A/HRC/15/WG.2/TF/2 UNDP, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Bank and WHO, and that elements of development and equity permeate in its mission statement, as does the right to health, which is reaffirmed in the preamble to the WHO constitution and guides the work of the Programme. Within the context of the right to health, the director identified the underlying determinants of health, namely, water, sanitation, food and housing. He then underscored the fact that, in building availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality into the interface between these social determinants and access to health care, the underlying principles remained equality, non-discrimination, participation, inclusion, accountability and transparency. 28. The director of the Special Programme also emphasized three elements of Goal 8: global partnerships, cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, and a strategic approach to access to essential medicines. With regard to tropical diseases, he stressed the crucial importance of innovation and research to produce essential drugs and for these to be undertaken under agreements that facilitate availability and preferential pricing in developing countries. He also pointed out that facilitating access to medicines was more than a mere cost issue, and that often the delivery of essential drugs to those in need was a key problem. Evidence from the Special Programme indicates that, within certain programmes and systems, local communities may have an important role to play in collecting and distributing a drug (community-directed interventions) to ensure better distribution. The Special Programme expressed strong interest in continued collaboration with the task force. 29. The representative of the WHO Department of Ethics, Equity, Trade and Human Rights welcomed the mission of the task force and dialogue on access to essential medicines and the right to development. The Department works to mainstream human rights internally at WHO, and also to put health on the human rights agenda external to the Organization. WHO welcomed the opportunity to continue working with the task force and providing support for its efforts. 30. The director of the secretariat for Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property of WHO made a presentation, outlining that the Organization approached the right to health in a global framework within the context of the WHO constitution, which recognizes linkages with other global issues, including human rights. The Global Strategy and Plan of Action have explicit provision in the preamble for human rights and the right to health as important principles. Elements of the Strategy and Plan have express provisions on intellectual property and technology transfer. She reported on the various initiatives undertaken, individually or in collaboration with other institutions, such as UNCTAD and the European Union, which reflect such a comprehensive approach. The presentation concluded by emphasizing the key importance of global partnerships in addressing the right to health issues. 31. The director of the Pharmaceutical Management Unit of the Global Fund gave an overview of its work, and emphasized that the rationale for its existence is linked with the core principles underlying the right to development. The Global Fund expressed strong interest in and commitment to promoting human rights as a means of improving access to essential medicines as a component of the right to health. In this respect, the work of the Global Fund includes providing sustainable funding, establishing principles and policies, and providing technical assistance and capacity-building in order to strengthen countries’ supplies and health systems. The Global Fund is engaged in monitoring and evaluation of access to essential medicines for the poor and vulnerable populations, through the use of access indicators as part of grant management, monitoring of procurement and quality data, and policy and market dynamics analysis, especially with regard to pricing. 32. In the ensuing discussion, the Chairperson-Rapporteur confirmed that the task force was aware that, as the technical mission report recognized, the Global Strategy and Plan of GE.10-11443 7