Launch of CanScreen5 training in francophone African countries

29 April 2024

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is pleased to announce the launch of the Cancer Screening in Five Continents (CanScreen5) Training the Trainers learning programme for francophone African countries.

With the continued support of the World Health Organization (WHO), the CanScreen5 project aims to collect information on the characteristics and performance of cancer screening programmes across the globe in a harmonized manner and to disseminate the information for improved programme management and informed policy-making. The core objective of CanScreen5 is to encourage and support countries to collect and use cancer screening data for effective programme evaluation and quality improvement.

Today, Dr Akpaka A. Kalu, Team Lead of the Noncommunicable Diseases Programme at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, and IARC representatives launched the learning programme during an online session attended by 29 health professionals and the international experts contributing to the programme. In 2022, 13 countries in Africa were trained, and this new cohort will train an additional 15 countries on the African continent.

Thanks to the support of the WHO Regional Office for Africa, 15 participants will meet in person on 23–26 September 2024, when they will receive assistance in planning and organizing training sessions in their countries on improving the quality of cancer screening programmes.

Read more about the CanScreen5 initiative

Watch the video of the participants in the first cohort of CanScreen5 trainers for African countries