Mary Nyangasi-Onyango: Widening disparities In low resource settings with the WHO Global Breast Cancer Initiative

Mary Nyangasi-Onyango, Technical Lead, WHO Global Breast Cancer Initiative, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“In the words of Nelson Mandela “freedom cannot be achieved unless the women are emancipated from all forms of oppression “.

This was my key takeaway thanks to this powerful session on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly convened by Marleen Temmerman. Starting with reflections on health system barriers and patient navigation by Miriam Mutebi, to a reminder of the burden of disease, widening disparities especially in low resource settings with the WHO Global Breast Cancer Initiative as a call to action by myself and a focused session on the drivers of disparities and existential gaps in research especially on political and economic determinants.

It clearly emerged that the decision to attend care is greatly influenced by a woman’s time. In many families, women are the breadwinners and due to inequities in pay, they often they have to work for longer hours than their male counterparts hence lack time to attend their health needs. Therefore as we expand access to services, women’s empowerment and achievement of equity in this regard needs to be prioritized as these also have an impact on health outcomes.

The need for designing breast programs that are context-specific. For example, for early detection and timely diagnosis, embracing technology and use of evidence-based innovative models of care that enable efficiency, saving on time for women and costs to the health system by Susan Harvey.

All in all, it was wonderful to take note of the fact that investments in women’s healthcare pays. I learnt that it is a trillion dollar market that has so far been underfunded, underserved and under researched through the life course. We have opportunity to shift the narrative, integrate private capital and bring everyone on board to drive this agenda.

We know what needs to be done. Now its time to walk the talk and take multisectoral action…”

Source: Mary Nyangasi-Onyango/LinkedIn