The objective of this project is to produce authoritative publications and resource materials to inform national-level and global-level health policy-making, on the basis of extensive analytical work and consultations with technical experts and policy-makers from around the world.

This is a three-year effort launched in September 2002 to assess disease control priorities and produce science-based analyses and resource materials to inform health policymakers in developing countries.

It is a joint project of the Fogarty International Center (FIC) of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank and is funded by a US$3.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In 1993, the World Bank published the first edition of Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, which examined the priority of 25 conditions based on their public health significance and the cost-effectiveness of preventive and patient management interventions in developing counties. In 2006, the new DCPP will publish an expanded second edition of Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries; see the Abbreviated table of Contents for Disease Control Priorities in developing Countries (2nd  edition)