Monitoring and evaluation are crucial to successful implementation of national drug policies, programmes and strategies, and to achieving the pharmaceutical objectives of access to and rational use of quality drugs in particular.

The WHO Medicines Strategy: 2000-2003 incorporates 26 country progress indicators (see Table 2,) which will be used to monitor and evaluate country, regional and global pharmaceutical situations and progress. The indicators selected reflect a pragmatic balance between those factors which are most meaningful for assessing country progress, and those which are most measurable in terms of reliability, time and cost.

Monitoring and evaluation results will contribute to the ongoing evolution of WHO work in medicines policy, and will also be reported to responsible policy-makers and other players responsible for decisions relating to health systems planning, national drug policy implementation, and allocation of technical and financial resources.

The Medicines Strategy provides the pharmaceutical foundation for improved health outcomes and stronger health systems - linking across WHO clusters and areas of work