The Ethiopian Organization for Cancer Prevention and Research (CPR – Ethiopia) holds a set of positions on cancer prevention and early detection in Ethiopia. This section states each one, the dated measurement it rests on, and who it is addressed to.
A person who has noticed a change in their body should be assessed by a health worker rather than waiting for a screening round.
Policy briefs
The detailed policy material is published as briefs, each addressed to the ministries, agencies and legislators who decide the question it covers. Each brief states the issue, the evidence, and the areas that evidence bears on.
- Tobacco control in Ethiopia — cigarette tax at 45.9% of retail price in 2024, against a 75% benchmark
- Cervical screening in Ethiopia — the coverage figure, and the test the 2030 target counts
- Hepatitis B in Ethiopia — a falling child prevalence and 7.66 million people already infected
- Cancer and the household bill — what Ethiopian financing and capacity data show
What better measurement would settle
Several of the positions turn on measurement, and say what publishing it would settle. Ethiopia’s national cervical screening coverage estimate is for 2019; a more recent estimate would show whether coverage has moved since. Ethiopia ran a full national adult tobacco survey in 2024 and presented the results in Addis Ababa in April 2025, and we support publication of that report and deposit of its data in the WHO NCD Microdata Repository (opens in a new tab), where researchers can reach it.
Ethiopia’s estimated cancer burden for 2024 was 79,239 new cases and 46,841 deaths (opens in a new tab), a modelled estimate rather than a count. A registry reporting incidence by region would let burden and services be compared across the country, which is the comparison an equity case turns on.
The pages in this section
Policy positions — each position we take, with the figure and year it rests on.
Tobacco control — what Ethiopian law covers, where Ethiopia sits on the measures WHO scores, and the changes we support.
Access and equity — what Ethiopian households pay, what capacity is recorded and when, and what would make regional access measurable.
Submissions and statements — the record of submissions, correspondence and public statements, and what each entry will carry.
Correspondence about any of this, from ministries, agencies, legislators and partner organisations, reaches us at cancer.prev.ethio@gmail.com or +251 92 012 4183.