RCSI today conferred President of the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) Dr Abednego Kinasha, a Fellow by Special Election.

An amendment to the RCSI Charter, which came into effect in October 2004, allows the College to confer this honour on surgeons of distinction whose professional status is of a high order and who are deemed to have rendered special service to surgery in general or to the College in particular.

Dr Abednego Kinasha graduated in 1977 with a MBChB (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. After three years of general clinical experience in a district hospital in Tanzania he entered basic surgical training which lead to specialisation in general surgery. He then decided to specialise in neurosurgery and after training in Singapore and Munich he was appointed Consultant Neurosurgeon and Medical Director in the Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He became President of COSECSA in December 2007 and will serve in this position until December 2009.

In 2007, RCSI signed a Memorandum of Understanding with COSECSA committing assistance with surgical training in Africa. Funding was granted for the initiative by Irish Aid in January this year. This programme, which is the first of its kind to be carried out in Africa, aims to enhance the quality of surgical care in the Sub-Saharan region by improving the quality and accessibility of surgical education and training. This will be achieved through the implementation of a unique surgical education and training programme. The existing RCSI curriculum and tools that are used to deliver postgraduate surgery in Ireland will be customised to meet regional needs.