Addressing the burden of women’s cancers

UICC remains committed to supporting and working with its community to specifically address the burden of breast and cervical cancer globally and supporting WHO’s related initiatives.

In its second year, UICC’s Breast Cancer Programme, focused on growing the influence and impact of the community. In total, 489 individuals from 304 organisations in 95 countries were engaged and supported through the Breast Cancer Programme in 2022.

The programme’s activities in 2022 included a strong focus on early detection, in support of the first two pillars of WHO’s Global Breast Cancer Initiative. Key highlights included the selection and awarding of 15 grants of USD 20,000 each to support national projects focused on improving early detection of breast cancer and increasing knowledge and understanding of the topic through a joint workshop with WHO on ‘Advancing the early detection of breast cancer in lowresource settings’ at the World Cancer Congress, with 62 participants from 37 countries attending.

UICC also engaged with the breast cancer community during Pink October through advocacy messages and dedicated communication materials, as well as the Master course ‘Good practices for planning and implementing breast cancer projects’.

“Attending the Breast Cancer Workshop was a truly beneficial experience. What I found most valuable was learning about the evidence for the use of clinical breast examination as a screening method, and knowing that there is real value in developing and sustaining its use in our resource-limited settings.”

“Participating in the World Cancer Congress is a life-changing experience. Sharing knowledge with people from different countries, cultures, medical specialists, technology engineers, princesses, activists, cancer survivors all focused on working to eliminate cancer and putting their voice and work together for a cause. I'm returning to Guatemala with a commitment to include breast cancer within the healthcare services provided by the Ministry of Health.”

Addressing the burden

of women’s cancers

Continued commitment to cervical cancer elimination

UICC is working across multiple platforms, learning opportunities and programmes to support the cancer community in advancing progress towards cervical cancer elimination. On 17 November, the anniversary of the launch of the WHO Global Strategy, UICC launched a self-guided online course, ‘Advocacy for cervical cancer elimination’, and a related handbook, to help civil society organisations in developing national advocacy efforts on cervical cancer. Both the Master course and the handbook were made available in English, French and Spanish.

In 2022 UICC also commissioned and released four country-level profiles on financing for cervical cancer elimination, developed by Thinkwell, to inform civil society’s advocacy efforts and the need to address this critical factor in our collective efforts to achieve cervical cancer elimination.

Many of these activities were made possible through the Unitaid-funded ‘Scale-Up Cervical Cancer Elimination through Secondary prevention Strategy’ (SUCCESS) project, led by Expertise France and delivered in partnership with Jhpiego and UICC. The SUCCESS project also enabled UICC to provide grants to support the implementation of advocacy strategies at the national level within the four project countries: Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guatemala and the Philippines.

During the World Health Assembly in May 2022, UICC hosted a bilingual workshop in partnership with the French National Cancer Institute on integrated and partnership approaches for women's cancers in Francophone Africa. A total of 102 participants, including representatives of international organisations, NGOs, Ministries of Health and civil society, took part in the hybrid workshop.

UICC hosted two in-person Regional Dialogues with local members, in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, in July and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in November. The two events brought together approximately 60 participants from 12 countries in each region, including Ministry of Health representatives, civil society, health organisations, technical partners and private sector. These Regional Dialogues are designed to foster regional collaborations around specific themes and support knowledge and experience sharing, including from the SUCCESS project and the Breast Cancer Programme. UICC plans to host further workshops in other regions in the future.