The Dominican Republic has been selected as the winner of the international “Country CureAll 2026” award, a recognition granted jointly by the World Health Organization (WHO) and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the United States. The announcement, made on 12 April 2026, highlights the country’s significant progress in improving pediatric cancer care and survival rates.
The Country CureAll is an annual global competition that evaluates the collaborative efforts between national health ministries, WHO regional offices, and partner organizations. The Dominican Republic secured wins in two specific categories:
• Alignment: For successfully integrating the pillars of the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer into national health policy.
• Impact: For achieving measurable improvements in patient care and access to treatment.
Context and goals
The award is part of the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer, which aims to reach a global survival rate of at least 60% for the six most common types of childhood cancers by 2030. Judges evaluated the country’s ability to streamline service delivery, prioritize childhood cancer in national legislation, and improve the availability of essential medicines.
The Dominican Ministry of Public Health celebrated the win as a milestone in its ongoing partnership with St. Jude Global and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
This recognition follows a consistent trend of improvement for the country, which previously received “CureAll” related honors in 2024 and 2025 (specifically the Country CureAll Poster Winner and CureAll Americas awards).
The 2026 award specifically acknowledges the Dominican Republic’s role in advancing the GICC goal: achieving at least a 60% survival rate for children with the six most common types of cancer by 2030, while simultaneously reducing the equity gap in global healthcare access.
The seven-month National Cancer Control Planning integrating Children, Adolescents & Young Adults (NCCP iCAYA) is a knowledge exchange program hosted by St. Jude Global since 2022 that has engaged 70 ministry-designated teams from 39 countries across all six World Health Organization regions. The program explores real-world scenarios in national programs, policy and legislation through the lens of the CureAll framework, which underpins the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer synthesizing evidence from fields including pediatric oncology, global public health, and policy and systems science.
Bringing together ministry experts, clinicians, civil society and lived experience leaders and advocates, NCCP iCAYA offers guided collective reflection exercises alongside tools to apply systems thinking, fostering communities of practice to transform outcomes meaningfully and sustainably for children, adolescents and young adults everywhere.
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Noticias SIN
13 April 2026