African Cervical Cancer Initiative

African Cervical Cancer Initiative is sponsored by Cervical Cancer Foundation. The Cervical Cancer Foundation seeks to increase the abilities of healthcare providers and resources in diagnosing, managing, and treating cervical disease in Africa.

## Webinar on this call for proposals: **_Unitaid is pleased to announce its new Call for Proposals to Accelerate Cervical Cancer Elimination in LMICs. _** _The total funding for all project(s) selected from this Call for Proposals will depend on the proposals received and the scope of work undertaken – but is currently expected to be approximately US$ 30 million.

_ Cervical Cancer Background and Context Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers among women worldwide, claiming over 350,000 lives in 2024. Although cervical cancer is both preventable and curable when detected early and managed effectively, screening and treatment coverage in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) remains far below what is needed to achieve global elimination targets.

These disparities reflect a persistent equity gap in which women most at risk have the least access to high-quality cervical cancer screening, diagnostic, and treatment tools. Limited access to lifesaving tools and approaches means that 90% of new cervical cancer cases and deaths worldwide occurred in LMICs, and 19 of the 20 highest-burden countries are in Africa.

Women living with HIV are at particularly high risk, facing a six-fold greater likelihood of developing cervical cancer compared to the general population.

Expanding access to effective cervical cancer screening, diagnostic, and treatment tools is essential to closing this equity gap, ensuring that women in the highest-burden settings can benefit from the same lifesaving technologies available elsewhere Unitaid’s work on cervical cancer builds on its broader commitment to advancing women’s health across the life course.

From adolescence through reproductive years and into later life, women face interconnected health needs. Unitaid’s investments aim to strengthen this continuum, supporting access to essential health products, promoting integrated service delivery, and addressing the systemic barriers that prevent women and girls from receiving timely, high‑quality care.

Cervical cancer prevention and treatment form a critical pillar of this wider effort to ensure that women, in all their diversity, can live healthy, empowered lives.

Since 2019, Unitaid has been a driving force in transforming secondary prevention of cervical cancer: catalyzing the introduction and integration of essential health products such as HPV testing, self-sampling methods, and thermal ablation devices, and spearheading the development of innovative, AI-enhanced visual evaluation tools.

Through its strategic investments and global partnerships, Unitaid has established itself as a champion for equitable access to cervical cancer technologies and services. Working with implementing partners and ministries of health, Unitaid achieved: * **Programmatic reach:** cervical cancer programs established in over 14 countries, reaching more than 1.

6 million women across three continents, and expanded coverage to 26 countries across three regions. * **Technology deployment:** Thermal ablation devices introduced in one-fifth of all LMICs, stabilizing supply and improving affordability. * **Cost reductions:** Prices reduced by up to 40% for HPV tests and 45% for thermal ablation devices.

* **Sustainable financing:** Interventions co-created with national governments, enabling the integration of cervical cancer prevention and treatment into national health and financing strategies.

Building on these achievements, the next phase of work aims to move from demonstrating the viability of tools and programmes to sustainable integration into routine services, ensuring scalable delivery aligned with elimination targets, resilient to declining external funding and competing health priorities.

Unitaid’s next investments will catalyze further impact, creating broader opportunities to save lives, reduce inequities, and strengthen health systems. Timing is critical. With many countries at a pivotal moment aiming to meet the 2030 elimination targets, this investment aims to shift from small-scale initiatives to sustainable, nationally owned cervical cancer programs delivered at scale to reach 2030 elimination targets.

Furthermore, evidence shows that climate change is affecting women’s health by disrupting access to prevention and care. As countries work toward global CxCa elimination targets, programs will need resilient and increasingly decentralized systems.

Strengthening the resilience of supply chains and service delivery is therefore essential to maintain screening, diagnosis, and treatment, and to ensure equitable access for women and girls in vulnerable and underserved communities.

WHO’s Global Investment Case for Cervical Cancer Elimination suggests that investment in cervical cancer elimination offers a compelling return: every US$1 invested could yield up to US$26 in economic gains by 2050, including broader societal benefits. These benefits include health-care savings, productivity gains, and broader social and economic contributions from women who avoid premature illness and death.

With this new funding opportunity, Unitaid seeks to enable affordable, high-impact secondary prevention interventions that strengthen and complement national cervical cancer elimination strategies and rollout plans. The focus is on enabling countries to implement routine, integrated services, strengthen supply and delivery systems while adopting innovative approaches that promote scale-up, sustainability and cost efficiency.

Proposals should demonstrate alignment with national priorities, promote equity and long-term sustainability, and generate actionable evidence to catalyze global cervical cancer elimination.

The objective of this Call for Proposals is to: **Introduce and scale innovative tools and approaches**—including next-generation HPV diagnostics, digital health solutions, and cost-optimized delivery models—that improve efficiency, equity, coverage and quality of care across the care continuum.

**Accelerate demand and adoption** of cervical cancer secondary prevention and treatment services by supporting national and large subnational programs that are ready to establish routine, integrated services aligned with the global elimination strategy.

**Promote equity, engagement of communities and women with lived experiences, and strong governance** to ensure that interventions reach underserved populations, foster local relevance and ownership, and align with national strategies for long-term sustainability.

**Strengthen supply and delivery systems** to ensure sustainable, transparent, and efficient supply, procurement and distribution of cervical cancer commodities, embedded within broader women’s health and essential medicines supply chains. This Call for Proposals seeks to accelerate access to cervical cancer prevention and treatment services, with a particular focus on secondary prevention.

The scope of the call addresses barriers across demand and adoption, supply and delivery, innovation, and cross-cutting enablers, all of which are essential to achieving the WHO elimination targets and ensuring equitable access to care. Unitaid aims to support **demand and adoption** in collaboration with national or large subnational programs that are at the stage of establishing routine, integrated cervical cancer services.

Implementation will be prioritized in a subset of countries that have demonstrated readiness, such as those with expressed national commitments to the elimination strategy through documented national plans, established elimination programs, and domestic financing commitments (or a clear roadmap to secure them).

These programs must be embedded within country systems and led by national authorities to ensure ownership, sustainability, and alignment with national health priorities.

They will serve as exemplars, generating evidence and learning to inform and accelerate scale-up in additional settings, including through well-elaborated learning platforms and structured South-to South knowledge exchanges to accelerate adoption of effective models across regions Proposals should also demonstrate how cervical cancer services will be integrated into primary health care, leveraging existing health platforms such as immunization, HIV/TB/NCD and maternal health.

While the key objective is to contribute to establishing routine services at scale, the proposed implementation plans can support critical elements necessary to establish a nationwide program. Clear, stepwise approaches to implementation are expected, including models that prioritize populations, regions, or service delivery points to progressively reach the target of 70% screening and 90% treatment coverage.

A strong emphasis will be placed on ensuring a seamless continuum of care, recognizing that Unitaid’s primary focus is on secondary prevention, but that impact depends on women successfully navigating the entire care pathway.

Proposals must therefore address not only screening and diagnosis but also the critical challenge of loss to follow-up, with strategies for referral, management, follow-up systems, and data management embedded within national structures. Unitaid places strong emphasis on sustainable and innovative financing mechanisms that support long-term affordability, continuity, and country ownership of cervical cancer prevention and care.

Proposals should articulate how projects will support the development of fully costed national cervical cancer elimination plans, including the generation or strengthening of investment cases that clarify resources currently available, needs and identify potential financing pathways.

Recognizing that sustainable financing pathways will be developed and refined through project implementation, proposals should describe how the project will support the exploration, design, testing, and strengthening of financing approaches that contribute to durable systems and reduced reliance on time-limited external funding, rather than presenting fully developed financing solutions at the proposal stage.

**Innovation**is a central pillar of this call. Proposals should prioritize cost-optimized solutions that maximize impact in resource-constrained settings, such as the use of AI-enhanced visual evaluation tools, novel approaches and delivery models, such as pooled laboratory services, digital health solutions for referral coordination, management and follow up, and new point-of-care diagnostic solutions.

This includes the introduction and piloting of new tools and technologies, including those that adapt or leverage multi-disease platforms or decentralized diagnostics to improve the affordability, availability, and resilience of HPV testing and related services.

Proposals are encouraged to explore how shared laboratory infrastructure, diagnostic platforms, or integrated supply chains can be used to reduce costs, expand access, and increase system efficiency. Support will be provided for the introduction, piloting, and scale-up of new tools and approaches that drive integration, efficiency, coverage and quality of care across the care continuum.

Proposals should describe how pilots and early implementation activities will generate learning and evidence to inform future scale-up, market shaping, and integration into national systems.

Proposals should articulate how these innovations will be used to enhance the impact, cost-effectiveness, and/or equity of screen-and-treat programmes (for example, in addressing current gaps such as loss to follow-up or access in remote areas or in key populations), and how they will be sustained and scaled over time.

Models that build foundational delivery platforms are encouraged, with flexibility to integrate emerging tools and innovative approaches. On **supply and delivery**, many countries struggle to translate globally negotiated agreements for cervical cancer commodities into effective national action, resulting in inconsistent access, supply shortages, and procurement inefficiencies.

Proposals should articulate robust strategies for strengthening national procurement systems and technical working groups, with the goal of achieving sustainable, transparent, and efficient procurement of cervical cancer commodities.

This includes supply strategies and manufacturer engagement, establishing and institutionalizing price agreements, procurement plans, and mechanisms for demand forecasting, alongside improvements in asset management, end-to-end commodity tracking, and the use of tools for real-time commodity monitoring.

Applicants are expected to embed cervical cancer commodities within broader women’s health and essential medicines supply chains, leveraging synergies with maternal health, HIV, and other initiatives.

Due consideration should also be given to resilience against climate-related disruptions and environmental stresses that may affect product availability and service continuity, including resilient product access, waste management, storage, transportation, and last-mile delivery systems.

Approaches for pooled procurement, integration with national and regional supply platforms, and alignment with existing procurement frameworks are encouraged to maximize efficiency, reduce costs, and ensure equitable access. A phased, capacity-building approach is required, focusing on knowledge transfer, technical assistance, and institutionalization of best practices in procurement and supply chain management.

Proposals should detail how they will support the development of local expertise, reinforce technical working groups, and embed improvements within national structures for long-term sustainability, including policy development, regulatory harmonization, and continuous system improvement.

While strengthening supply and delivery systems is a critical priority, related work is also being advanced through other Unitaid-supported initiatives. As part of portfolio-wide efforts to ensure coherence, avoid duplication, and optimize overall impact, the scope, sequencing, and level of effort for supply chain–focused activities under this call may be adjusted accordingly to align with complementary investments across the portfolio.

Proposals must clearly address the key criteria outlined below to be considered responsive to this Call for Proposals. The full call text provides further elaboration and detailed guidance on each requirement. **Strategic Fit:** Proposals must align with accelerating cervical cancer elimination through secondary prevention in LMICs and contribute to WHO elimination targets.

**National Alignment:** Activities should support national cervical cancer strategies, documented plans, and domestic financing commitments or clear pathways to secure them.

**Country Readiness & Equity:** Country selection should reflect high burden, readiness to implement, and strong potential to advance equity for underserved and marginalized populations **Innovation & Cost Optimization:** Proposals should introduce and scale innovative, cost‑efficient tools and delivery models that improve affordability, coverage, and quality.

**Community & Civil Society Engagement:** Proposals must demonstrate meaningful engagement of communities, civil society, and women with lived experience throughout design and delivery. **Sustainability & Financing:** Proposals should outline credible pathways to sustainable financing, long‑term affordability, and catalytic use of Unitaid funds.

Through this call, Unitaid aims to generate scalable models and evidence that accelerate national and global progress toward cervical cancer elimination, while strengthening health systems and advancing equity in women’s health. Unitaid intends to comprehensively support activities in a minimum of five countries through this call; however, proposals may vary in their geographical scope and level of effort.

Proponents are encouraged to propose approaches that are best suited to their objectives, whether through engagement in a smaller number of countries, engagement across multiple settings, or a focus on specific regional or cross-cutting priorities. Proponents should provide a clear rationale for the selection of their proposed countries and the level of engagement in each, aligned with the objectives of the call.

Countries will be considered based on priority criteria. Candidate countries could be those that: * Have a high disease burden in Cervical Cancer, reflected in incidence and mortality rates * Have expressed commitments to the elimination of cervical cancer, through documented national plans that include strategies for CxCa elimination, and domestic financing commitments (or a clear roadmap to secure them).

* Have the potential to become an example for the CxCa response in other countries in the region through sharing of learnings and best practices * Present a clear opportunity to advance equity in CxCa Elimination, including in rural, marginalized or hard to reach populations. Considerations of sub-national disparities, with justification for selected providence/districts or populations.

* Representation across geographies, with diversity in health system contexts, languages, and delivery environments. * Reflect alignment and complementarity with regional and global initiatives and financings mechanisms, including (but not limited to) Africa CDC, PAHO, and the Global Financing Facility, to ensure coherence, avoid duplication and maximize catalytic impact.

The final list of countries may be modified and will depend on a country readiness assessment with inputs from Unitaid. **Project and Portfolio Oversight:** Effective governance and coordination are essential for impact and sustainability.

Proposals should outline mechanisms for close collaboration with government at all levels, alignment with national strategies and policies, and coordination with other stakeholders—including donors, technical partners, and implementing agencies. Applicants should describe how they will contribute to national and regional learning agendas, participate in technical working groups, and support the harmonization of standards and practices.

Strong governance structures, clear roles and responsibilities, and transparent decision-making processes are expected to underpin all proposed interventions. Unitaid places a high priority on Community and Civil Society Engagement in this Call for Proposals.

Strong and sustained engagement with affected communities and civil society organizations is essential to ensuring that cervical cancer interventions are responsive, equitable, and grounded in real-world needs. Proposals that position CCSE partners as strategic partners in scoping, design, delivery and governance will be considered more responsive to the objectives of this Call for Proposals.

Unitaid as a funder and thought partner will provide portfolio oversight and leverage its convening power and influence to support the project, lead grantee and the consortium. A strong emphasis will be placed on equity and inclusion, with proposals required to demonstrate meaningful engagement with civil society, community groups, including women with lived experience, and affected populations from the outset.

Strategies should be described for increasing program relevance and reaching underserved, high-burden, or marginalized groups, addressing barriers to access, and empowering communities to participate in and shape the response. Approaches that foster local ownership, build advocacy capacity, and create feedback mechanisms for continuous improvement are highly encouraged.

Applicants should describe how they will contribute to national and regional learning agendas, participate in technical working groups, and support the harmonization of standards and practices.

Strong governance structures, clear roles and responsibilities, national leadership for programming and transparent decision-making processes are expected to underpin all proposed interventions Proposals should demonstrate how activities and financing will be coordinated with existing or planned investments from other donors and regional bodies, and how Unitaid funding will add value within the broader financing landscape.

Proposals under this Call for Proposals are expected to contribute to aTheory of Change (TOC). Unitaid presents this TOC as a guiding framework; however, Unitaid expects proponents to build on this and articulate how projects will contribute to this initiative and achieve impact. Proposals should explicitly state what can be achieved within the timeframe of the project.

Through this Call for Proposals, Unitaid aims to catalyze progress toward eliminating cervical cancer by supporting interventions that strengthen national programs, enhance innovation, and improve equitable access to lifesaving products and services, leading to significant public health and economic impact. The interventions are expected to have the following outcomes: 1.

**Increased proportion of women screened and treated for precancerous lesions** By supporting integrated and nationally led services, more women—especially those in underserved communities—will be able to access high-quality screening and treatment for precancerous lesions, moving countries closer to the WHO targets of 70% screening and 90% treatment. 2.

**Improved retention across the continuum of care** Strengthened referral systems, digital tracking, and reliable supply chains will help women complete the full care pathway from screening to treatment, reducing loss to follow-up. 3.

**Accelerated adoption of innovative tools and delivery approaches** Innovative solutions such as AI-assisted screening, point-of-care diagnostics, pooled laboratory models, and digital tracking solutions will improve efficiency, coverage, and quality of cervical cancer services. 4.

**Stronger, more reliable supply of cervical cancer commodities** Improved national procurement systems, better forecasting, and pooled procurement mechanisms will make essential medicines and diagnostics more available and predictable, resilient throughout climate-related shocks and disruptions, while improving visibility and market intelligence, including clear information on pricing, demand, and financing needs. 5.

**Sustainable, nationally owned programs** By embedding services, innovations, and supply systems within national health systems, and supporting planning, financing, and governance, programs will be stronger, more sustainable, and aligned with country and CCSE priorities.

Ultimately, these actions are expected to reduce cervical cancer cases and deaths, help countries reach elimination targets, and strengthen health systems for women’s health more broadly.

Unitaid considers working with**communities****and civil society**partners a critical part of generating demand and strongly encourages adopting inclusive approaches, and the early and continued meaningful engagement of communities towards improving the lives and health of the most vulnerable people.

The role of affected communities and planned collaborations with other relevant groups including grassroots community organizations and Civil Society Organizations at all stages of a project/program including ideation is essential, with this engagement a key determinant for success. Activities should be clearly budgeted in proposal submissions.

Community-led approaches are important to consider and adequately fund and resource when designing, planning, implementing, and evaluating activities and programs. Applicants are expected to demonstrate meaningful and substantive engagement with community and civil society organizations as core partners within their consortiums and governance structures, including at the proposal stage, program design, implementation and monitoring.

CCSE partners should be involved not only in advocacy and demand generation, but also in a wider program delivery, where appropriate. Unitaid is primarily looking for proposals from **South-based lead implementers**(i.e. organizations that are headquartered in a low- or middle-income country) with experience in leading the implementation of large-scale projects that support access to health products in low- and middle-income countries.

Unitaid’s objective of progressively retaining an increased number of lead implementing partners from the global south does not preclude proposals that are led by or including partners from the global north, where their role is deemed complementary and important for the success of the proposal. When adjudicating proposals,Unitaid will consider the budget proportion allocated to global south partners.

Unitaid is committed **to climate and environmental action in its investments** and expects its partners to make similar commitments. Proposals should clearly indicate: (i) Efforts that will be made to minimize carbon emissions from project activities; (ii) Potential opportunities to contribute to broader climate and/or environmental co-benefits, in synergy with core project objectives.

Proposals are encouraged to consider how to strengthen the resilience of supply chains and program delivery, in ways that support continuity of services and equitable access to cervical cancer prevention and care**. ** More detailed guidance and definitions are provided in the proposal template. **Proposals should****demonstrate****value for money**and measurable impact.

Proposals should also include analysis of pathways to impact, scalability, and sustainability of key interventions. Evidence of co-funding can be included. Applicants are expected to describe how any Unitaid funding awarded will be used strategically to catalyze and help unlock additional sources of financing in pursuit of the objectives and goals of this call.

Recognizing that specific financing arrangements and pathways will be further developed during project implementation, proposals should articulate what funding is currently available, and plausible approaches to mobilizing complementary funding.

This should include the types of financing that may be explored (for example, public, philanthropic, private, or blended sources), the ways in which Unitaid funding could act as a catalyst, and the potential for leverage or multiplier effects.

Where feasible, applicants should provide indicative estimates of the scale and timing of additional resources that could be mobilized, explain the key assumptions and uncertainties underpinning these estimates, and describe how such financing would be expected to contribute to sustainability, scale, and impact beyond the period of Unitaid support.

Process for proposal submission When developing a proposal, please note that answers to Frequently Asked Questions relevant to proposal development can be found here: [PDF: 200 KB] (this document is regularly updated). Applicants should be clear about the underlying assumptions made in their proposed approach and should highlight any major risks or other factors that may affect the delivery of results.

Finally, proposals are expected to outline a lean, concrete, and clear pathway to results and impact. After assessment of the proposals and endorsement by the Unitaid Board all applicants will be officially notified as to whether they will be invited to develop a full grant agreement for Unitaid funding.

Unitaid will host a webinar to present the scope and content of the call for proposals and answer any process-related questions **12 February 2026 at 15:00 CET**. To register for the webinar please complete the online form here. Please note that only registered participants will receive the call-in details.

During registration you will have the option to send questions which Unitaid will aim to address during the webinar. If you are unable to participate in the webinar, a recording of the session will be made available on this page shortly after the webinar takes place. Participation in the webinar is optional, and you can respond to the call for proposals by sending your application at any point before the deadline indicated below.

The closing date for receipt of full proposals Thursday**9****April****at 12:00 (noon) CET**. Applications received past the indicated deadline will not be considered. **Please note, a proposal is considered submitted only once you receive an e-mail message of confirmation of receipt from Unitaid.

** Please note that the confirmation of receipt is not an automated message and will be sent to you within one working day following the deadline. If for any reason you have not received the confirmation of receipt within one working day, please reach out to proposalsUnitaid@who. int.

**Please note that our email system accepts messages up to 8 MB in size. For submissions exceeding this size, please consider splitting your submission in several messages. ** Submission and format of proposals Proposals, including all annexes, should be submitted electronically toproposalsUnitaid@who.

int. A full proposal consists of the following documents: Additional guidance can be found in the following documents The specific guidance provided in the sections above takes precedence over any general information. If you have any questions about the application processes throughout any stage of the application review process, please send your queries to the Grant Application Manager:proposalsUnitaid@who.

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