Driven by a profound desire to reduce unnecessary pain and suffering from life-limiting illnesses across Africa, the African Palliative Care Association (APCA) was formally founded in Tanzania in 2004.  APCA works collaboratively with existing and potential providers of palliative care services to help expand service provision. APCA also works with governments and policymakers to ensure the optimum policy and regulatory framework exists for the development of palliative care across Africa.

The journey of PCAU started at the African Palliative Care Association which housed PCAU for a period of four years. To date, the partnership has continued and APCA has continued to engage with PCAU in different ways through funding, working on different projects, bringing other African countries for learning purposes among other things.