The chapters of this report contain a number of recommendations made by those who replied to the questionnaires. They are reproduced below and are followed in the postscript by a brief account of the subsequent outcome and action taken.

• WHO and all partner organizations should continue to actively disseminate the Interagency Guidelines for Drug Donations, and should encourage all governments and organizations involved in drug donations to formulate their own guidelines.

• A special education effort should be made with regard to all recipient governments, informing them about the Guidelines, with emphasis on the guideline for the minimum shelf-life of donations upon arrival, the exceptions provided for, and the need for rapid customs clearance of donated drugs.

• A special education effort should be made with regard to all donors and consolidators, in order to reduce the number and quantities of short-dated drugs offered for donation.

• WHO should establish a system whereby recipients and consolidators can report examples of inappropriate donations or unacceptable donation practices.

• WHO should convene the interagency group and propose to it an update of the Guidelines, including the incorporation of the current text of the exception for direct donations into the main body of the text of Article 6, in order to prevent that guideline from being copied and used without proper consideration of the exception.

• WHO should expand the section on the management of drug donations in the next version of the Guidelines, stressing the need for rapid clearance of drug donations and reconfirming the justification of certain exceptions to the minimum shelf-life provision.

• WHO should involve as many partners as possible in the next version of the Guidelines. International organizations which have expressed an interest should be invited to become co-sponsors of the second version. Examples of such organizations are Caritas Internationalis, the United Nations Population Fund and the World Bank.