A/HRC/15/24 operational sub-criteria for the implementation of the right to development” (the report of the meeting is contained in document A/HRC/15/WG.2/TF/CRP.4). The expert consultation reviewed a consultancy paper commissioned by OHCHR on the right to development criteria and corresponding operational sub-criteria (A/HRC/15/WG.2/TF/CRP.5). The consultation provided an opportunity for academics, international experts and development practitioners to further elaborate on the methodology to measure compliance with the right to development. It facilitated expert assessments of the right to development criteria, with a view to making them operational and reflective of standards of qualitative and quantitative evaluation used in international institutions and recognized by social scientists. 24. The outcome of the above expert consultation informed the work of the task force on the right to development criteria and sub-criteria, which was presented to the eleventh session of the Working Group in April 2010 (see para. 9). In the view of the task force, the right to development criteria and sub-criteria provide a methodological framework and structure, designed to serve as an operational tool for assessing the extent to which States are individually and collectively taking steps to establish, promote and sustain national and international arrangements that create an enabling environment for the realization of the right to development. The criteria and sub-criteria are also aimed at contributing to mainstreaming the right to development into the policies and operational activities of relevant actors, and at evaluating the human rights implications of their policies and programmes. Finally, in the view of the task force, the criteria and sub-criteria are aimed at serving as a tool for stakeholders to assess the state of implementation of the right to development, thereby facilitating its further realization at the international and national levels. 25. The development and application of the right to development criteria constituted important steps in strengthening the global partnership for development and supporting the mainstreaming of human rights, in particular the right to development, in policies and operational activities of actors, including multilateral financial, trade and development institutions. 2. Access to essential medicines 26. At its tenth session, and with regard to Millennium Development Goal target 8.E on access to essential medicines, the Working Group recommended that the task force, in further refining the list of criteria and preparing the corresponding operational sub-criteria, “…draw on its dialogue with the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases” (A/HRC/12/28, para. 46 (b)). 27. Consequently, in June and July 2009 OHCHR supported a follow-up mission of the task force to WHO, the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the report is contained in document A/HRC/15/WG.2/TF/CRP.2). The meetings addressed the followup to recommendations contained in the study commissioned by OHCHR concerning access to essential medicines (A/HRC/12/WG.2/TF/CRP.5/Rev.1). 28. The task force and WHO agreed that the implementation of a WHO global strategy and plan of action on public health, innovation and intellectual property seemed to provide a good opportunity for linking human rights to those areas. Considering the significance of public health, the task force encouraged WHO to take the lead in coordination with respect to cross-cutting issues. The human rights content of the global strategy and plan of action could be examined in the light of the Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical 8