Arunah Chandran, Public Health Officer, Equity and Diversity Officer, IARC/WHO, shared on LinkedIn:
“The Global South is too often a graveyard of pilots.
Extraordinary people doing extraordinary things for health, agriculture, climate, food systems. Innovative ideas. Dedicated teams. Real outcomes.
But many of these pilots have a fixed lifespan.
When foreign aid dries up, projects end. The workforce disperses. Systems built around project funding disappear. Too often, the gains disappear with them.
That’s why, in implementation research, the question ‘What next?‘ is just as important as ‘Did it work?‘
This week, we sat down with Dr. Jerard Selvam, Tamil Nadu, Dr. Krishnaraj, and colleagues from the National Health Mission as well as medical colleges to reflect on what we have learned, what should be carried forward, and how we can support Tamil Nadu’s long-term plans for cancer early detection.
Our thanks to the team at the Cancer Institute (WIA) Adyar, led by Dr. Swaminathan Rajaraman, Dr. Vani N V and colleagues, for convening this important discussion. It was about understanding what government needs, where external partners can add value, and where they should step back.
Because no pilot changes a health system on its own.
Governments do.
At IARC – International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organization, our role is to not just leave behind evidence, but also to build capacity, and trust – not dependency.”
Other articles featuring Arunah Chandran on OncoDaily.
