How does the UICC support your country in connecting with other organisations?

We came here with our organisation which is an NGO which we call the Golden Rose Cancer Foundation. We also have a booth here so we work in close collaboration with each other. There are also other organisations in our country which are doing cancer control efforts in their own way, so a fragmented manner. So we need to organise everything. This meeting provided us with ways and means of how to organise this, all efforts together.

Can you share some activities you have been involved with?

We are going to draw up a constant cancer control plan, which was non-existent in the past, in the very near future with the help of UICC, IAEA, WHO and IARC. So that is very helpful.

What is your take home message?

The key words are coordination and cooperation at various levels, the global level, the national level, even in the government itself. In our country at least there is a lack of cooperation and coordination between each and every minister so this cancer control effort is not a single ministry effort, it should be a multi-sectoral effort. So there is lack of cooperation at the national level, ministerial level and then also even in the grassroots organisations themselves there’s a lack of cooperation. There are very important weak points. So if we don’t have coordination and cooperation whatever we do will not have the necessary impact, substantial impact, we’ll be just running around in circles without making any progress.