What does it take to deliver care that truly meets people where they are—especially at the most vulnerable moments of their lives?

This question sat quietly beneath the surface of discussions at the consortium meeting of the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Global Health and Palliative Care (GHAP), held on 17 March 2026 in Cape Town as the centrepiece of a week-long consortium gathering (16–18 March 2026), and hosted by the University of Cape Town’s Department of Family, Community and Emergency Care (FaCE).

The day brought together an exceptional mix of voices, including representatives from the UCT Deanery of the Faculty of Health Sciences, the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness, fellow NIHR-funded projects within the Faculty, and the Faculty's research finance and enterprise teams — alongside the consortium's international research partners. The meeting was more than a routine convening, it was a space to reflect on what it means to deliver palliative care in contexts shaped by inequality, resource constraints, and diverse lived realities, and how research can respond to these complexities.

Understanding the work

At its core, the GHAP consortium is a multi-country research collaboration focused on improving access to palliative care in low- and middle-income settings.

Its work spans multiple African contexts, bringing together interdisciplinary teams to explore how care can be better delivered for individuals living with serious or life-limiting illness.

But beyond its structure, GHAP’s work speaks to a deeper challenge: how to design care that is not only clinically effective, but meaningful within the realities of people’s everyday lives.

A growing and urgent need

The scale of this challenge is significant. Data presented during the meeting highlighted that cancer cases and deaths in sub-Saharan Africa are projected to rise by approximately 150% by 2050, with cervical cancer remaining a leading cause of death among women in many countries.

Behind these figures are individuals and families navigating illness within complex social and economic conditions—often with limited access to palliative care.

This is the space in which the consortium’s work is situated.

From questions to interventions

Across the consortium, research is organised into workstreams that focus on different aspects of palliative care delivery—but are united by a shared concern: how care is experienced by patients and families.

Some of the work focuses on improving communication and understanding of patient needs, through tools that help individuals and families identify the concerns most affecting their wellbeing.

Other efforts explore new models of care for people living with incurable cancer, bringing together patients, families, and healthcare providers to rethink how care is organised and delivered.

In South Africa, work is underway to support home-based self-management, developing practical approaches that help patients and caregivers manage symptoms such as pain, breathlessness, and fatigue outside of clinical settings.

Taken together, these interventions reflect a shift towards care that is more responsive, more participatory, and more closely aligned with the realities of daily life.

The role of context

One of the strongest messages to emerge from the meeting was that context cannot be treated as a backdrop: it is central to both research and care.

Reflections from the sessions highlighted that knowledge is shaped through relationships and interaction, and that even small shifts in language or framing can determine whether research resonates with participants.

Participants spoke to the importance of understanding how people navigate care in practice; often moving between formal health services and other sources of support, while managing the constraints of everyday life.

In this sense, palliative care is not only about services, but about how those services fit into people’s worlds.

From evidence to application

A key focus of the meeting was the movement from research to practice.

Through policy and partner engagement discussions, participants explored how findings from across the consortium can inform health systems—particularly in strengthening connections between community-based care, primary care, and specialised services.

This includes attention to referral pathways, service integration, and the practical realities of implementation—ensuring that interventions remain feasible within the systems they are intended to support.

Investing in people

Alongside its research outputs, the consortium is also contributing to the development of researchers and practitioners working in this space.

Training programmes, mentorship initiatives, and academic development activities are supporting individuals to build skills in research, leadership, and policy engagement. In doing so, the consortium is actively contributing to the expansion of palliative care research capacity and strengthening leadership across participating institutions and countries.

These efforts recognise that strengthening palliative care is not only about generating evidence, but about building the capacity to sustain and apply that knowledge over time.

Looking ahead

As the meeting drew to a close, what remained was not a single solution, but a clearer understanding of the work ahead.

Ensuring that palliative care reaches those who need it most requires more than expanding services. It requires approaches that are grounded in context, shaped by lived experience, and responsive to the complexities of real life.

Through its ongoing work, the GHAP consortium continues to explore how this can be done—bridging research and practice in ways that bring care closer to the people it is intended to serve.

This research was funded by the NIHR (GHRUG NIHR134440) using UK international development funding from the UK Government to support global health research. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the UK government.