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In 2018, WHO launched, with the support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer, to provide leadership and technical assistance to governments to support them in building and sustaining high-quality childhood cancer programmes. GICC aims to increase the survival rate of children with cancer globally to at least 60% by 2030.
Director a.i.'s quote
Seven years ago, the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC) started as a bold aspiration - to ensure that every child with cancer, no matter where they live, has access to diagnosis, treatment and a chance at survival. Today, as we see the GICC target enshrined in the Zero Draft Political Declaration and acknowledged across global platforms, we are reminded that hope must be backed by commitment. Together, with partners, governments, and communities, we must turn those commitments into action, and accelerate progress to reach at least 60% survival globally by 2030.
Dévora Kestel, Director a.i., Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health
St. Jude Leadership Quote
More than 90% of children who develop cancer every year live in low- and middle-income countries. Only one in two diagnosed — or even fewer — receive life-saving treatment. The reality today is that most children with cancer in the world die, and children who are born with catastrophic diseases of the blood suffer the same inequity. This is not acceptable. All children deserve the same chance.
Dr Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, Executive Vice President St. Jude Global, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Celebrating 7 Years of the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer
The Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC), launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 28 September 2018 during the UN General Assembly on the margins of the Third High-Level Meeting on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), has traced a remarkable journey over the past seven years. What began as a courageous call to action to raise childhood cancer survival rates to at least 60% by 2030 — while reducing suffering and improving quality of life — has now been elevated to the highest political level: in 2025, at the Fourth High-Level Meeting on NCDs, childhood cancer and the GICC target were formally recognized as a public health priority and included in the Zero Draft of the Political Declaration.
Since launch, nearly 80 countries across six WHO regions have strengthened childhood cancer programs with WHO support. The initiative thrives on collaboration — bringing together partners, governments, and organizations to improve access to high-quality cancer care. At its launch, WHO partnered with the Permanent Missions of Jordan, Uzbekistan, the Russian Federation, the Philippines, El Salvador, Morocco, and Moldova, alongside St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Leaders, health ministers, and advocates emphasized the urgent need to close global survival disparities, where cure rates can exceed 80% in high-income countries but remain near 20% in many low- and middle-income countries.
Seven years later, GICC continues to inspire global action — ensuring every child has the right to cure.
Additionally, September also happens to be Childhood Cancer Awareness Month during which the Global Childhood Cancer Community comes together to elevate their voices for the thousands of children, adolescents, and their families who face every day the difficult journey of a cancer diagnosis.
Through new technical collaboration agreements with the International Initiative for Pediatrics and Nutrition (IIPAN) at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and World Child Cancer, WHO is strengthening efforts to improve outcomes for children with cancer worldwide. With IIPAN, the focus is on enhancing nutritional care in low- and middle-income countries by leveraging the WHO Knowledge Action Portal to share best practices, provide educational resources, and build workforce capacity in paediatric oncology units. The partnership with World Child Cancer advances the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer by working with countries to integrate childhood cancer into national health agendas, improve access to essential medicines through joint readiness assessments, and expand technical assistance, workforce training, and knowledge-sharing across Africa and South-East Asia — together contributing to the GICC 2030 target of at least 60% survival for children with cancer.
Landmarks Shine Gold as 1,500 Voices Unite for Childhood Cancer
Every September, the childhood cancer community comes together for Gold September, a global campaign led by Childhood Cancer International, CCI and The International Society of Paediatric Oncology, SIOP to raise awareness and show solidarity with children, adolescents, and families affected by cancer. In 2025, more than 1,500 people worldwide joined the campaign — using the Gold September frame and sharing digital postcards — while landmarks across cities and countries were illuminated in gold. This powerful visibility demonstrated incredible unity in support of the Gold Ribbon, the international symbol of childhood cancer awareness, and helped amplify calls for better care and equitable access to treatment.
Global Platform in Action
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and WHO jointly created the Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines (Global Platform) in 2021 to complement the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer, with UNICEF Supply Division and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Strategic Fund serving as procurement agents. The Global Platform aims to provide an uninterrupted supply of quality-assured cancer medicines to approximately 120 000 children in low- and middle-income countries in the next five to seven years, with the expectation of scaling up supplies in future years.
At present, the Global Platform is working with 12 participating countries: Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Jordan, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan and Zambia. We are delivering life-saving medicines to children with cancer, reaching 30 facilities in five countries within 2025.
The Global Platform provides end-to-end support in consolidating global demand to shape the market, and assists countries with the selection of medicines, the strengthening of clinical and supply chain standards and the building of information systems to track that effective storage, distribution, and consumption of medicines are achieved.
Working with HISP Centre at the University of Oslo, we have developed a dedicated monitoring and evaluation system through DHIS2, with countries actively reporting on key indicators.
This year, we also conducted visits to newly joined countries – El Salvador, Ghana, Moldova, Senegal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan – to assess country readiness and health facility readiness for receiving medicines. We also actively engage with stakeholders at national, regional and global levels through opportunities such as the “Closing the Gaps: raising awareness of the Global Platform” webinar (watch the recording). Upstream, leveraging the expertise of the WHO Facilitated Product Introduction team, we are working with key manufacturers of oncology pharmaceutics and national regulatory authorities to improve the knowledge and uptake of the WHO Collaborative Registration Procedure (CRP) for medicines approved by Stringent Regulatory Authorities (SRA).
The long-term mission of the Global Platform is to shape the global market so that essential quality-assured childhood cancer medicines are reliably available and affordable, everywhere. We have identified the main barriers spanning full product value chain including manufacturing, procurement, delivery, regulation, research and development. We have also assessed a wide set of potential interventions to help address these barriers, which will be presented in a new report “Global Platform Market Shaping Strategy for Childhood Cancer Medicines”, due to be launched early 2026.
Milestones towards UN HLM 4 on NCDs and Mental Health 2025
Multistakeholder Hearing Calls for Stronger Action on Childhood Cancer
On 2 May 2025, a Multistakeholder Hearing in New York City gathered governments, civil society, and global health partners to help shape priorities for the upcoming Fourth UN High-level Meeting (4HLM) on NCDs and Mental Health. The Global Childhood Cancer Community and its partners presented a joint Call to Action, urging Member States to explicitly include childhood cancers and catastrophic diseases (CDs) in the global NCD agenda. Each year, about 400,000 children develop cancer, with survival chances far lower in low-income settings. Excluding these children undermines commitments made under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to “leave no one behind.” The Call to Action recommended at that time adding a new paragraph to the Zero Draft Political Declaration to reaffirm the GICC target of 60% survival by 2030 and scale up cost-effective interventions (Para 53 has thereafter been added to the latest version of Zero Draft Political Declaration).
WHA78: Member States Reaffirm Commitment to Childhood Cancer in NCCPs
The Seventy-Eighth World Health Assembly (WHA78) convened in Geneva, Switzerland, from 19 to 27 May 2025, under the theme “One World for Health.” Member States adopted landmark resolutions across universal health coverage, health emergencies, rare diseases, climate change, and health financing, reaffirming the need for resilient health systems.
On 14 May 2025, ahead of WHA78, WHO and St. Jude Global (the WHO Collaborating Centre for Childhood Cancer) hosted a hybrid meeting with Member States focused on integrating childhood and adolescent cancers into National Cancer Control Plans (NCCPs). Countries emphasized continuity of care, equitable access, partnerships and networks, and community engagement across the cancer control spectrum. Ten global statements underscored the importance of investing in the unique and cross-cutting needs of children and adolescents with cancers, and how such investments can strengthen health systems overall.
As the first WHO Collaborating Centre for Childhood Cancer, St. Jude has been pivotal to the GICC. During a WHA78 side event, Dr. Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo (St. Jude EVP) delivered a video message urging the inclusion of childhood cancer in global NCD strategies.
Fourth UN High-level Meeting on NCDs and Mental Health
On 25 September 2025, the Fourth UN High-level Meeting (4HLM) on Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) and Mental Health will convene at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The following day, Heads of State and Government will adopt a new Political Declaration to guide prevention, control, and mental health promotion through 2030 and beyond.
This decennial opportunity comes at a critical midpoint to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Progress on target 3.4 — reducing premature mortality from NCDs by one-third — is off track, with underinvestment widening inequities in care and support. As part of the preparatory process to 4HLM, the Global Childhood Cancer Community has actively engaged in global forums to recommit to the GICC target of raising overall survival for childhood cancer to at least 60% globally, while reducing suffering for all.
Grounded in evidence and human rights, the declaration urges whole-of-government and whole-of-society action, sustainable financing, and attention to the social, economic, commercial, and environmental drivers of risk.
WHO calls on Member States, partners, and people living with health conditions to join forces in shaping an inclusive, equitable, and high-quality response.
Follow HLM4 outcomes and be part of turning commitments into healthier futures.
Zero Draft Political Declaration: Childhood Cancer in Focus
The Zero Draft Political Declaration for the Fourth UN High-level Meeting on NCDs and Mental Health includes urgent provisions to accelerate progress. Notably, it proposes scaling up interventions to achieve childhood cancer survival rate of at least 60% globally by 2030, as envisioned by the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC).
By embedding childhood cancer survival into the broader NCD framework, Member States signal a decisive step toward equity, access, and stronger health systems. The explicit inclusion of GICC in the draft underscores its role as a benchmark for SDG target 3.4 and progress toward universal health coverage.
Regional updates
Building equality into the health systems treating childhood cancer
For families like Gulkumar’s in Kyrgyzstan, childhood cancer brings not only the fight for survival but also overwhelming financial strain — from buying medicines during stockouts to covering transport, housing, and lost income. Such inequalities mean a child’s chances of recovery often depend on what their family can afford. Through the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC), now active in over 70 countries, WHO is working to change this reality by strengthening health systems, expanding access to essential medicines, and reducing the financial hardship faced by families — towards the goal of 60% survival by 2030.
Resources
1. GICC Framework: https://www.who.int/initiatives/the-global-initiative-for-childhood-cancer
2. Closing the Gaps: the Global Platform’s approach to childhood cancer medicine access: https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/ncds/mnd/cancer-programme/gpaccm-closing-the-gaps-draft.pdf
3. Health topic: https://www.who.int/health-topics/childhood-cancer
4. Factsheet: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cancer-in-children
5. Knowledge Action Portal on NCDs: https://www.knowledge-action-portal.com/
On Palliative Care:
1.Guidelines on the management of chronic pain in children. December 2020. Available here
2. WHO Guidelines for the pharmacological and radiotherapeutic management of cancer pain in adults and adolescents. January 2019. Available here.
3. Integrating palliative care and symptom relief into pediatrics. A WHO guide for health care planners, implementers and managers. August 2018. Available here.
4. Integrating palliative care and symptom relief into the response to humanitarian
emergencies and crises. February 2018. Available here.
5. Integrating palliative care and symptom relief into primary health care. A WHO guide for planners, implementers and managers. October 2016. Available here.
6. Planning and implementing palliative care services: a guide for programme managers. February 2016. Available here.
