Assessment of surgical, anesthesia, and obstetric workforce in Somalia.

Background: One of the core indicators recommended by the Lancet Commission is surgical workforce density, aiming to improve the number of surgery, anesthetists, and obstetric (SAO) providers to 20 per 100,000 population by 2030. We assessed SAO workforce capacity in Somalia and made recommendations for improvement.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a structured questionnaire from the WHO Program for Global Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC) Surgical Assessment Tool.