Key Messages from the Inaugural Pan-African Surgical Conference 2025: Promoting Resilient and Sustainable Surgical Workforce Scale-up in Africa

Abstract

Background

Since 2015, surgery has gained recognition in broader global health agendas, yet the delivery of care across Africa remains below international targets. The Pan-African Surgical Conference (PASC) 2025 was formed to engage multidisciplinary experts in dialogue to troubleshoot challenges with critical surgical workforce expansion. This report summarizes key themes and recommendations from the meeting.

Methods

The 5-day program was developed by an international steering group and included 5 domains: surgical education, innovation, balanced surgical ecosystems, research, and policy and advocacy. Audio recordings underwent thematic analysis to identify recurring concepts and develop a list of recommendations, enhancing the session transcripts.

Results

More than 550 delegates from 36 countries (23 in Africa) attended the meeting. Hands-on training was provided to 204 participants through preconference workshops, including microsurgery stimulation, life support certification, pain management, nontechnical skills, and global surgery advocacy. Fifty-nine oral abstracts and 54 posters were presented in the scientific program. Most submissions (78.9%) were led by African investigators. The following 6 recommendations emerged from the meeting dialogue: (1) strengthen a pan-African network of surgical providers, policy experts, and researchers; (2) expand intracontinental leadership and training pathways; (3) promote policy reforms that increase workforce capacity and equitable access to surgical care; (4) expand research capacity to enhance contextually relevant research led by African investigators; (5) embrace innovation and technological advancements to enhance efficiency; and (6) prioritize investment into locally driven and sustainable solutions.

Conclusions

PASC 2025 effectively engaged regional leaders in clinical care, education, research, and policy from across sub-Saharan Africa to produce recommendations for scaling up the surgical workforce that are grounded in contextual experience and evidence.