Stakeholders Unite for Better Cancer Care by Creating an Ecosystem Approach in UP

Jubilee News Desk

Lucknow: Kalyan Singh Super Specialty Cancer Institute, in collaboration with Jhpiego convened a high-powered meeting of various stakeholders on March 1st to discuss a roadmap for creating an ecosystem approach to cancer care in Uttar Pradesh, with a focus on women’s cancers. The aim was to ensure that efforts for common cancer control and care did not remain siloed, but instead worked together coherently and congruently to address the needs of cancer patients in the state.

The strategy involved landscaping and stakeholder mapping, stakeholder and situational analysis, stakeholder consultation workshops, launching the ecosystem approach, and developing a multi-year costed implementation plan. After extensive stakeholder mapping and analysis over the past year, this consultation meeting was held at the Taj Hotel in Lucknow.

The meeting provided a platform for cross-learning and sharing of experiential learnings from various stakeholders, including those working independently in various domains of cancer care such as cancer awareness, early detection and diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation, referrals, people’s participations, leveraging existing platforms to generate such awareness, and navigation. The stakeholders brought specific varied interventions that addressed gaps in the program, providing a way to improve existing programs and provide success elements for the local context.

The stakeholders’ commission was launched for coherent cancer care in Uttar Pradesh, drawing a vision and framework of the roadmap for cancer care in the state. It comprised representatives from the state government, public health department, district officials, professional associations, private care providers, civil society organizations, medical college representatives, pharma and medical devices industry representatives, CSR, and philanthropic groups.  A working group will be formed to take forward the vision document and roadmap of Uttar Pradesh and to identify replicable best practices and strategies to be contextualized in the state. 

Following the deliberations, a series of stakeholder workshops will be organized in the state under the guidance and chairmanship of respective state leaders and officials to increase the effectiveness of cancer care interventions in the state.

This dialogue is expected to catalyze the much-required momentum to recognize that cancer control, care, and even elimination was possible only if all stakeholders joined hands together. The initiative came out of sustained efforts by Kalyan Singh Super Specialty Cancer Institute, Jhpiego, a nonprofit global health leader and Johns Hopkins University affiliate, which began its work in this area in the state in 2017, and Roche India (RIHI).