The extent to which the product of such global level priority setting processes really reflects country level needs is unclear.
The oversight role of the Regional Office for the preparedness processes at country level needs to be clarified, as well as the formal triggering of a Regional Office response, especially in countries reluctant to acknowledge, or unable to identify a humanitarian crisis.
This is, in part, due to the serious implications of workforce migration from the developing to the developed world but also trying to match the numbers and types of health care workers (skill mix) to country level needs.
For NSPs, strong and concerted advocacy at global, regional and country levels needs to occur to successfully ensure that affected populations are included in their plans.
For NSPs, strong and concerted advocacy at global, regional and country levels needs to occur to successfully ensure that refugees and IDPs are included in national disease-specific plans.
At the country level the need for a coordinated HIV/AIDS response is also recognised as urgent, and numerous country-level programmes and reforms have been implemented with varying degrees of success (Table 1).
However, we also found that differences between ANC and population-based surveys may not be constant across time, suggesting additional research at the individual country level is needed to better understand these dynamics and how to account for them in Spectrum.
However, some basic points on what this country level process would need in order to succeed can be generalized.
Country level guidance is needed to identify country-specific integrated strategies, thereby increasing country ownership.
At the People that Deliver (PtD) Board meeting 27 and 28 September 2012 it was re-emphasised that unless supply chain workforce capacity is significantly strengthened at country level, reaching populations in need with life-saving commodities will continue to be an uphill battle.
