Background The purpose of this study was to summarise the current state of healthcare quality improvement literature focusing on sub-Saharan Africa.

Methods Conventional methods of searching the literature were quickly found to be inadequate or inappropriate, given the different needs of practitioners in sub-Saharan Africa, and the inaccessibility of the literature.

Results The group derived a core list of what were deemed exemplary quality improvement articles, based on consensus and a search into the “grey” literature of quality improvement.

Conclusions Quality improvment articles from sub-Saharan Africa are difficult to find, and suffer from a lack of centrality and organisation of literature. Efforts to address this are critical to fostering the growth of quality improvement literature in developing country settings.