Governments, donors, multilateral institutions, and partners have announced major new policy, programmatic and financial commitments, including nearly $600 million in new funding, to eliminate cervical cancer. If these ambitions to expand vaccine coverage and strengthen screening and treatment programmes are fully realised, the world could eliminate a cancer for the first time.

These commitments were made at the first-ever Global Cervical Cancer Elimination Forum: Advancing the Call to Action in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, to catalyse national and global momentum to end this preventable disease.

The commitments announced at the forum mark a watershed moment to accelerate progress on a promise made in 2020, when 194 countries adopted WHO’s global strategy to eliminate cervical cancer.

Nearly $600 million in new funding includes $180 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, $10 million from UNICEF, and $400 million from the World Bank. 

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide, and continues to disproportionately impact women and their families in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).