World Cancer Congress Special Working Meeting on HPV Vaccination Report

Since the start of the pandemic and the launch of the Global Strategy, opportunities for collaborative in-person discussion have been limited in global health communities, and the cervical cancer community has been no exception. With international travel now permitted for many of our network, the CCAE co-chairs were delighted to host a working meeting, with support from UICC, at the 2022 World Cancer Congress in Geneva, thereby providing that opportunity for partners and advocates to unite.

“We must seize this opportunity. The WHO strategy was agreed upon, in no small part, due to the collective efforts of civil society. We will need a similar concerted and collective effort to turn the strategy into reality.”

Meeting Participant

The meeting was focused on identifying the key advocacy priorities for attaining global equitable access to HPV vaccination. The CCAE co-chairs came away from the discussion with a wealth of

 ideas and insight on unified approaches to HPV vaccination advocacy, and this has been worked up into the World Cancer Congress Special Working Meeting on HPV Vaccination Report. 

There was another clear takeaway from bringing civil society organizations and advocates together in this way; in order to achieve equitable access to the HPV vaccine for all adolescent girls, we must continue to collaborate on collective action. By unifying the voices of the community, we can work with policymakers and influential populations more efficiently and effectively, to ensure that girls everywhere are protected against cervical cancer.   

CCAE will be moving forward using insights gained from the report to build out a collaboration-focused strategy for 2023/24.