The Francophone African Cancer and NCD communities meet in Dakar

On 12 June UICC held the latest edition of its “Leadership in Action” series, the first in Francophone Africa, part of the CEO Programme to build leadership capacities of UICC members. Co-hosted by the Ligue Senegalaise contre le Cancer (LISCA), the event saw the participation of 23 senior executives from UICC member organisations from the subregion. The meeting focused on two themes: universal health coverage and the role civil society can play towards its achievement, and models and examples of successful alliances and coalition-building in the region.

In a parallel meeting, the NCD Alliance presented its Mapping of NCD Civil Society Organisations in Francophone sub-Saharan Africa (read about it here), with the aim to promote greater coordination across NCD advocates and actors in the region. The two audiences then came together, alongside local representatives from the private sector and international organisations, to attend the UICC’s Public-Private Dialogue (PPD), a new platform for multisectoral stakeholders to exchange views and perspectives on topical issues. The PPD, supported by Novartis, brought together a panel with representatives from across the public, private, and civil society spaces to discuss “How can multisectoral approaches contribute to tackle women’s cancer in the region”.

"It is time to set up a network strong enough to carry out collective advocacy actions. It is through synergies that we will achieve our objectives in prevention, access to treatment and palliative care, in our region."  - Dr Marie Angèle Ndiaye, Association Guinéenne pour la Lutte contre le Cancer

The theme of the PPD provided a perfect introduction to the Women’s Cancers 2-day Workshop, which UICC hosted on 13-14 June. Supported by the French National Cancer Institute (INCa) and the LISCA, the workshop provided a forum for civil society, Ministries of Health and other stakeholders from 7 countries in the subregion to explore the possibility to constitute a partnership to tackle the burden of women’s cancer in Francophone Africa.

The workshop’s opening was honoured by the presence of the First Lady of Burkina Faso, President of the UICC member organisation Fondation Kimi, which helped attract the attention of media and local authorities.

The hope is that the meetings will act as a launchpad to accelerate action in Francophone Africa, particularly increasing opportunities for closer collaboration among the participants.

The next 'Leadership in Action' meetings will take place in Mexico City on 4th October, for UICC members from Latin America.

The reports of the last ‘Leadership in Action’ meetings in Oman and Singapore are now available. Click here to read the report of the Asia-Pacific region meeting, and here for the MENA region one.