Can You Hear Us Now? Equity in Global Advocacy for Palliative Care

Evidence-based advocacy underpins the sustainable delivery of quality, publicly guaranteed, and universally available palliative care. More than 60 million people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have no or extremely limited access to either palliative care services or essential palliative care medicines (e.g., opioids) on the World Health Organization Model List. Indeed, only 12% of the global palliative care need is currently being met. Palliative care advocacy works to bring this global public health inequity to light. Despite their expertise, palliative care practitioners in LMICs are rarely invited to health policymaking tables - even in their own countries - and are underrepresented in the academic literature produced largely in the high-income world. In this paper, palliative care experts from Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia affiliated with the International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care Advocacy Focal Point Program articulate the urgent need for evidence-based advocacy, focusing on significant barriers such as urban/rural divides, cancer-centeredness, service delivery gaps, opioid formulary limitations, public policy, and education deficits. Their advocacy is situated in the context of an emerging global health narrative that stipulates palliative care provision as an ethical obligation of all health systems. To support advocacy efforts, palliative care evaluation and indicator data should assess the extent to which LMIC practitioners lead and participate in global and regional advocacy. This goal entails investment in transnational advocacy initiatives, research investments in palliative care access and cost-effective models in LMICs, and capacity building for a global community of practice to capture the attention of policymakers at all levels of health system governance. (c) 2022 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Evidence-based advocacy is crucial for ensuring sustainable delivery of quality palliative care that is universally available. Currently, only 12% of the global palliative care need is being met, leaving over 60 million people in low- and middle-income countries without access to essential palliative care services and medicines. Palliative care advocacy aims to address the global public health inequity, focusing on barriers such as urban/rural divides, cancer-centeredness, service delivery gaps, opioid formulary limitations, public policy, and education deficits. LMIC palliative care practitioners are often marginalized in health policymaking and academic literature, highlighting the need for investment in transnational advocacy initiatives, research on access and cost-effective models in LMICs, and capacity building for a global community of practice to engage policymakers.