Guidelines are recommendations intended to assist providers and recipients of health care and other stakeholders to make informed decisions. WHO has adopted internationally-recognized standards and methods for guideline development to ensure that guidelines are free from bias, meet a public health need and are consistent. This handbook provides stepwise advice on the technical aspects of developing a WHO guideline and the methods used. It aims to provide a clear path through the process and seeks to ensure that the resulting guidelines have credibility and meet WHO s criteria for content, methods and presentation, while remaining accessible and useful.