There is no national palliative care association in Lesotho. The need to form a national body is recognised in order to significantly promote the development of palliative care in the country. This development is identified as a priority in the Rapid Appraisal draft report.

The following organisations are relevant to palliative care development in Lesotho:

African Palliative Care Association (APCA)

Lesotho was represented by two individuals at the inaugural meeting of APCA in Arusha, Tanzania in June 2004. The APCA concept was born in 2002 in Cape Town, South Africa at a meeting to look at issues of palliative care education in Africa. The desire to link knowledge, resources and networks throughout Africa formed the motivation to form the association. It was expected that countries would develop their own national palliative care organisations to be the main coordinating mechanism for in-country palliative care activities, as well as providing a national link to APCA. The Lesotho national organisation has yet to be formed.

Global Fund¹⁷

The Global Fund was created to finance a dramatic turn-around in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. To date, the Global Fund has committed US$ 3 billion in 128 countries to support aggressive interventions against all three.

Population Services International (PSI)

This US based organisation channels funds from Centres for Disease Control and USAID to establish centres for HIV counselling and testing. PSI has initiated 3 ‘New Start’ Centres in Maseru, Maputsoe and Mafeteng to provide HIV counselling and testing. These sites were opened in July 2004. Plans are in place to open 2 more sites.