A/HRC/15/WG.2/TF/2 guidelines outlining the specific rights and obligations at each level: individual, national, regional and international. 23. Cercle de recherche sur les droits et les devoirs de la personne humaine quoted figures relating to wealth disparities within and across countries. It referred to a study by Michael Marmot of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health, presented to the Economic and Social Council in July 2009, highlighting the 40-year gap in life expectancy between people living in the North and the South, which is illustrative of the failure of efforts made for equitable development. The speaker stressed that the right to development criteria should focus on results as opposed to implementation measures. IV. Presentations and discussion A. Millennium Development Goal 8, target E, on access to essential medicines 24. The Chairperson-Rapporteur introduced the report of the technical missions that the task force made to WHO, the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property, the Special Programme on Research and Training in Tropical Diseases and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He underscored the central role played by WHO in advancing target E of Millennium Development Goal 8 and the significance of the inclusion in the Global Strategy and Plan of Action of a reference to the right to health, as set out in the preamble to the WHO constitution. That reference in the Strategy and Plan constitutes an entry point for human rights, although more explicit references to human rights in the Strategy and Plan had been deleted. Nevertheless, there is scope for them to be implemented and interpreted in a manner supportive of the right to development. 25. Participants in discussions at WHO had supported the idea of a workshop on access to essential medicines with the engagement of all key stakeholders, including pharmaceutical companies and United Nations human rights special procedures. Subsequently, the Human Rights Council, in its resolution 12/24, also requested OHCHR to organize an expert consultation on access to essential medicines. In this regard, the Chairperson-Rapporteur suggested that a single expert consultation be organized to address the issue of access to essential medicines from the perspective of both the right to health and the right to development. 26. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr then informed the task force of her findings in the technical mission to the Special Programme and the Global Fund. She commended the positive and constructive nature of the dialogue with these institutions and reported that both organizations are undertaking valuable work in expanding access to health care, which is in line with the right to development principles and standards. The discussions also identified gaps in the work of these institutions, especially relating to the creation of an enabling macroenvironment and the removal of constraints, a fundamental condition for the realization of the right to health. She also referred to the Millennium Development Goal’s Gap Task Force report, which highlighted the problems of access and availability of medicines and of the unaffordable prices of medication in developing countries. The Global Fund, as a major funder of drugs, could play a significant role in creating an enabling macroenvironment. There is also a need to think of different approaches to stimulate more innovation and research. 27. The director of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases welcomed the opportunity of the work of the Programme being approached from a human rights perspective. He recalled that the Special Programme is co-sponsored by 6 GE.10-11443