New grant for research project on cervical cancer among female migrant workers in the global south
Associate Professor Anja Simonsen and Professor Tine Gammeltoft from the Department of Anthropology are partners in the interdisciplinary research project CARES – Cervical cancer Awareness, Resources, and Empowerment for Self-care among internal migrant women in industrial zones in the global south. CARES has just received a grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation covering the period 2026–2030.
The funding programme supports research projects that explore the links between mobility and health – including how movement across locations affects populations’ overall health, health determinants, and well-being, and how these effects can be addressed in sustainable ways.
Research aimed at change
Globally, 84–90% of all new cervical cancer cases and 87–90% of cervical cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, including Vietnam and Tanzania. Although the disease is preventable, it remains one of the most common cancer forms among women in these countries. Internal migrant workers in urban industrial zones are particularly affected, often facing limited access to screening, diagnosis, and treatment. The project’s overall aim is to enhance prevention of the disease:
Together with our partners, we seek to develop concrete interventions to strengthen women's capacities for sexual and reproductive health self-care and to generate new knowledge that can help optimize female migrant workers’ access to timely screening, diagnostics and treatment of cervical precancerous lesions.
CARES combines anthropological analyses of women’s everyday lives, health practices, and access to care with clinical interventions. Through two longitudinal studies involving a total of 4,000 women in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Bac Giang (Vietnam), the project will investigate how social inequalities and migration patterns influence the risk of HPV infection and cervical cancer – and how this knowledge can be translated into improved health practices. CARES addresses the vital intersection between sexual/reproductive health and chronic health conditions, aiming to generate evidence to enhance local and global policy attention to this important field.
The project is carried out in collaboration with Ocean Road Cancer Institute (Tanzania), Hanoi Medical University (Vietnam), the University of Southern Denmark, and the University of Copenhagen, with the Danish Cancer Society as a partner.