CanKids India, a leading NGO working in the field of childhood cancer in India, is involved in researching and advocating for improved access to healthcare for children with cancer to improve survival in cancer patients. Their work highlights the urgent need to prioritise childhood cancer in India and increase access to resources for early diagnosis, treatment, and support. CanKids has deployed two models to accelerate access to care and improve the quality of care for children with cancer and their families:
1)The CanKids Hospital Support Units (CHSU) model
2)The Change for Childhood Cancer (CCC) State Project model
The NGO offers a cadre of trained people for paediatric oncology support services, including social workers, data managers, dietitians, teachers, psychologists, volunteers, patient navigators, and care coordinators (parents and survivors).
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
CanKids required immediate support with MEL design and execution to streamline their processes and enable learning for their team, given that they operate across 125 Hospital Support Units (CHSUs), 19 Care centres, 16 homes away from home, 2 Canshalas and 1 PPCC across 22 states and 53 cities.
SATTVA”S APPROACH
- Sattva reviewed existing data, organisation reports, MEL systems, framework and processes. Multiple IDIs, FGDs were also conducted to gain a complete perspective of the large scale organisation with 10+ internal teams and multiple delivery programs.
- A detailed MEL framework was developed which consisted of a (i) Logical Framework with clearly defined indicators, milestones, targets, weightages (ii) Risks and external factors that will influence the MEL process (iii) List of indicators across program inputs, processes and program outputs to be measured across program verticals (iv) Identification of data sources for collection and along with frequency of verification (v) Development of data collection tools
- Sattva created a reporting framework and plan which included setting up of standards and establishing reporting structures along with outlining relevant MIS structure, templates and decision making framework to be used by CanKids
- A learning system for MEL was set up by Sattva to enable learning and adoption by client’s team which consisted of designing standard operating procedures (SOP) for MEL processes and organising of 1-2 training sessions to provide handholding support and guidance to the CanKids team for efficient adoption
OUTCOME of SATTVA’S ASSISTANCE
- Establishment of a robust MEL system: Sattva created a succinct ToC which will enable streamlining of CanKids’ data collection system for monitoring indicators for the National Outreach Programme, the central program that oversees all the other programmes and internal teams.
- This has paved the path to reach the client’s intended impact for 2030 (reach a survival rate of 60% for childhood cancer in India and secured rights of the health impaired child with cancer)
- Provision of handholding support enabled capacity building of the team to independently manoeuvre the MEL system and update it as per requirement through multiple online knowledge sharing sessions as well as in person workshops for dissemination and adoption of the organisational ToC across all the teams.
These systems will aid in driving a systematised results management and learning process leading to better effectivity in programme functions.
