Breast cancer advocacy handbook

UICC’s Breast Cancer Advocacy handbook aims to guide and inspire cancer organisations and advocates in mobilising governments and institutions to prioritise breast cancer in national funding and policy agendas, driving progress to reduce the national breast cancer burden. The handbook is aligned with, and builds upon, WHO’s Global Breast Cancer Initiative (GBCI), which aims to cut global breast cancer mortality by 2.5% annually until 2040. Achieving this target could prevent 2.5 million deaths by that year. 

Drawing on insights from UICC’s Cancer Advocates programme and spotlighting successful advocacy wins by civil society organisations in different settings, the handbook provides practical guidance on coalition building, strategic planning, and the development of effective advocacy messages. With tools for creating culturally informed strategies and implementing evidence-based recommendations, the handbook supports advocates in driving policy changes for early detection, timely diagnosis, and access to breast cancer treatment. 

The handbook builds upon a series of existing resources developed as part of UICC’s Cancer Advocates programme, to support civil society in their advocacy efforts, including an overarching Advocacy toolkit and a Cervical Cancer Advocacy handbook. It is also part of a larger portfolio of resources on breast cancer, developed as part of UICC’s Breast Cancer programme, including a recently launched online course providing foundational knowledge on the strategies that national programme managers, policy makers and multisectoral actors should follow, aligned with the GBCI, and developed in collaboration with WHO.   

French and Spanish versions of the handbook will be available by the end of November.