28 April 2026

Introducing King’s Global Health Partnerships

King’s Global Health Partnerships (KGHP) works with health facilities, academic institutions, and governments to strengthen health systems and improve the quality of care in five African countries: Somaliland, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, and The Gambia.  

We are based in the School of Life Course and Population Health Sciences at King’s College London. We bring together expertise from across the university and the King’s Health Partners NHS Foundation Trusts, as well as our international partners to: 

  • Educate, train and support healthcare workers;
  • Strengthen healthcare and training institutions;
  • Enhance national health policies and systems.

KGHP connects UK and African health professionals, providing training, mentoring, and hands-on support; and undertakes collaborative research to inform policy and practice.

We also support our partners by providing access to funding, networks, and development opportunities. Through these long-term partnerships and our global volunteering scheme we promote skills and knowledge exchange. This mutual learning contributes to building a stronger health workforce and improved quality of healthcare, both internationally and in the UK.

What impact has KGHP had?

Over the past 25 years, KGHP has helped deliver impact across health workforce development, strengthened universities and hospitals, and supported governments in national level policy change to deliver quality healthcare.

Somaliland: We have been working with partners since 2000 with a particular focus on health professions education and policy. From 2023-2025 we supported Ministry to develop a National Quality Improvement Plan and assess the quality of care across national and regional hospitals.

Sierra Leone: Since 2012, we have worked with Ministry of Health, Connaught Hospital - the national adult referral and teaching hospital - and the College of Medicine & Allied Health Sciences. We have worked across a range of activities, including quality of pre-service training, emergency medicine & trauma, infectious diseases (Ebola response and outbreaks, malaria, sepsis, HIV, AMS), surgery, stroke, palliative care, mental health, oral health, general nursing practice, postgraduate medical & nurse training, health workforce planning and research, and hospital leadership & management.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Since 2013, we have been working in the western province of Kongo Central (population 6.5m), with a particular focus on trauma care, orthopaedics, and safe surgery. The main road from Kinshasa to the country’s port runs through the province, leading to a particularly high burden of road traffic accidents.

Zambia: Since 2010 we have worked in the Copperbelt Region of Northern Zambia through partnership primarily with Ndola Teaching Hospital and Arthur Davidson Children’s Hospital, as well as the University of the Copperbelt. Our work has focused on IPC, AMR, maternal health care (including referral from primary care), biomedical engineering, hospital management, health worker wellbeing, and breast cancer.

The Gambia: Since 2023, KGHP took over the coordination of an existing collaboration between senior paediatrics consultants at Evelina London Children’s Hospital and the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (the main government referral hospital in Banjul).

What are KGHP’s current priorities?

Building on these successful long-term partnerships we are currently focusing on the following priorities in each country:

Somaliland: We are working at Hargeisa Group Hospital, the national referral hospital, on a maternal health programme. We are in the early stages of a project to set up postgraduate medical education, starting with postgraduate training in orthopaedics and paediatric surgery. 

Democratic Republic of Congo: We are currently working to support a cohort of doctors to undertake orthopaedic surgery specialist training internationally (not available in DRC currently) and of nurses to do a new postgraduate diploma in surgical nursing (through a local university). This is to establish a foundation of specialists who can train future cohorts locally.

We are also implementing a ten-year strategy to transform fracture care, which includes renovation of operating theatres at hospitals across the province, clinical guideline development, training, and a trauma registry. Another focus is on reducing the high-levels of wound infection through implementation of a surgical site infection bundle of interventions.

Sierra Leone: We are currently doing a major strategic refresh of our work. There are significant opportunities to re-engage and scale up across the specialties. We are working with partners to revise strategies in trauma and orthopaedics, emergency and critical care, oral health, perioperative nursing, cancer and palliative care - as well as supporting their new surgical and anaesthesia postgraduate training programmes.

Zambia: We are also reviewing our Zambia partnership and are interested in hearing from colleagues with a particular interest in Zambia who would like to be part of this process. Our partners have been outspoken in their commitment to the partnership and requesting that we re-establish our work. We are planning a major strategic review in the coming months.

The Gambia: Our current work focuses on supporting the new paediatric postgraduate medical training programme, support for neonatal care nationally, paediatric surgery, and the development of a postgraduate diploma in neonatal & paediatric nursing.
Kenya. KGHP is supporting the coordination of an existing collaboration between vascular surgeons at our Guy's & St Thomas’ NHS FT and an emerging cohort of vascular surgeons in Kenya (who work particularly on complications from diabetes).

How can staff and students get involved or find out more?

We are always looking for expert volunteers from across King’s Health Partners to support our work. We are currently looking for colleagues to join our technical working groups, providing support to our partner countries in a range of areas including, orthopaedics and trauma care, paediatrics, emergency and critical care, vascular surgery, infectious diseases, palliative care, and mental health.

To learn more and view our existing opportunities to engage with KGHP, please visit our Global Volunteer website or contact kghp@kcl.ac.uk.