When the world marks World Cervical Cancer Elimination Day of Action on Nov. 17, 2026, most countries will still be working towards the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2030 targets. Indonesia, however, has gone further in one important aspect.

Facing a disease that kills around 21,000 Indonesian women each year, the Ministry of Health has committed to the WHO benchmarks while adding a catch-up vaccination cohort for women aged 21-26. That decision alone could bring elimination forward by a decade.

Indonesia is still on the path towards eliminating cervical cancer. But its approach shows what faster progress could look like: combining routine vaccination with a way to reach women who have already aged out of school-based programs, then supporting both with the financing and delivery systems needed to reach communities consistently.

If Indonesia can make this work at national scale, it could offer a model for the rest of Asia.

HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccination entered Indonesia’s National Immunization Programme in 2023, providing free doses for schoolgirls alongside a shift towards HPV DNA testing. But school-based programs cannot reach women who have already aged out.

The 21-26 catch-up cohort extends that approach to young adult women who would otherwise fall outside the school-based program, rather than waiting a generation for childhood vaccination alone to change the trajectory of the disease.

There is already evidence that high coverage is achievable when delivery is properly resourced.

Running since 2016, Indonesia’s school-based HPV vaccination pilots have achieved uptake of 90-95 percent in pilot districts. Although Bhutan and Thailand have also moved towards nationwide HPV vaccination, Indonesia is going further by implementing catch-up vaccination and extending protection to young adult women at significant scale.

Beyond setting the ambition, the real test is turning it into tangible results for women across Indonesia.

Indonesia has 285 million people spread across 17,500 islands. A national target set in Jakarta still has to translate into vaccines being made available, women being screened, results being returned and patients being referred for treatment in communities far beyond the major urban centres.

This is where funders can play a useful role.

Public financing must remain the backbone of a national elimination program, but it does not have to do every job alone. Philanthropic and private funders can help fill gaps that public financing cannot always reach by supporting local organizations, strengthening delivery and helping programs reach communities that are harder to serve.

Because this capital can be more flexible, it can also take on risks that larger pools of public or development financing may be less suited to absorb. This allows new approaches to be tested, provides early technical support and helps proven interventions move towards scale.

AVPN is currently building its Asia Cervical Cancer Financing Platform around this approach. It brings together philanthropic and private capital alongside Indonesia’s national program.

In Indonesia, the opportunity now is to bring the right partners together behind the same goal: the government leads the national program, development partners support scale and philanthropic funders help address gaps that could otherwise slow progress.

The economic case is compelling.

The WHO estimates that every $1 mobilized towards cervical cancer elimination through 2050 can generate $26 in wider societal and economic benefits.

Indonesia has already made an ambitious policy choice to improve women’s health and well-being. The next hurdle is whether financing and implementation can keep pace.

For Asian funders, this presents an opportunity to put the right kind of capital behind the parts of the system where it can make the greatest difference. If Indonesia can bring those pieces together at national scale, it will offer the region something more useful than another global health target: a financing and delivery model that others can learn from.

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Dhun Davar, Chief of Programmes and Deputy CEO, AVPN.

 The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

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