• “Access to essential medicines depends on four factors: rational selection, affordable prices, sustainable financing and reliable health systems.
• The selection of essential medicines, preferably linked to standard clinical guidelines, is a crucial step in ensuring access to health care and promoting rational use by health professionals and consumers.
• Official adoption of the essential medicines concept identifies priorities for government involvement in the pharmaceutical sector in general, and for medicine supply in the public sector and medicine benefits as part of health insurance in particular.
• Systematic and transparent procedures for defining the national list(s) of essential medicines, on the basis of evidence-based treatment guidelines should be established”

Source: World Health Organization (2002). The Selection of Essential Medicines.

UNDP’s approach

When UNDP acts as interim Principal Recipient of grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (The Global Fund), UNDP supports ministries of health in the selection of quality-assured medicines and diagnostic products, recommended in the current national guidelines, the World Health Organization (WHO) Standard Treatment Guidelines and/or the WHO Essential Medicines List.

Similarly, for other health products such as bednets, insecticides and condoms, the selection is based on the WHO recommendations for use and the national guidelines. In collaboration with other partners, UNDP also supports the selection of diagnostic technologies and equipment for the improvement of central and peripheral laboratories towards optimization of diagnostic services and according to the national laboratory strategy.

Countries with low and lower–middle income may engage UNDP’s support through financing agreements for the procurement of anti-cancer medicines and other medicines for non-communicable diseases using state funds. This includes support to clarify clinical needs and specifications for health products, including to determine the most appropriate strengths and formulation. Financing agreements between UNDP and countries for health procurement entails consultations with the country counterparts to define detailed specifications of required health products and to select the most appropriate technologies. UNDP advises countries on product selection based on the scientific evaluation of health products done by the WHO relevant committees.

Among the United Nations agencies, WHO is also mandated to support countries in the development of evidence-based guidelines and the review of national essential medicines lists.