynaecologists, emergency physicians, medical students and registrars and invite you to join us.

The congress is organised by the Innovations in Global Surgery and the University of Cape Town, in partnership with the International Association of Students Surgical Societies (IASSS) and Stellenbosch University.

We invite you to Cape Town, voted one the most beautiful cities in the world, with the majestic Table Mountain backdrop, and pristine white beaches. We look forward to hosting you as the University of Cape Town’s Global Surgery Division, leading in Global Surgery education. We hope you will have the opportunity to visit many of our landmark and heritage sights across the beautiful city of Cape Town.

Professor Salome Maswime,
Chair of the organising committee