Mobilizing stakeholders to drive the cervical cancer elimination agenda in Kenya: The national cervical cancer stakeholders' forum 2022.

BACKGROUND

Kenya is among the nineteen countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with the highest burden of cervical cancer globally. The high burden of cervical cancer in developing countries reflects the absence of effective cervical cancer prevention programs with limited resources invested to provide comprehensive services.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to engage stakeholders in a structured consultative forum, to gain insights and forge effective partnerships to drive the cervical cancer elimination agenda in Kenya.

METHODS

The National Cervical Cancer Stakeholders Consultative Forum was organized as a part of activities to commemorate the National Cervical Cancer Awareness Month on 19th January 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya. The overall goal of the meeting was to provide a forum to sensitize stakeholders on the National Cervical Cancer Prevention and Control Program (NCCP) with a view to strengthen partnerships, increase coordination for improved service delivery and to provide a forum for resource mobilisation and alignment of key stakeholders towards elimination of cervical cancer in Kenya. Nominal group technique was adopted for structured discussions, and the findings analysed to derive key themes.

FINDINGS

Key challenges to primary and secondary prevention of cervical cancer were identified as low awareness, stigma and misinformation, high unmet need for treatment of early lesions, few health care providers with capacity to screen and treat, inadequate supplies, inefficient health information systems and poor referral pathways. Championing integration of cervical cancer screening and treatment services into routine health programs, strengthening policy implementation and robust monitoring and evaluation were identified as critical interventions.

CONCLUSION

The National Cervical Cancer Stakeholders Forum 2022 provided insights for enabling Kenya to progress on the 2030 elimination targets Such forums can be useful in bringing all actors together to evaluate achievements and identify opportunities for more effective national cervical cancer prevention and control programs.