The overall goal of the research is to assess the performance of national pharmaceutical policies - focusing on policy process and policy outputs:

The principal research question that the project seeks to answer is:

Have national drug policies (whether they exist as explicit policy documents, or are implicit in government actions) been successful in achieving the goals of availability, accessibility, good quality, and rational use of essential drugs? Why or why not?

The specific objectives of the research are:

• to identify strengths, weaknesses, and political dimensions of pharmaceutical policy formulation and implementation within each country;

• to propose explanations for cross national variations in performance; and

• to propose effective strategies, both national and international, that can improve pharmaceutical policy implementation.