Research
We use data and lived experience to build evidence-based advocacy that informs policy,
guides decision-makers, and improves the cancer pathway
From Evidence to Action
Once the evidence is clear, it must not sit on a shelf. Issues identified through research move into Strategic Campaigns, where we focus on: Priority cancer, urgent system failures and solutions that can save lives.
WHAT’S ON THE TABLE
National
Cancer Institute
The proposed National Cancer Institute (NCI) is about turning what we already know into what must be done.
Through research, data, and lived experience, we identify:
- where cancer services are failing
- where people are being left behind, and
- what is needed to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship.
This evidence informs national planning, coordination, and accountability. The NCI provides a national framework to turn evidence into action, aligning priorities across government, ensuring consistent implementation across provinces, and centring communities and lived experience in decision-making.
Why This Matters
South Africa does not lack information about cancer, it lacks coordination, accountability, and implementation.
The National Cancer Institute bridges the gap between knowing the problem and fixing the system, ensuring that evidence drives action and justice in cancer care.
Survivorship Framework
From Lived
Experience to
One Voice
In South Africa, surviving cancer does not mean the journey is over. Many people live with long-term physical, emotional, social, and financial challenges after treatment. Yet South Africa does not have a comprehensive national survivorship framework to guide care, support, and protection for survivors and caregivers.
Through research, lived experience, and engagement with communities, we are putting survivorship on the table as a critical part of cancer care, not an afterthought.
From Evidence to Collective Action
The Survivorship Framework brings together:
- evidence on life after cancer
- the lived realities of survivors and caregivers, and
- the voices of community-based organisations and NGOs working on the ground.
Once this evidence is clear, survivorship moves into a Strategic Campaign, where we work together to shape solutions that improve quality of life, protect rights, and strengthen long-term care. ONE VOICE for Survivorship Cancer Alliance is uniquely positioned to bring its members together as ONE VOICE to co-develop a national survivorship framework. This means:
- survivors are heard
- community organisations are included
- lived experience guides priorities, and
- solutions are developed collectively, not imposed.
By working together, we can give meaning to survivorship — ensuring that life after cancer is lived with dignity, support, and hope, and that no survivor is left to navigate the system alone.
Why This Matters
Survivorship is about more than surviving disease. It is about living well, being supported, returning to family and community life, and having access to care, protection, and information long after treatment ends.
A national survivorship framework ensures that life after cancer is recognised, planned for, and protected.