3.1. WHO steering group (SG)
Details of the members of the WHO steering group (SG) are provided in Annex 1. The SG has been involved in all stages of planning, review of evidence, the main recommendation drafting meeting (New Delhi, April 2012), and all rounds of consultation on revisions following peer review, managed through the EZCollab web facility.
3.2. Guideline development group (GDG)
The guideline development group (GDG) was made up of people with content expertise in all areas covered by these guidelines, including relevant experience in LMICs and expertise in evidence-based guideline development. GDG selection also took into consideration the need to ensure gender balance and regional diversity. The group's members worked to define key questions, priorities and systematic review methods, served as the authors of the systematic reviews, and worked to draft the recommendations, determine the strength of these, and respond to external peer review comments.
GDG members served as chair, co-chair and rapporteurs. The full list of GDG members along with their specific roles, expertise, affiliations and geographical base is provided in Annex 1.
3.3. External peer-review group (EPRG)
External reviewers were drawn from subject experts, implementing agencies and partners working on various aspects of policy to secure health and related benefits from increased access to cleaner and safer household energy. Each member's name, affiliation, area of interest and geographical base is provided in Annex 1. External reviewers were asked to evaluate and comment on all evidence reviews, through two rounds, and the final recommendations. For evidence reviews, reviewer comments were made available to author groups to inform revisions, with responses documented. For the recommendations, the secretariat used external reviewer comments to make suggested revisions. The reviewers' comments and suggested changes to the recommendations were then circulated to the GDG and WHO SG for final agreement.
3.4. Management of conflicts of interest
All members of the GDG and the EPRG completed WHO declaration of interest forms. These were then reviewed by the secretariat for potential conflicts of interest (see Annex 2). A number of conflicts of interest were declared, but none required any member of the GDG or EPRG to be excluded from his or her respective role.
A briefing was provided at the beginning of the main GDG meeting in New Delhi (April, 2012) on the nature of all types of competing interests (i.e. financial, academic/intellectual and non-academic). Each member of the GDG was asked to discuss and declare to the meeting any conflicts they may have. The session took about an hour and was facilitated by a member of the WHO Guidelines Review Committee (GRC) secretariat. No further conflicts of interest were identified at this meeting and no member of the GDG was excluded from his or her respective role.
