Objective: The main objective is to provide high quality, up-to-date information on effectiveness of reproductive health care practices to obstetricians, midwives, general practitioners, in under-resourced settings who are involved in reproductive health care. The second objective is to evaluate the interpretation and usefulness of Cochrane reviews in preparation of practical recommendations for health practices.

Methods: A single diskette containing in its first issue 27 selected Cochrane reviews with specifically prepared commentaries and recommendations on practical aspects of the health care problem. The commentaries and practical recommendations are prepared by individuals with extensive developing country experience. The organisational format is similar to a Cochrane entity with peer reviewing and an editorial board representing different geographic regions. Extensive dissemination (15,000 issues in 1997) will be made by WHO networks, mailing lists and coordinators and editors of the programme.

Results: The project was initiated in September 1996 with the target date for distribution of the first issue in mid 1997. As of April 1997 the commentaries and external reviews are being completed. Fifteen authors prepared commentaries on 27 reviews. Four had prepared Cochrane reviews previously and 2 others started working on Cochrane reviews during the course of the project.

Discussion: The RHL programme and initial experience with preparation of commentaries and practical recommendations from a subset of reviews from The Cochrane Library will be presented.