GALVANIZING EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE THE 2013 WORLD CANCER DECLARATION TARGETS AN ADVOCACY TOOLKIT

FEBRUARY 2014

Union for International

Cancer Control, Geneva

February 2014

This toolkit was produced through the generous support of UICC’s

advocacy partners: Bayer, Canadian Cancer Society, Dutch Cancer

Society, Ligue Suisse Contre le Cancer, Livestrong Foundation,

Norwegian Cancer Society, Novartis Oncology, Varian Medical Systems,

and World Cancer Research Fund International.

Authors

UICC, Rebecca Morton-Doherty, Sonali Johnson, Julie Torode; and Three

Stories Consulting, Sue Henshall

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the following UICC staff, members and partners

who contributed to the development and review of this Advocacy

Toolkit: Asian Children’s Care League (ACCL), Kazuyo Watanabe;

CanKids, Poonam Bagai; Cancer Research UK, Jean King; Hue Central

Hospital Pediatric Center staff, Vietnam; Kenya Cancer Association,

Newton Siele, David Makumi; LIVESTRONG Foundation, Loyce Pace

Bass, Rebekkah Schear; PATH, Amie Bishop; UICC, Jessica Matthieu,

Isabel Mestres, Caroline Perréard, Vanessa Von der Muhll; Varian,

Andrew Whitman; World Cancer Research Fund International (WCRF

International), Jo Jewell, Corinna Hawkes

For further information, please contact: advocacy@uicc.org

UICC Advocacy Toolkit 2014 - Executive Summary2

GALVANIZING EFFORTS TO ACHIEVE THE WORLD CANCER DECLARATION TARGETSAN ADVOCACY TOOLKIT

Cov

er: ©

201

2 A

rinda

m C

how

dhur

y, C

ourt

esy

of P

hoto

shar

e

We are delighted to be sharing the second edition of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) Advocacy Toolkit ‘Galvanizing Efforts To Achieve The World Cancer Declaration Targets’.

UICC’s membership is diverse and currently includes over 800 organisations in 155 countries covering a broad range of advocacy objectives targeted at different audiences. The first edition of this toolkit was launched to support our members in their advocacy work in the lead-up to the 2011 United Nations (UN) High-level Meeting on Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs), where the world took a major step forward towards reducing the global cancer burden. It was during this watershed event that heads of state and governments adopted the UN Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of NCDs.

Success followed in 2012 with the adoption of a global target to reduce premature deaths from NCDs by 25% by 2025. Then, in 2013, the foundations of a new global NCD architecture were put in place with the adoption of a Global Monitoring Framework for NCDs (GMF), a Global NCD Action Plan 2013-2020 (GAP), and a Global Coordination Mechanism for NCDs. With the successes of the last two years, we feel it is timely to update UICC’s advocacy toolkit, as the cancer community comes together once more to drive progress towards 2025.

The practical tools and resources presented here include a guide to mainstreaming cancer in the post-2015 agenda and a series of evidence sheets that support each of the World Cancer Declaration targets, and are designed to facilitate this collective action.

The first priority must be to mobilise UN Member States to meet the commitments within the GAP through the development and implementation of national NCD action plans that are: built on the foundation of comprehensive national cancer control plans, taking into account the cancer specific targets, indicators, and actions reflected in the GMF and GAP, and; are closely aligned

with the World Cancer Declaration. The opportunity to prevent 1.5 million deaths from cancer each year must be acted upon1.

Responding to this challenge, we recognise the importance of supporting the cancer community to work in partnership with governments and other key stakeholders on effective cancer control planning. The precedent for a meaningful role for cancer organisations in this planning process has been set. Norway already has an NCD action plan that was developed with significant input from the Norwegian Cancer Society and other partners in the Norwegian NCD Alliance. As such, Norway was the first country to follow up the obligations to the WHO and to prepare a joint strategy on NCDs.

The toolkit is also designed to complement the increasing array of new initiatives and partnerships in cancer prevention and control. One of these, the International Cancer Control Partnership (ICCP) Portal, maps the status of national cancer control plans and NCD plans (www.iccp-portal.org) and provides governments and the broader cancer community with mechanisms to monitor and evaluate progress on cancer targets and actions. It also serves as a platform for reporting to the UN in September 2014 at the UN High-level Review on progress towards the UN Political Declaration on NCDs.

UICC Advocacy Toolkit 2014 - Executive Summary 3

“The estimate of 1.5 million lives lost per year to cancer that could be prevented must serve to galvanise our efforts in implementing the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ‘25 by 25’ target. There is now a need for a global commitment to help drive advancements in policy and encourage implementation of comprehensive national cancer control plans. If we are to succeed in this, we have a collective responsibility to support low- and middle-income countries who are tackling a cancer epidemic with insufficient resources.”

Dr Christopher Wild, Director of International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) on the occasion of World Cancer

Day 2013

FOREWORD

FOREWORD(CONTINUED)

4

As a community, we must also acknowledge that there is much more work to be done for cancer targets, indicators and actions to be embedded within the next generation of internationally agreed development goals due to be adopted in September 2015. Although cancer and other NCDs were marginalised in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the post-2015 development framework presents new opportunities for the fight against cancer. The post-2015 goals will be designed to address all countries and resource settings, and not just low-income countries as the current MDGs do. The recognition of NCDs as a key development issue in many of the discussions, and reports feeding into the post-2015 process suggests that the new goals will build on the global NCD framework, not undermine it, and will help unlock a significant flow of development assistance for NCDs, which is currently limited to communicable diseases.

The 2013 World Cancer Declaration will be a crucial tool in our post-2015 advocacy efforts, supporting the cancer community to reach out to non-traditional partners in the development, disability, education, employment and many other communities. The Declaration provides governments, UN agencies, civil society, relevant private sector and other key stakeholders with a shared vision on which to build collaborative partnerships to address the global cancer burden and at the same time, strengthen national health and social systems.

A key example is investment in the education and training of health professionals to ensure that a skilled and supported workforce is able to tackle all of the major challenges to a population’s health. Much more than before, the ability to connect with others around shared goals and approaches is possible – for example, creating synergistic partnerships to enable a life-course approach to equitable and inclusive development – an approach that was not acknowledged in the MDGs. Investment in human capital to maximise health across all stages of life will have long-term effects on national economic growth and productivity.

It is time to raise a united voice to make cancer and NCDs a priority for governments and to ensure that they are addressed as part of a coordinated global effort – a unique opportunity to ensure that governments receive the adequate technical, human and financial resources to mitigate the social and economic burden of cancer on future generations.

Cary Adams UICC, CEO

REFERENCES:

1. Equivalent to 25% of the estimated 6 million premature cancer deaths that will occur per

year by 2025.

2. Jamison, D. T., Summers, L. H., Alleyne, G., et al. (2013). Global health 2035: a world

converging within a generation. Lancet , Published Online December 3, 2013 http://dx.doi.

org/10.1016/.

UICC Advocacy Toolkit 2014 - Executive Summary