Deadline: 30-May-2025
The TogetHER’s Cervical Cancer Grants Program provides highly targeted grants for organizations working to address demand and supply constraints related to vaccination, screening, and preventive treatment for HPV and cervical cancer.
Interventions supported by this program should be catalytic, improving the lives of program beneficiaries and triggering health system-wide improvements (e.g., policy change, regulatory approval, development of effective tools and strategies) to support cervical cancer elimination efforts.
Tracks
- Track 1: Problem Statement: Demand-side interventions to improve awareness and demand for cervical cancer prevention services
- Lack of evidence-based information about the relationship between HPV and cervical cancer, and information regarding preventive measures for the disease remain critical barriers in many communities. Stigma related to HPV and cervical cancer can undermine public health efforts to educate and inform those at risk about the importance of vaccination, screening, and early treatment. Reaching women and children who are particularly marginalized and vulnerable to HPV and cervical cancer are a priority. Applicants who submit to this track will outline promising interventions and strategies to address demand constraints in one or more of these areas across the continuum of care:
- Demand for HPV Vaccination: Persistent infection with certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV) can cause cervical cancer as well as a variety of other cancers. HPV vaccines currently offer complete protection against 70%-90% of cervical cancer-causing HPV types and are recognized as safe and highly effective. Despite a strong track of both safety and effectiveness, HPV vaccination coverage rates continue to lag behind those of vaccines against other preventable diseases, particularly in LMICs. Globally only 27% of eligible girls have been immunized with the first dose of HPV.
- Demand-side barriers to vaccine scale-up include: Lack of information and education regarding the link between HPV and cervical cancer Vaccine hesitancy/low motivation for vaccine (e.g., low perceived risk of disease, low confidence in vaccine effectiveness, and/or safety concerns with vaccines or their administration Social norms surrounding vaccines (e.g., strength of recommendation by healthcare providers or other trusted persons, vaccine-related myths, and misinformation, stigma related to HPV).
- Demand for Cervical Cancer Screening: Barriers related to cervical cancer screening often are similar across countries and cultural contexts. Common barriers include low awareness of screening, fear of screening procedures and potential negative outcomes, privacy concerns, lack of spousal support, stigma, cost of accessing services, and fear of poor treatment by health care workers. Patient-centered, evidence-based social and behavioral approaches can inform and educate women about HPV and its relationship to cervical cancer and why screening is necessary to detect changes on the cervix and ensure appropriate follow-up to prevent cancer. Effective strategies to promote integrated services via maternal and child health, family planning, HIV, women’s cancers, and other reproductive health services targeted to girls and women across the life course are a priority.
- Demand for Pre-Cancer Treatment: For women identified with pre-cancerous lesions, timely treatment is critical to reduce risk of further disease. As with screening, common barriers associated with the uptake of preventive treatment include fear of the procedure and/or negative outcomes, lack of privacy, perceptions of poor attitudes or mistreatment by health workers, costs, and/or lack of support by spouse or other family members. Effective communication strategies are needed to emphasize the benefits of pre-cancer treatment as a critical step to disease prevention and to identify effective ways to increase treatment rates among eligible, screen-positive women to improve health outcomes. Effectively communicating both the benefits and risks related to precancer treatment is an important aspect of provider-patient communications.
- Lack of evidence-based information about the relationship between HPV and cervical cancer, and information regarding preventive measures for the disease remain critical barriers in many communities. Stigma related to HPV and cervical cancer can undermine public health efforts to educate and inform those at risk about the importance of vaccination, screening, and early treatment. Reaching women and children who are particularly marginalized and vulnerable to HPV and cervical cancer are a priority. Applicants who submit to this track will outline promising interventions and strategies to address demand constraints in one or more of these areas across the continuum of care:
- Track 2: Problem Statement: Supply-side interventions to ensure high quality, effective cervical cancer prevention services
- Proposals that submit to this track will outline promising interventions and strategies to address SupplySide barriers across one or more of these areas:
- Availability of HPV Vaccination: Recent improvements in global supplies of HPV vaccines, along with a global shift to single-dose regimens based on the WHO’s updated guidance, create an opportunity to improve HPV vaccination coverage rates, particularly in LMICs. This call for proposals will prioritize applications that look to accelerate uptake of HPV vaccination using innovative approaches that can maximize vaccination coverage among underserved communities through improved supply and demand.
- Availability of Cervical Cancer Screening: In LMICs, cervical cancer screening often includes a wide range of options. Visual inspection with acetic acid or with Lugol’s iodine (VIA/VILI), while frequently used to screen for cervical lesions in low-resource settings, has low to moderate sensitivity and specificity. Significant training and supervision are required to ensure adequate quality, limiting its ability for scale-up. Molecular testing for HPV offers significant benefits and is superior to VIAbased screening. However, HPV testing is not yet widely available, despite its robust evidence base and inclusion within the most recent WHO guidance. Many programs across LMICs lack the necessary resources, training, and amenable policies to fully support the adoption and expansion to HPV testing as a primary screening method for cervical cancer. Operational questions remain around optimal service delivery models for HPV testing, self-collection, and timely follow-up for women in need.
- Availability of Pre-Cancer Treatment: While cryotherapy has been the standard treatment approach for pre-cancerous lesions globally, it poses several operational challenges that include limited supply of high-quality gas, cost of gas transport, and challenges with machine reliability. Thermal ablation was approved by the WHO in 2019 for use in treating pre-cancerous cervical lesions and appears to avoid the challenges inherent to cryotherapy. Following this global endorsement, thermal ablation is becoming the standard of care for cervical pre-cancer across many settings. However, insights and evidence expand its adoption and use across LMIC settings.
- Proposals that submit to this track will outline promising interventions and strategies to address SupplySide barriers across one or more of these areas:
Funding Information
- The maximum budget under each track of this award is $30,000 USD.
Duration
- The implementation period is for a maximum of 12 months. TogetHER for Health anticipates awarding the grants in August 2025.
Eligibility Criteria
- This call is open to any non-profit organization with a demonstrated track record in cervical cancer prevention programming.
- This may include non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, and other non-profit entities.
- For-profit entities are not eligible to apply. Where multiple organizations receive the same proposal score under the rubric, members of TogetHER for Health’s partner network will be given preference for funding.
For more information, visit TogetHER for Health.