The Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research and the Department of Global HIV, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections Programmes at the World Health Organization (WHO) would like to thank members of the Guideline Development Group (GDG) for their consistent availability and commitment to making this guideline possible, and the members of the External Review Group (ERG) and all other external contributors for their work. The Departments are also grateful to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) for the literature reviews performed in the context of the updating of the IARC handbooks of cancer prevention: cervical cancer screening, Vol. 18 (2021), which were extremely useful for this guideline development process. Special thanks to Nancy Santesso, the guideline methodologist from McMaster University, who also led the systematic review process, and thank you to all the members of the systematic review teams, coordinated by Nancy Santesso. The names of the members of the GDG, ERG and of the other contributors, in particular systematic reviewers, modellers and costing teams, are listed below, with full details provided in Annexes 1–3. We appreciate the overall support of the WHO Guidelines Review Committee (GRC) Secretariat during the guideline development process, with grateful thanks to Rebekah Thomas Bosco who is leading the GRC Secretariat.
The WHO Steering Group was composed of Nathalie Broutet, Shona Dala, Linda Eckert (who also supported the GDG, the working groups for specific aspects of the guideline, and the WHO Secretariat), Morkor Newman and Ajay Rangaraj. This group was assisted by Myriam Cortes and Jane Werunga-Ndanareh. Nathalie Broutet and Shona Dalal also led the guideline development process.
The members of the GDG were Claire Achieng, Silvina Arrossi, Muhammad Atif Waqar, Ruth Awori, Ruanne Barnabas, Itamar Bento Claro, Neerja Bhatla, Marie-Claude Boily, Laia Bruni, Joanna Cain, Lameck Chinula, Z. Mike Chirenje (GDG Co-Chair), Michael Chung, Flavia Miranda Correa, Miriam Cremer, Teresa Darragh, Lynette Denny, Silvia De Sanjose, Mamadou Diop, Wachara Eamratsameekool, Danielle Engel, Julia Gage, Ali Ghanbari-Motlagh, Patti Gravitt, Margaret Happy, Tarek Hashem, Rolando Herrero, Priscilla Ingbian, Ebony Johnson, Bayarsaikhan Luvsandorj, Anne Mackie, Mauricio Maza, Kelle Moley, Sebitloane Motshedisi, Nelly Mugo, Raul Murillo, Laura Muzingwani, Ashrafun Nessa, Dorcas Obiri-Yeboah, Gina Ogilvie, Patrick Petignat, Maria Alejandra Picconi, Leeya Pinder, Walter Prendiville, Veronica Reis, Gracia Violetta Ross Quiroga, Vikrant Sahasrabuddhe, Pete Sasieni, Anna Shakarishvili, Netsanet Shiferaw, Petra Tenhoope-Bender, Myint Myint Thinn, Kerry Thomson, Julie Torode (GDG Co-Chair), Nicolas Wentzensen and Fanghui Zhao.
The members of the ERG were Raveena Chowdhury, Heather Cubie, Suzanne Garland, Sarita Ghimire, Zaki El Hanchi, Ha Hyeong In, Oh Jin Kyoung, Alejandra Meglioli, Mohammed Moawia, Lim Myong Cheol, Angélica Nogueira, Mark Schiffman, Saritha Shamsunder, Vanita Suri, Carolina Teran, Ted Trimble, Gino Venegas and Heather White.
External contributors to the evidence profiles were Marc Arbyn, Karen Canfell, Michael Caruana, Owen Demke, Cindy Gavreau, Michaela Hall, Adam Keane, Helen Kelly, James Killen, Beatrice Lauby-Secretan, Gigi Lui, Diep Nguyen and Kate Simms.
The following individuals acted as observers at the GDG meeting: Benjamin Anderson, J. (Hans) Berkhof, Michelle Chevalier, Smiljka de Lussigny, Eduardo Franco, Lisa Pei-Ching Huang, Krishna Jafa, Jose Jeronimo, Somesh Kumar, Ilana Lapidos-Salaiz, David Mesher, Jasantha Odayar, Groesbeck Parham, Carmen Perez Casas and Felipe Roitberg.
The WHO Secretariat included Maribel Almonte Pacheco, Prebo Barango, Partha Basu, Paul Bloem, Nathalie Broutet, Gary Clifford, Marilys Corbex, Myriam Cortes, Shona Dalal, Jean-Marie Dangou, Maeve De Mello, Gampo Dorji, Linda Eckert, Fayad El Sheikh, Elena Fidarova, Massimo Ghidinelli, Karima Gholbzouri, Rodolfo Gómez Ponce de León, Sami Gottlieb, Joumana George Hermez, Raymond Hutubessy, Andre Ilbawi, Naoko Ishikawa, Chandani Anoma Jayathilaka, Sharon Kapambwe, Rajat Khosla, Stephanie Yetunde Kuku, Hugues Lago, Beatrice Lauby-Secretan, Silvana Luciani, Priya Mannava, Dara Masoud, Manjulaa Narasimhan, Elick Narayan, Morkor Newman, Leopold Ouedraogo, Tina Purnat, Neena Raina, Ajay Rangaraj, Leanne Margaret Riley, Anita Sands, Catherine Sauvaget, Tshidi Sebitloane, Mukta Sharma, Hai-rim Shin, Slim Slama, Vitaly Smelov, Howard Sobel, Ute Ströher, Josaia Tiko, Huong Tran, Adriana Velazquez Berumen, Lara Vojnov and Hongyi Xu.
Funding for the preparation, development and printing of the guideline was provided by the UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-WHO-World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), with the support of the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Unitaid.