World Health Organization 20, Avenue Appia

1. Urges Member States:
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to develop, strengthen and implement, where appropriate, palliative care policies to support the 
comprehensive strengthening of health systems to integrate evidence-based, cost-effective and equitable 
palliative care services in the continuum of care, across all levels, with emphasis on primary care, community 
and home-based care, and universal coverage schemes;
to ensure adequate domestic funding and allocation of human resources, as appropriate, for palliative care 
initiatives, including development and implementation of palliative care policies, education and training, 
and quality improvement initiatives, and supporting the availability and appropriate use of essential 
medicines, including controlled medicines for symptom management;
to provide basic support, including through multisectoral partnerships, to families, community volunteers 
and other individuals acting as caregivers, under the supervision of trained professionals, as appropriate;
to aim to include palliative care as an integral component of the ongoing education and training offered 
to care providers, in accordance with their roles and responsibilities, according to the following principles: 
(a) basic training and continuing education on palliative care should be integrated as a routine element 
of all undergraduate medical and nursing professional education, and as part of in-service training 
of caregivers at the primary care level, including health care workers, caregivers addressing patients’ 
spiritual needs and social workers;
(b) intermediate training should be offered to all health care workers who routinely work with patients 
with life-threatening illnesses, including those working in oncology, infectious diseases, paediatrics, 
geriatrics and internal medicine;
(c) specialist palliative care training should be available to prepare health care professionals who will 
manage integrated care for patients with more than routine symptom management needs;
to assess domestic palliative care needs, including pain management medication requirements, and 
promote collaborative action to ensure adequate supply of essential medicines in palliative care, avoiding 
shortages;
to review and, where appropriate, revise national and local legislation and policies for controlled medicines, 
with reference to WHO policy guidance,
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on improving access to and rational use of pain management 
medicines, in line with the United Nations international drug control conventions;
to update, as appropriate, national essential medicines lists in the light of the recent addition of sections 
on pain and palliative care medicines to the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines and the WHO Model 
List of Essential Medicines for Children;
to foster partnerships between governments and civil society, including patients’ organizations, to support, 
as appropriate, the provision of services for patients requiring palliative care;
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And, where applicable, regional economic integration organizations.
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Ensuring balance in national policies on controlled substances: guidance for availability and accessibility of controlled medicines. Geneva: World 
Health Organization; 2011.

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Integrating palliative care and symptom relief into primary health care
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to implement and monitor palliative care actions included in WHO’s global action plan for the prevention 
and control of noncommunicable diseases 2013–2020;