How to expand access when the pandemic has made everything harder
In the shadow of a global pandemic, the International Atomic Energy Agency convenes its 64th General Conference with a quiet but consequential purpose: to ask whether the bridges it has built between nuclear science and human health are actually holding. One year into a partnership with the Islamic Development Bank to address breast and cervical cancer in developing nations, the agency pauses to measure progress against disruption — and to ask who, beyond traditional donors, might help carry the work forward. Across Africa, Asia, the Arab world, and Latin America, regional coalitions of nations are doing the same, checking whether the slow, careful work of sharing expertise and building capacity is reaching the clinics and patients that need it most.
- A year-old partnership between the IAEA and the Islamic Development Bank to fight women's cancers is being tested by the very crisis it was designed to outlast — COVID-19 has stalled travel, disrupted research, and made expanding healthcare access even harder.
- The agency is actively courting non-traditional donors to fund nuclear medicine work, signaling that existing resources are insufficient to meet the scale of need in developing countries.
- An innovation competition among scientists in IsDB member nations is set to announce winners, surfacing ground-level ideas about what breast and cervical cancer services are missing and what might actually work.
- Central Asia is under a specific lens: a regional survey has mapped the shortage of trained medical physicists, and experts are now designing pathways to build that capacity and protect patients from unsafe radiation practices.
- Four regional cooperation blocs — Africa, Asia-Pacific, Arab States, and Latin America — are holding virtual check-ins to report progress, name obstacles, and plan the next phase of nuclear science collaboration.
- National Liaison Officers in Europe are already sketching priorities for the 2022–2023 technical cooperation cycle, signaling that the agency is thinking past the pandemic toward what comes next.
One year ago, the IAEA and the Islamic Development Bank made a shared bet: that nuclear medicine and radiation technology could meaningfully reduce the toll of breast and cervical cancer on women in developing countries. Now, as the agency prepares for its 64th General Conference, it will pause to ask whether that bet is paying off — even as COVID-19 has made the work harder at every turn.
On September 22, the two organizations will host a side event to review the Women's Cancers Partnership Initiative, with IsDB President Bandar Hajjar in attendance. The conversation will confront a central tension: how to expand cancer diagnosis and treatment for women in low-resource settings when a pandemic has disrupted nearly everything. Part of the answer may lie in attracting non-traditional donors — funders who haven't historically supported nuclear medicine. The event will also announce winners of an innovation competition that invited scientists across IsDB member countries to propose ideas for strengthening cancer services, offering a window into what practitioners on the ground believe is missing.
The women's cancer initiative is one thread in a larger institutional weave. The IAEA's Department of Technical Cooperation is coordinating a series of regional meetings — many held virtually to reduce risk — designed to keep nuclear science cooperation moving. In Central Asia, a September 29 session will examine how countries are applying the agency's Basic Safety Standards in clinical settings, with particular attention to the shortage of trained medical physicists. Participants will share lessons on justifying and optimizing radiation doses, and on building referral guidelines that protect patients.
Three regional cooperation blocs — Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and the Arab States — will hold their own virtual meetings in mid-September, while Latin American and Caribbean countries will convene separately in late November. Each gathering is less a one-time event than a checkpoint in an ongoing relationship, where countries report progress, surface obstacles, and plan ahead.
Taken together, these meetings amount to an institutional reckoning: the IAEA asking itself whether the expertise and technology concentrated in wealthier nations is genuinely reaching the hospitals and clinics that need it most — and what it will take to close the distance that remains.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is preparing to take stock of an ambitious partnership born in crisis. One year ago, the IAEA and the Islamic Development Bank joined forces to tackle women's cancers—breast and cervical cancer specifically—using nuclear medicine and radiation technology. Now, as the agency gathers for its 64th General Conference next week, it will pause to measure what that partnership has actually accomplished, even as COVID-19 has forced researchers and clinicians to work around lockdowns and travel restrictions.
On September 22, the two organizations will host a side event to review the Women's Cancers Partnership Initiative. IsDB President Bandar Hajjar will be present as IAEA experts and invited speakers walk through the year's progress. The conversation will focus on a central tension: how to expand access to cancer diagnosis and treatment for women in developing countries when the pandemic has made everything harder. Part of the answer, they hope, lies in new money from non-traditional donors—funders who haven't historically supported nuclear medicine work. The event will also announce the winners of an innovation competition that asked scientists and researchers across the Islamic Development Bank's member countries to submit ideas for strengthening breast and cervical cancer services. Those proposals represent the ground-level thinking about what works and what's missing.
Beyond the women's cancer initiative, the IAEA's Department of Technical Cooperation is orchestrating a broader set of meetings designed to keep nuclear science and technology cooperation moving forward across regions. Because gathering in person remains risky, many of these sessions are being held virtually or scheduled outside the main conference week to reduce crowding. On September 29, experts from the IAEA's Europe division will convene to examine how countries in Central Asia are putting the agency's Basic Safety Standards into practice in hospitals and clinics. The meeting carries a specific focus: medical physicists. A regional survey has documented how many trained physicists are available across Central Asia, and the conversation will center on how to build that capacity. Participants will share what they've learned about protecting patients—how to justify radiation doses, how to optimize them, and how to create referral guidelines that keep people safe.
Three regional cooperation agreements will hold their own virtual meetings in mid-September: one for Africa, one for Asia and the Pacific, and one for the Arab States in Asia. Each brings together member countries working on nuclear science and technology research and training. These are not one-off discussions but ongoing partnerships, and the meetings will allow countries to report on progress, identify obstacles, and plan next steps. A fourth regional group—the Latin American and Caribbean countries—will meet separately in late November.
Separately, on September 24, National Liaison Officers from Europe will gather to review how their regional program is actually being implemented on the ground. They'll also begin preliminary work on project designs for the 2022-2023 technical cooperation cycle, thinking ahead to what the next two years should prioritize. The cumulative effect of all these meetings is a kind of institutional check-in: the IAEA taking its own pulse, asking whether the partnerships it has built are delivering results, and where the gaps remain. For countries trying to improve cancer care and radiation safety with limited resources, these conversations matter. They determine whether the expertise and technology that exist in wealthier nations can actually reach the clinics and hospitals that need them most.
Citações Notáveis
The initiative has moved ahead despite the restrictions imposed by COVID-19, and new partnerships will be forged with non-traditional donors to increase global access to comprehensive cancer diagnosis and treatment for women.— IAEA and Islamic Development Bank partnership statement
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does the IAEA care so much about women's cancers specifically? Why not just cancer in general?
Because breast and cervical cancers are preventable and treatable if you catch them early and have the right equipment. But in many developing countries, women don't have access to screening or radiation therapy. The partnership is saying: this is solvable. We have the technology.
And the innovation competition—what's that actually looking for?
Ideas from the ground. Scientists in those countries know what's missing in their hospitals. Maybe it's training. Maybe it's a cheaper way to deliver treatment. Maybe it's how to organize referral networks. The competition surfaces those ideas and funds the best ones.
Why move the meetings outside the conference week? Wouldn't it be easier to do everything at once?
Easier, yes. But safer, no. They're trying to limit how many people are in one room at the same time. COVID is still real. So they're spreading things out, going virtual where they can.
The medical physicists—why are they the bottleneck in Central Asia?
Because you can't safely deliver radiation therapy without them. They calculate doses, they maintain equipment, they make sure patients aren't harmed. If you don't have trained physicists, you can't use the technology, even if you have the machines.
So these meetings are really about capacity building?
Exactly. It's not just about sharing information. It's about training people, identifying what each country needs, and creating a plan to get there. That takes time and coordination across borders.