Despite significant progress made by many countries toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals, there has been little improvement in access to essential medicines in developing countries. The mean availability of essential medicines is lowest in the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa Region, followed by the WHO South East Asia Region, the regions which account for all but two of the least-developed countries of the world. Although different national procurement models exist across developing countries, the provision of essential medicines to many of these populations relies heavily on public monies, international funding mechanisms and donor agencies. However, the mean availability of select medicines is consistently lower in the public sector than in the private sector across all WHO regions. The public entities largely responsible for the procurement of essential medicines often lack the technical capacity to efficiently and strategically carry out the procurement process; inadequate planning and forecasting and the use of archaic methods of
procurement contribute to high drug costs and commodity insecurity. The need for maximum efficiency and increased value‐for-‐money in the public procurement of health commodities cannot be overstated in these resource-limited environments.
