Implementing a South–South Cooperation Model to Strengthen Early Diagnosis of Childhood Cancer in the Andean Subregion

BACKGROUND: This project aims to promote early diagnosis of childhood cancer in the Andean subregion through South-South cooperation to strengthen health-system capacity. It was implemented within the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC) and the PAHO Cooperation Among Countries for Health Development (CCHD) mechanism, led by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Andean Health Organization (ORAS-CONHU), and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. METHODS: Between April 2023 and July 2024, seed funding supported South-South cooperation activities to strengthen early diagnosis through education, communication, and collaboration. A monitoring and sustainability phase was conducted from August 2024 to December 2025. The assessment focused on implementation activities and programmatic outputs, while available country-level indicators of diagnostic timeliness were reviewed descriptively. RESULTS: The initiative supported implementation of a regional South-South cooperation model across six Andean countries. Outputs included training 61,502 participants through virtual activities and 4,114 through in-person activities, development and adaptation of communication materials, community awareness campaigns, strengthened national and regional coordination mechanisms, and incorporation of early diagnosis activities into national policy and cancer control frameworks. Country-level data on diagnostic timeliness were available only in selected settings and were not sufficiently standardized for regional assessment of impact. CONCLUSIONS: This initiative demonstrates the feasibility of South-South cooperation to support regional capacity building, health-system strengthening, and policy development for childhood cancer early diagnosis. The experience highlights the value of shared knowledge, resource optimization, regional coordination, and adaptation to local contexts. Longer-term standardized monitoring is needed to determine whether these implementation outputs translate into measurable improvements in early diagnosis and other patient-level outcomes.