1. Public sector health-care procurement systems can play an important role in helping countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals;

2. Public sector procurement of medicines in developing countries occurs mainly at two levels – the national level and the international level – with multilateral agencies playing an increasingly significant role. However a number of countries have chosen to decentralize their national procurement process as part of health sector reforms or in an effort to meet local needs through increased local involvement, accountability and flexibility;

3. At the national level, developing countries are faced with increasing tasks and responsibilities for procurement of quality medicines, but often have limited financial resources, procurement capacity, and regulatory capacity for meeting these obligations;

4. At the international level, efforts by bilateral donor and multilateral agencies to address these limitations and support access to medicines include: new funding, procurement, and pricing mechanisms; supporting prequalification systems for selected medicines to address limited quality assurance capacity at the national level; and strengthening country procurement systems;

5. There is increased global recognition of the continuing need to strengthen developing country health-care procurement systems through a comprehensive, system-wide approach to capacity building.