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African Palliative Care Association

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Areas of expertise & Fields of activity:	Economic and Social: HIV/AIDS Human Rights Gender Issues and Advancement of Women: Human rights of women Women and HIV/AIDS Women and health Sustainable Development: Gender equality Health Partnerships
Geographic scope:	Regional Africa
Country of activity:	Rwanda Congo Malawi Ghana Nigeria Namibia Eswatini Zambia South Africa Uganda Botswana Cameroon Ethiopia Lesotho Sierra Leone Gambia Zimbabwe Côte D'Ivoire Kenya Mozambique
Millennium Development Goals:	Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Mission statement:	The African Palliative Care Association (APCA) has identified its vision as ensuring access to palliative care for all in Africa. Through this the mission of APCA is to ensure palliative care is underpinned by evidence, widely understood and integrated into all health systems, in order to reduce pain and suffering across Africa. At the centre of the work of the African Palliative Care Association are patients, their families and carers. They, and the millions of people who need palliative care but who are not fortunate enough to receive it, are behind everything we do. APCA regards palliative care as holistic care that is applicable from diagnosis (or beforehand) until death – and beyond, as bereavement care for the family. There are millions of the people across Africa with life threatening illnesses that are currently not accessing palliative care as its provision on the continent is inconsistent, often provided from isolated centres of excellence rather than integrated into mainstream health systems. Across all areas of APCA’s work, including among health care professionals, there is still a lack of understanding of what palliative care is and how it enhances life. Few people comprehend its holistic nature, while even fewer understand its powerful potential to restore quality of life to patients and their carers. With most Africans having limited, if any, access to cancer screening, early diagnosis, treatment or palliative care, the consequent in most cases, is a painful and distressing death. Moreover, in the era of antiretroviral therapy (ART), even though they have exerted a profound impact on patient morbidity and mortality, they have not negated the need for palliative care. Even where a confirmatory cancer or HIV diagnosis is made sufficiently early, many African countries lack the health and social care infrastructure to provide the needed care to those infected by the disease. Not only is there a shortage of general medical staff in many African countries, there is a significant skills training deficit in palliative care in particular. Alongside this, drug access is crucial to high quality and effective pain and symptom management, but despite the overwhelming need, in many African countries access to even the simplest pain-relieving medication is legally restricted. Therefore APCA is working to ensure that with greater awareness of palliative care and increased evidence and integration, palliative care will become more accessible across Africa. To achieve this APCA’s work is based on four strategic drivers: ¿ Strategic driver 1: Increasing knowledge and awareness of palliative care among all stakeholders. ¿ Strategic driver 2: Strengthening health systems by integrating palliative care. ¿ Strategic driver 3: Building the evidence base for palliative care in Africa. ¿ Strategic driver 4: Ensuring the economic sustainability of APCA. APCA aspires to see integrated and sustainable palliative care services across Africa that are aligned with both the public health approach and the health systems strengthening agenda advanced by the WHO. While many individuals and organisations across the continent are working tirelessly to advance the development of palliative care, APCA is in a unique position to be able to work with all partners, sharing knowledge, resources and experiences from one African country to another. Acknowledging the genesis of modern palliative care within the United Kingdom, APCA strives to adapt it to African traditions, beliefs, cultures and settings, all of which vary between and within communities and countries on the continent. As such, APCA provides African solutions to African problems, articulating them with what is the recognised voice for palliative care across the continent, as it seeks to drive forward its development for all in need.
Year established:	2002
Year of registration:	2003
Organizational structure:	The impetus for APCA’s founding in 2004 originated at a meeting of twenty-eight palliative care trainers from across the African continent, who met in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2002 and produced a declaration calling for the integration of palliative care into health care systems and national health strategies. APCA, a membership-based pan-African organisation, is located in the capital of Uganda, Kampala. As an African organisation, APCA strives to have board representation from different parts of the continent. APCA recruits 12 board members drawn from across Africa and internationally. Board members serve for a maximum of two three-year terms and they are nominated from APCA’s existing membership. The board includes a skills mix to include wider representation from both the private and the NGO development sector as well as representation from legal, HIV/AIDS, corporate affairs, health systems strengthening and academia sectors. The wide scope of the board ensures greater opportunities for APCA to link with corporate organisations via their corporate social responsibility grants, and increased linkages with academic institutions and HIV/AIDS organisations for the wider integration of palliative care. Alongside the board, APCA has developed an advisory committee made up of palliative care experts from across Africa and internationally to ensure the palliative care community voice is represented. At the operational level, APCA has the head office in Uganda, with a Southern Africa Regional Office (SARO) in Namibia. APCA is also registered in the UK and has a board of directors for APCA UK who primarily have a fundraising role. In Uganda APCA employs 27 staff members located in three departments under the Executive Director. The Programmes Department employs one Programmes Director, one Senior Programmes Manager, one M&E Manager and five Programme Officers. The Department of Learning and Research employs one director, one ICT Manager, one Communications Manager, one Research Manager and one Research Assistant. The Resources Department employs one director, one Finance Manager, one Grants Development Manager, one Finance Officer, one Finance Assistant, one Administrator, one Administrative Assistant and seven support staff (guards, housekeepers etc). In Namibia the SAR Office is managed by a Senior Manager and employs a Finance Officer, a Programme Officer, an Administrator and a guard. The office is line managed by the Director of Programmes in Uganda. It is expected that the SAR office will be a short-term venture, after which activities will be transitioned to the relevant department within the Ministry of Health and APCA will provide ongoing support and mentorship from its head office in Kampala. The structure of departments within the organisation has increased collaboration and minimised the duplication of work efforts. More importantly, APCA increasingly works with in-country partners, including national associations and Ministries of Health. This minimises the need to hire additional staff to implement programme work, which is not sustainable, and also increases APCA’s ability to respond to competing priorities at the country level.
Number and type of members:	APCA works to build effective linkages between all our key stakeholders, including: patients, their families and communities; carers (both family and volunteers); health care providers and educators; African governments, policy makers and decision-makers; its constituent members (both individuals and organisations); national palliative care associations, hospices and palliative care organisations; academic institutions; the media; governmental and non-governmental donors (both within and outside the continent), and the general public, in a network of south-south and north-south partnerships. To implement this work APCA works with partners across Africa and internationally. The role of APCA is not to provide direct clinical care to people living with progressive, life-threatening illnesses, but instead to play a facilitative role, working collaboratively with existing and potential providers of palliative and other health care services to expand service provision by building capacity and strengthening health systems by supporting the integration of palliative care at all levels. APCA, which is itself a membership organisation, brings together the efforts and resources of individuals, organisations and other key stakeholders to further the palliative care agenda. APCA currently has over 100 members. APCA’s membership strategy, seeks to advance APCA’s vision, to support its mission and strategic plan, and to enhance progress towards the achievement of universal access to palliative care for all in need across Africa. Through the partnership strategy, APCA aims to position itself so that it can respond to emerging challenges and seize new opportunities, further strengthening collaborative approaches to achieve effective palliative care development and integration across Africa. APCA relates to five categories of partners: (i) Essential institutional partnerships; (ii) Funding partnerships; (iii) Project partnerships; (iv) Capacity building partnerships; (v) Learning and Development partnerships Within these categories the main partners APCA relates to include: patients, their families and communities; carers; health care providers and educators; African governments, policy makers and decision-makers; national palliative care associations, hospices and palliative care organisations; academic institutions; the media; governmental and non-governmental donors (both within and outside the continent), and the general public.
Affiliation with NGO networks:	International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC)
Funding structure:	Membership fees or dues Grants from Governments Foreign and international grants Fundraising campaigns

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