WHO Global Breast Cancer Initiative: Second informal partners' forum

Background

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in most countries affecting 2.3 million women with an estimated 666 103 deaths every year. The disease burden is projected to increase to 3.19 million cases by 2040 with a greater relative impact on countries with weak health systems which often grapple with double or triple disease burdens. Of the one million children who became maternal orphans due to cancer in 2020, a quarter of these (250 000) were due to breast cancer.

On 21 March 2024, the WHO Global Breast Cancer Initiative (GBCI) convened its inaugural informal partners' forum, a meeting that provided an avenue to raise awareness of the GBCI, share its strategic direction with a call to action to strengthen partnerships for its implementation. The need for ownership, accountability and communication was highlighted towards a joint coordinated operational approach. Building on this, as well as subsequent bilateral partner engagements where through strategic consultations, partner mapping, and analysis was conducted, a second partners forum is now planned to deliberate and align on the next steps to advance the GBCI.

Objectives

This forum will provide an opportunity to communicate and take stock of progress made since the inaugural forum in March and present key milestones achieved in 2024. It is intended to stimulate ownership by partners in implementing GBCI and establishment of mutual collaborations especially in areas where there are persistent gaps. The specific objectives are to:

1. Provide a forum for sharing the findings of the bilateral partner engagements, informal dialogue, KAP platform and identified needs, gaps, challenges and opportunities for the prevention and control of breast cancer.
2. Establish and build consensus on effective priority interventions and activities required, mutually agree on clear targets and action based on the needs and gaps identified and define improvement entry points.
3. Discuss how to leverage the GBCI partnerships to inspire more ownership, and collective global action to accelerate national action as part of the broader NCD implementation roadmap.
4. Provide an opportunity to share learnings across the workstreams, brainstorm and chart a joint way forward for strengthening mutual collaboration, coordination and alignment in implementation.

Format, date and time

A virtual meeting, 5 December 2024, 14:00–16:00 (CET)

Audience members will be able to participate and can ask questions through the Q&A session.

The meeting will be conducted in English. Invitation is invite only.