A Powerful Partnership Comes Together to Accelerate Cervical Cancer Elimination

In women’s health, obstetricians and gynecologists are among the most trusted providers of information, advice, evaluation, and care. This sets them up to play a pivotal role in realizing our collective goal to prevent and eliminate cervical cancer, involving a three-pronged approach encompassing vaccination, screening, and treatment.

So, you can imagine how delighted I am to announce a new affiliation between FIGO – the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics – and the Global HPV Consortium housed at the Sabin Vaccine Institute.

FIGO represents national societies of obstetricians and gynecologists in 139 countries and territories. For more than 70 years, their members have developed the science and policy to improve the health and health rights of women around the globe. With their World Congresses, their International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics and their cancer-staging guidelines, they have expertise, data, and credibility for all efforts to end cervical cancer.

“At FIGO we know that the fastest path to lasting improvements in women’s health come when we collaborate, so I’m delighted that FIGO has joined the Global HPV Consortium movement to eliminate cervical cancer – a strategic priority for FIGO in our journey to 2030,” says FIGO CEO Frances Longley.  “This relationship joins our portfolio of alliances towards the 90-70-90 goals, including our close partnerships with WHO and our member societies, especially in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.”

Gynecologists and obstetricians will always play a central role in women’s health. They render not only screening and treatment services but are in the best position to advise on vaccination, including speaking to mothers about the value of protecting their adolescent girls. They understand that screening without treatment is an incomplete and unsatisfactory response and offer a holistic approach.

The Global HPV Consortium and FIGO together will build networks and forge partnerships to address the piling evidence that awareness about cervical cancer is abysmally low throughout the world and far greater attention is needed to building knowledge and skills of service providers and professionals.  We are fortunate in having a highly effective toolbox to prevent a cancer that kills women in the prime of their youth. But to unleash the full potential of these tools, new and transformative partnerships are urgently required. That is why the Global HPV Consortium is so proud of the growing number and strength of its partners. Collaboration with FIGO is another quantum leap.

FIGO’s extensive network, when combined with the many diverse partners of the Consortium in Africa, Latin America and Asia, will create more value than ever before in the global cervical cancer elimination effort. Women will benefit from this broad set of partners collaborating to bring more focused attention and action to the effort to accelerate the end of this preventable disease.