IAEA/PACT: WHO ENVOY FOR CANCER PREVENTION NANCY BRINKER

UNCLAS UNVIE VIENNA 000507 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR IO/GS, ISN/NESS, ISN/MNSA PLEASE PASS USAID; GENEVA FOR WHO E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO SOCI EAID KNNP AORC IAEA SUBJECT: IAEA/PACT: WHO ENVOY FOR CANCER PREVENTION NANCY BRINKER BRINGS MESSAGE OF COOPERATION TO IAEA MEMBER STATES ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: WHO Envoy Ambassador Nancy Brinker spoke at a PACT-hosted event entitled "The Globalization of Cancer" on October 20, 2009, painting a picture of how cancer will increasingly burden low income and developing countries. Brinker also consulted IAEA officials about implementing the WHO-IAEA/PACT partnership agreement. The public event and IAEA meetings were fruitful in discussing how to integrate WHO experts into IAEA "imPACT" assessments starting in 2010. Doing so will ensure countries requesting assistance are evaluated on the full spectrum of cancer control. END SUMMARY -------------- CANCER NOT ONLY A "RICH COUNTRY CONCERN" -------------- ¶2. (U) At the invitation of the IAEA Program of Action for Cancer Therapies (PACT),former U.S. Chief of Protocol Ambassador Nancy Brinker, founder and chairperson of the Susan G. Komen Foundation and recently appointed UN/WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Cancer Control, spoke October 20 in Vienna. Her audience of over 100 included IAEA officials, journalists, Member State representatives, and doctors. Supporting her impassioned remarks was a chilling statistical and visual presentation by Dr. Peter Boyle, President of the International Prevention Research Institute in Lyon, France. Their main message was that cancer claims more lives annually than TB, malaria and AIDS combined, and curing cancer should command at least the same public policy commitment as do those diseases targeted in the Millennium Development Goals. Noting that sixty percent of cancer cases occur in the developing world, Brinker said treatment and life-extending therapies are largely inaccessible to most vicims due to a lack of infrastructure and human resources as well as inadequate national HEALTH policies. As cancer becomes more globalized, hard-won HEALTH gains in developing countries will be eroded by the burden of cancer illness and death, she asserted. This burden will become a major impediment to socioeconomic development. Ambassador Brinker highlighted the PACT-WHO partnership as a way to address the global cancer epidemic and advocated for cancer control itself to become a Millennium Development Goal. -------------- PACT UPDATE -------------- ¶3. (U) In Brinker's subsequent conversations with PACT Director Massoud Samiei and Senior Fundraiser Claudia Fenerol, both thanked the U.S. for its financial support to the PACT Virtual University network, which will allow experts to stay current on cancer therapy practices, etc. Samiei underscored the importance of the USG also sponsoring a cost-free expert (CFE) HEALTH economist, which will now allow PACT to work with countries to plan financially for cancer control programs. ¶4. (SBU) Samiei intimated separately to Msnoff that some resistance continued from those within the Agency who did not see the value of PACT. While change is difficult in any institution, Samiei said, he hoped that with new management (read: new Director General Amano as of December 1),there will be more internal acceptance of PACT. He said there is some indication of this because Amano plans to travel with Samiei to Nigeria in December to launch a new PACT country program. (Note: If this trip materializes, it would be the first travel the in-coming DG undertakes -- a signal from him of the importance of developing countries in the IAEA as well as a commitment to IAEA activism in the cancer field. End Note) ¶5. (U) In response to questions about absorption capacity should the U.S. and others increase PACT funding through a larger regular budget or voluntary contributions, both Samiei and Fenerol maintain that PACT can handle a budgetary increase as long as program implementation and staffing tracks concurrently. Fenerol said hypothetically if PACT had a consistent yearly budget of USD 5 million, it could: 1) hire two project management staff to conduct exploratory trips (maximum 20 a year) prior to imPACT assessments and complete 20 imPACT assessments per year; 2) complete 7-12 imPACT peer reviews per year; and 3) ensure the current PACT Model Demonstration Sites are adequately funded (if resource were not mobilized from other sources). -------------- How PACT Can Grow -------------- ¶6. (U) Comment: The USG has been a supporter of PACT since its inception. We correctly hold it up as a model of how the IAEA should promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology in a results-based manner that focuses on cost effectiveness and building sustainable partnerships between recipient countries and donors. Given USG interest in promoting the peaceful use of nuclear technology, ONE option may be providing PACT with a fixed, multi-year contribution for further program implementation. Such a contribution would need to provide funding for three to four program management staff to conduct exploratory trips, imPACT assessments, and imPACT implementation, as well as funding for a communications and partnerships expert to coordinate work with other UN Agencies and NGOs. End Comment. DAVIES