A comparison of the public health functions of selected other nations (see Figure 6) shows that, in the UK for instance, both primary (e.g. health promotion and disease prevention programs) and instrumental (e.g. development and maintenance of a public health workforce) functions are prominent, while the public health functions of Canada and the Americas are limited to primary functions. 54 Both the UK core functions 55 and the USA essential public health services include a specific (instrumental) partnership function for public health. In Australia, the essential importance and defining nature of inter-departmental, inter-governmental, inter-sectoral and other partnerships, in the work of public health was made clear in the expert consultations. Accordingly, version one of a public health classification proposes 'build public health partnerships' as a subclass of the 'ensure public health capability' instrumental function (see Table 3 ). 53 Dimensions used by the OECD are: population groups, service types, disease types, and settings. 54 A recent review conducted by WHO (2003), describes comparable 'essential public health functions' as 'a set of fundamental activities that address the determinants of health, protect a population's health, and treat disease... public health functions represent public goods, and... governments would need to ensure the provision of these essential functions, but would not necessarily have to implement and finance them. They prevent and manage the major contributors to the burden of disease by using effective technical, legislative, administrative, and behaviour-modifying interventions or deterrents, and thereby provide an approach for intersectoral action for health [that] stresses the importance of numerous different public health partners. Moreover, the need for flexible, competent state institutions to oversee these cost-effective initiatives suggests that the institutional capacity of states must be reinforced' (Yach 1996 cited in WHO 2003 : 1, our italics). 55 The full description of this function is 'Creating and sustaining cross-Government and intersectoral partnerships to improve health and reduce inequalities' (CMO UK 2003; see chapter 3). The UK core functions also include a specific (instrumental) research function. In Australia, although 'public health research' is one of the nine core public health activities for which public health expenditure is reported, 56 there is no corresponding function in the NPHP public health core functions. Version one of a public health classification proposes 'conduct public health research' as a subclass of the 'build the evidence base for public health' instrumental function (see Table 3 ).