No child should suffer needlessly. Yet many children around the world still do not have access to palliative care.
A global coalition of organisations, led by the International Children's Palliative Care Network (ICPCN), is calling for action to improve access to children's palliative care. The coalition is part of the advocacy efforts of the WHO-convened Palliative Care Working Group.
Governments, global agencies, local health partners and funders are urged to take urgent and coordinated action. The goal is to ensure equitable access to palliative care for all children, without discrimination.
This coalition for strengthening children’s palliative care asserts that no child should suffer needlessly. Access to health care, including palliative care is a basic human right and should be available to every child who needs it, no matter where they live or what condition they have.
We call on governments, global organisations, and communities to work together to:
Strengthen leadership and integrate children’s palliative care within health systems
Greater priority should be given to palliative care across the life course, with children’s palliative care, including neonates and adolescents and young adults (AYA), embedded in national health policies, strategies, and financing mechanisms aligned with universal health coverage and primary health care.
Develop and support the workforce
Sustainable education and training pathways in children’s palliative care should be established across generalist, specialist, and leadership levels, including for community health workers, alongside measures to protect and support workforce wellbeing.
Ensure access to essential medicines and supplies
Essential medicines lists and regulatory systems should include child-appropriate palliative care medicines, including controlled medicines and paediatric formulations, and ensure their affordability, availability, and accessibility across all settings, including within the community.
Expand integrated models of care
Children’s palliative care should be integrated into national health systems and delivered through an interdisciplinary, community-based approach, with clearly defined referral pathways across all levels of care. Services must be developmentally appropriate and ensure the early identification of children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions to enable timely access to palliative care.
Empower families and strengthen evidence and awareness
Public engagement, research, and monitoring should strengthen understanding of children’s palliative care, support self-care and caregiving, address misconceptions, and generate evidence to guide policy and practice.
Yet these vital services in many countries are under-developed, under-funded or non-existent and children are suffering needlessly.
Children’s palliative care is achievable, affordable, and essential. Expanding access is not only a health system priority — it is a matter of human rights, equity, and global responsibility. Comfort, dignity, and quality of life are not privileges; they are every child’s right. Children’s palliative care delivers on that promise.
Visit the Close the Gap Web Page to read the policy briefings and access the campaign materials, where you can sign up as individual or as an organisation to endorse the campaign and its recommendations. Organisations can upload their logo and have this displayed on the website and on the campaign global map.
Let’s work together to Close the Gap to make children’s palliative care a reality for children everywhere!