why Campaigning for Cancer
In the beginning in South Africa
To discuss and challenge the issues that make up the cancer advocacy landscape in South Africa, Campaigning for Cancer held a pioneering African advocacy conference in October 2007.
This action-oriented forum brought together cancer patient organizations from across South Africa to discuss, exchange and develop effective advocacy strategies which can be used in practice. The goal - to support and educate patient groups nationally, in order to improve the quality of cancer treatment and care.
500 Fundamental stakeholders including patients and those affected by cancer, cancer focused NGOs and private funders, medical fraternity, professional associations, pharmaceutical companies and government representatives attended the conference. The mix of representatives attending was important as the conference needed to include all stakeholders, ensuring a comprehensive representation to be objective.
The event saw conference delegates explore emerging issues in public policy and medical practice, learn about the developments in cancer research and science and sharpen their advocacy abilities. Leading experts from scientific and research fields discussed new and often controversial issues in the struggle to diagnose, treat, cure - and ultimately prevent - cancer.
The conference also featured national and international experts who answered some of the most topical cancer advocacy questions of the decade.
The conference was results driven.
It was the first step in Campaigning for Cancer's drive to create awareness of the role and importance of advocacy in the treatment of cancer.
We realized that in order for cancer advocacy to be truly effective, it needed to be a sustainable campaign.
The delegates acknowledged that while patient organizations can hold significant influence in healthcare policy outcomes and have the capacity to drive change in the cancer landscape at grassroots level; not all patients are able to take advantage of this due to lack of information or support.
Patient groups are also faced with common issues in influencing health care policies including having their voices heard, gaining support for their cause and receiving the opportunity to participate in legislative reforms.
They needed to be assisted by an all encompassing policy driven initiative.
Campaigning for Cancer was to be the practical solution to this process.
Our function - to ensure dialogue amongst role-players and facilitate solutions in a manner that ensures that all stakeholder positions are considered. The objective of this is to develop relationships between stakeholders that facilitate mutual understanding of each other's needs and constrains.
|
|
