Collaborating authors of the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery and their contributions are detailed in full in the appendix (pp 2–11). We declare no competing interests. The FALCON trial was funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Global Health Research Unit Grant (NIHR 16.136.79). Corresponding author James Glasbey is supported by a doctoral research fellowship from the NIHR Academy (NIHR300175). The funder and sponsor had no role in study design or writing of this report. The funder has approved the submission of this report for publication. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the UK National Health Service, the NIHR, or the UK Department of Health and Social Care. Anonymised data are available upon request of the FALCON Trial Management Group, and successful completion of a Data Sharing Agreement. Ethics approval for the FALCON trial was obtained from the University of Birmingham International Ethics Committee (reference: ERN_18-0230A). All individual participating countries obtained local or national ethics approval for FALCON in accordance with local requirements. Written or fingerprint informed consent to participate was obtained from all participants.