In official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO), the WHPCA works in conjunction with over 200 regional institutions and national partners for the global development of palliative care and advancement of pain relief.
[6] WHPCA is an implementing NGO affiliated with the World Health Organization (WHO) promoting change in public policies for hospice and palliative care on a global, national, and regional scale.
The organization works to eliminate the stigma surrounding pain relief by challenging certain national public policies, especially in developing countries where prescribed opioid use is controversial due to drug addiction.
[6] In 2014 the WHPCA and WHO produced a joint publication, the Global Atlas of Palliative Care at the End of Life, edited by Stephen Connor and Maria Cecilia Sepulveda Bermedo, a senior adviser on chronic diseases prevention and management for the WHO.
The study found that roughly 20 million people around the globe, 6% of whom were children, required end-of-life palliative care, with a majority of those in developing countries lacking basic necessities such as opioid medication for pain relief.