Bringing leaders together to support the development of children's palliative care across the Asia Pacific region-an interdisciplinary workshop.

Abstract

Globally, there are over 21 million children in need of palliative care. Over a quarter (28%) of these children live in the Asia Pacific region, where access to children's palliative care is limited or absent. Diversity in culture, economies, and political systems across the region has resulted in significant variation in how health services are developed, funded, and delivered. For children's palliative care, services are often poorly coordinated across health systems, with limited integration into national health policies. Despite this there is a growing group of passionate clinicians and foundations trying to establish and develop services. This paper describes a 2-day leadership workshop that was held preceding the International Children's Palliative Care Network conference in the Philippines in November 2025. The primary goal of the workshop was to introduce a health systems approach to equip children's palliative care leaders and champions to advance palliative care development in their countries, at community, institutional, national and regional levels. The workshop brought together 51 children's palliative care leaders, representing 17 countries/regions and 42 institutions across the region in addition to 28 international expert facilitators. Feedback from participants highlighted the value of this workshop for growth and development across policy, research, clinical service development, education and training. This workshop lays the foundation for further collaboration and partnerships across Asia Pacific and the world to strengthen children's palliative care.