A team from the WHO Regional Office and a representative of the WHO Collaborating Center for Pharmaceutical Policies at Harvard University conducted a training workshop for data collectors who will perform a comprehensive pharmaceutical situation review in Jordan. Under this review, three major studies are included: WHO level II pharmaceutical situation assessment; WHO household medicines assessment; WHO/Health Action International medicine prices, availability and affordability survey.

This comprehensive assessment is the first to combine the three methodologies. Its report will benchmark outcome indicators necessary to measure the relationship between increasing transparency in the pharmaceutical sector and access to medicines in the community. Technical support for the study has been provided by WHO and WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy in Harvard University. Jordan High Health Council hosts the Jordan MeTA secretariat and is responsible for administrative and logistics support for the assessment. The training was successfully delivered to researchers from the Ministry of Health, the Jordan Food and Drug Administration, Royal Medical Services and several Jordanian universities. Six research teams will cover 1080 households and 130 health facilities. The report of the review is expected by the end of 2009.