African Palliative Care Association (APCA)

This international association was formed after a meeting of Hospice and Palliative Care trainers in Cape Town that led to the Cape Town Declaration. The first APCA steering committee meeting was held in Uganda from 19-20 February 2003. Steering committee members were drawn from: Kenya (Zipporah-Merdin Ali), South Africa ( Kath Defilippi), Tanzania (Jacobson) Uganda ( Anne Merriman) and Zimbabwe (Sambulo Mkwananzi).⁹ In summary, APCA aims to:

• promote study, knowledge, training and research in palliative care
• foster networks and links at all levels of palliative care
• address ethical issues
• establish an international communication network
• sponsor publications
• disseminate achievements
• promote access to resources

Objectives include:

• promotion of standards
• advocating for palliative care at governmental level
• securing the availability of drugs
• encouraging the development of national associations within Africa
• promotion of training programmes
• devising standard guidelines
• advocacy

At the inaugural conference in Arusha in June 2004, Mary Opare from Ghana was elected to the Board.