Unlocking Hope: Advancing Universal Health Coverage with a Focus on Breast Cancer Collaboration in Africa

I was pleased to join the Business Council for International Understanding #BCIU in partnership with Roche, as a roundtable participant in support of the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage on the margins of the Seventy-Eighth Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

“Women-Centered Care: Combating the Breast Cancer Burden in Africa (Investment in Noncommunicable diseases – Universal Health Coverage)”, featured 30 stakeholders from multilateral organisations, development groups, civil society, NGOs, and global governments, focused on how to further advance the Non-Communicable Diseases Presidential Group’s vision and how the resolutions made by Heads of State at the High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage can approach breast cancer initiatives as credible demonstrations of Noncommunicable diseases integration into Universal health coverage.

In discussions with Roche, International Finance Corporation and World Bank Group, we recognised our joint vision of expanding coverage and affordability of quality health services throughout Africa, with public-private partnerships and health financing strategies aimed at strengthening healthcare worker’s training and timely screening and care for breast cancer, combating the statistic that in Africa, 1 in 2 women die five years after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis.

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa is committed to driving the learnings highlighted in our 2018 ground-breaking WBFA, Amref Health Africa and Takeda Oncology ‘Rapid Assessment of the Prevention and Control of Cancer in Nigeria’ report, the first independent national research on cancer provisions in the country, which found that Nigeria has a severe shortage of health personnel for cancer care, a dearth of specialists in particular in rural communities and a lack of a well-coordinated chain of supply of drugs and the requisite infrastructure.

Together, we hope to improve the standard of care through the broader context of women’s health, as it has the potential to improve survival rates to 80%-90%, and accelerate progress to Universal health coverage.

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