Summary: 

Countries can use this report to guide the selection of palliative care indicators and integrate them within the monitoring frameworks of national strategies, policies and plans. The indicators should be selected and adjusted according to the country context, considering elements such as the stage of palliative care development, input from stakeholders and alignment with existing health information systems. To implement the indicators, stakeholder engagement will be required, raising awareness of their importance, developing systems of accountability and palliative care indicators were established to be used by any country, according to their needs and existing data systems. To implement the indicators, stakeholder engagement will be required, raising awareness of their importance, developing systems of accountability and  building capacity for data collection, analysis and use. Careful identification of robust and available data sources must be undertaken. It is vital that indicators are then used for learning, decision-making and informing action on broader efforts to strengthen palliative care development in the country as an integrated component of overall health systems strengthening and monitoring through a PHC approach. The proposed indicators are based on a diversity of experiences and expertise from all WHO regions. However, it will be crucial to conduct in each country a specific analysis on the feasibility and relevance of the proposed indicators in practice. Several factors may limit their implementation, including data availability, the heterogeneity of registration systems and/or units of measurement and the acceptability of indicators. It is particularly important that indicators measuring research and community empowerment are piloted before full adoption as these components are new additions to the assessment model for palliative care development and are, therefore, untested in practice.