What is Evidence?
Building a robust evidence base to transform palliative and comprehensive chronic care across Africa through African-led research and knowledge translation.
The Evidence Gap We Must Solve
For decades, palliative care in Africa has suffered from a critical evidence deficit. Decisions about pain relief, patient care, and health policy have been made without adequate African data, leading to misallocated resources, inadequate services, and continued suffering for millions.
⚠️ Externally-Driven Agendas
Research priorities have historically been set by external institutions, failing to address Africa's unique cultural contexts, disease burdens, and health system realities. Local knowledge remains underutilized and undervalued.
⚠️ Limited Local Capacity
Insufficient investment in African researchers and institutions means limited capacity to design, implement, and publish rigorous studies. African voices are absent from global scientific discourse despite bearing the greatest burden of serious health-related suffering.
⚠️ Invisible Suffering
Over 56 million people in Africa experience serious health-related suffering annually, yet this crisis remains statistically invisible. Without data, policymakers cannot prioritize palliative care in national health budgets or UHC frameworks.
⚠️ Implementation Failures
Even when evidence exists globally, it often fails to translate into African contexts due to lack of implementation science research. We don't know what works, for whom, and under what circumstances in our diverse settings.
From Raw Data to Actionable Knowledge
Evidence alone is insufficient. APCA transforms raw data into meaningful knowledge through a systematic process of analysis, contextualization, and dissemination—ensuring that findings inform clinical practice, policy change, and community action.
Systematic Collection
Gathering clinical outcomes, health systems data, and lived experiences using validated tools like the APCA Children's Palliative Care Outcome Scale (C-POS). This captures multi-dimensional symptoms—physical, psychological, social, and spiritual—from over 2,000 children across Africa.
Rigorous Analysis
Applying robust statistical methods and implementation science frameworks to understand not just what works, but why and how. This includes mapping service availability across 54 countries through the APCA Atlas for Palliative Care in Africa using WHO-validated indicators.
Contextual Interpretation
Interpreting findings within local cultural, social, and health systems contexts. African researchers lead this process, ensuring knowledge reflects ground realities rather than imposed external frameworks.
Knowledge Synthesis
Translating complex data into accessible formats—policy briefs, clinical guidelines, training materials, and community resources. Over 200 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals including The Lancet Global Health demonstrate this synthesis.
Implementation & Impact
Applying knowledge to inform national policies, essential medicines lists, regulatory frameworks for controlled medicines, and clinical practice guidelines that improve real-world patient outcomes.
How Evidence Transforms Care
Robust evidence generates cascading benefits across clinical, systems, and policy levels—creating the foundation for sustainable, scalable, and equitable palliative care across the continent.
Clinical Excellence
Outcome measures drive quality improvement, enabling clinicians to track patient progress across physical, psychological, and spiritual domains in real-time.
Policy Influence
Data convinces ministries of health to include palliative care in national UHC strategies, essential medicines lists, and health insurance packages.
Medicines Access
Evidence demonstrating need and safe usage supports regulatory reforms for access to oral morphine and other controlled medicines for pain relief.
Workforce Development
Research identifying competency gaps informs targeted training programs, curriculum development, and professional certification standards.
Global Recognition
African-led evidence elevates the continent's voice in global health discourse, shifting from data subjects to knowledge producers and thought leaders.
Resource Equity
Accurate burden estimates ensure fair allocation of domestic and international resources toward populations with the greatest need and least access.
"African science must be funded, led, and published by Africans. Evidence is not just about data collection—it is about dignity, visibility, and the right to quality care rooted in our own contexts."— APCRN