Naol Belema Gemechu, MD, MSc

Secretariat Coordinator, Pan-African Surgical Healthcare Forum 

Naol Belema Gemechu is a medical doctor and global surgery policy practitioner whose work spans clinical care, national policy development, and continental convening. 

He earned his medical degree from Addis Ababa University and served as a clinician at ALERT Referral Hospital in the Department of General Surgery and the inpatient department. Alongside his work in the operating theatre and surgical wards, he partnered with hospital administration to improve surgical patient flow, reduce case backlog, and strengthen the management of surgical patients — early exposure to the systems questions that now shape his policy work. 

He subsequently completed a Master of Science in Global Health Delivery, Global Surgery track, at the University of Global Health Equity, and has since worked across the global surgery space in policy, advocacy, and research. His research focuses on surgical education, academic partnerships, and Surgical healthcare policy. He has served as a research consultant on several studies examining the diagnosis, characterization, and treatment of breast cancer in Rwanda, including a national General Surgeon Survey designed to map the treatment landscape for breast cancer patients across the country. 

His policy work centers on National Surgical, Obstetric, and Anesthesia Plans. Through PASHeF, he has served as a consultant to Member States across successive stages of policy development, including situation analysis, stakeholder engagement, policy analysis, planning, and monitoring and evaluation. 

Dr Naol has served as Secretariat Coordinator of PASHeF for over a year. In this role he coordinates PASHeF's programes, including the Policy to Practice Fellowship, the work of the PASHeF subcommittees, the continental convening, Member State technical support, and partnership coordination. He serves as Editor of the PASHeF Communiqué, the Forum's newsletter, which documents Member State progress on national surgical planning and developments across the continental surgical healthcare community. He is also a member of the Academic Partnership Program Initiative (APPI) subcommittee of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health.