September 9, 2026 — Today marks the official launch of COMPASS (Collaborative Movement for Palliative Care Access and System Strengthening), a year-long structured country technical support program developed under the leadership of the WHO-convened Palliative Care Working Group to support country teams integrate palliative care more fully into their national health systems.
Welcoming participants to the inaugural COMPASS convening, Dr André Ilbawi, Team Lead, Cancer Team, WHO Headquarters, thanked members for their commitment to advancing palliative care globally and encouraged them to continue leading collective action where it is needed most.
“Palliative care has been neglected, a paradox of global health for too long. … A coalition of the willing have to step forward. You are that coalition,” he said, thanking participants for bringing their expertise, partnership and dedication to the initiative.
Thirteen country teams from across all six WHO regions — AFRO, EMRO, EURO, PAHO, SEARO, and WPRO — have joined the program, each paired with a dedicated regional advisory team. In total, six regional advisory teams, will walk alongside country teams over the next year, offering contextualized expertise and guiding country teams toward effective dialogue on strengths and opportunities as the teams work towards developing national priorities and goals for palliative care.
Delivered under the leadership of three WHO Collaborating Centres — Project ECHO, the University of Navarra (Atlantes), and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital — COMPASS blends three pillars of support: online learning sessions, regional advisory workshops, and national dialogue workshops. Together, these pillars guide country teams to explore six core domains of health system strengthening for palliative care: empowering people and communities, policy and governance, health workforce training, essential medicines, service delivery, and research.
Figure 1. WHO Conceptual Model of Palliative Care Development
Rather than offering every country the same fixed model, COMPASS is designed to help each team find its own path forward. Over the coming year, country teams will work to develop a shared goal, allowing them to shape their priorities, built with the support of advisors, incorporating lessons and learning shared from other countries.
“COMPASS reflects a coordinated effort to create a space for bidirectional learning, exploring successful country models of palliative care and connect with expertise of specialists,”
said the program’s co-Directors, Mark Stoltenberg, Megan Doherty, and Chris Piromalli.
“Today is the beginning of a genuine partnership between global expertise and country-led priorities.”
Figure 2- some of the 120+ participants
This is good initiative, I hope Rwanda is included