Mr. Demba Moussa DEMBELE, Director, African Forum on Alternatives, Senegal provides an African perspective on the EU - Africa Summit 2008 being held in Lisbon. Framed as the Summit to herald a new relationship between EU and Africa, is EU really showing sincerity in this direction?
Mat Noor Nawi, the director of the economic planning unit of the Prime Minister's Office in Malaysia, told the participants attending the conference on the Helsinki Process gathered at Dar es Salaam that the interface between developed and developing nations should not favour one side at the expense of the other.
"Developing countries should be allowed to determine their own policy space," he said, adding that Malaysia's success story shows much emphasis needs to be placed on monitoring and evaluation of programmes and policies. He also stressed flexibility and people-centred approaches, political stability, well-coordinated mechanisms and active NGOs and private firms as part of the reasons for growth in the Malaysian economy.
Dr Samuel Wangwe, a consultant, and Dr Yash Tandon, executive director of the intergovernmental think tank South Centre, based in Geneva, Switzerland, agreed that alternative knowledge systems are needed. Wangwe proposed increasing capacity for policy research. Participants reiterated that developing countries should be allowed to determine their own policy spaces and that developed countries' support for developing countries should be flexible.
Read the complete news report appearing in Mail and Guardian, South Africa at:
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__business/&articleid=326753
The South Centre recently organized a seminar on "The Implementation Game: Developing Countries, the TRIPS Agreement and the Global Politics of Intellectual Property" in Geneva on 5 December 2007. The seminar was chaired by Dr. Xuan Li, Coordinator of the Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme, South Centre and Dr. Carolyn Deere, Director, Global Trade Governance Project, Global Economic Governance Programme, University of Oxford, UK was the keynote speaker.
This event has been reported by the IP-Watch in its article "Disparities Seen In Developing Countries’ TRIPS Implementation." Although developing countries have strong concerns about the TRIPS agreement, a significant number of them have implemented even higher IP standards than those required by TRIPS, according to research on 107 countries presented by Carolyn Deere, director of the Global Trade Governance Project at the University of Oxford. The complete article is available at: http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=865
The Seminar was fifth in the series of the South Innovation Perspectives regularly organized by the South Centre which aims to provide a forum where cutting-edge research and ideas on innovation, access to knowledge and intellectual property, from a development perspective, are presented and debated.
South Centre organized a side event at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali on 5 December 2007. Almost 70 colleagues attended this event on "Enhancing a development agenda in climate change for developing countries" organized in Room Wind at Grand Hyatt.
The panel of speakers included: Vice Yu, South Centre; Matthew Stilwell, Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development and Scott Stone (IGSD); Martin Khor, Third World Network; Meenakshi Raman, Friends of the Earth-Malaysia; and Sivan Kartha, Stockholm Environment Institute.
The South FACE produced for the Event is available at:
http://www.southcentre.org/southface/South_Face-Bali_Climate_Change-5Dec.doc
IISD Coverage for this event is available at:
http://www.iisdrs.org/2007/12/day-3-at-clim-1.html
(Photo Credit: Earth and News Bulletin, IISD)
The 13th session of the Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is underway in Bali from 3-14 December 2007. Delegates gathered will deliberate on a range of agenda items, with a major focus being on post-2012 when the first commitment period of the Kyoto protocol will expire.
South Centre has the status of an "Observor" at the UNFCCC negotiations and is represented in Bali by Vice Yu, Coordinator of the Global Governance for Development Programme and by Vikas Nath, Head - Media and Communication.
A side event "Advancing a Development Agenda on Climate Change" is being organized here on 5 December by the South Centre.
Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre participated in the Helsinki Process conference held in Dar-es-Salaam from 27-29 November.
The news item "Consensus Against Neoliberal Washington Consensus" appearing with the Inter-Press Service quotes Dr. Tandon.
Another consensus was also reached in Dar es Salaam: that the "Global South" -- developing countries, assumed to share common problems and goals -- does not exist. "There is no such Global South," Yash Tandon, executive director of the Geneva-based South Centre, told the conference. "The South is facing, fragmented, the development challenges posed by globalisation."
Read the complete news item at:
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=40257
Samuel Asfaha, Programme Officer, Trade for Development Programme has been invited by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to make a presentation at the conference on "Opportunities and Challenges in the World Markets for Fruits and Tropical Products" jointly organized by the FAO and the Common Fund for Commodities, to be held in Guangzhou, China on 29 November 2007.
Mr. Asfaha's presentation will focus on the evolution of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures on tropical fruits, emphasising how the shift of resposibility for food safety from public authorities to private importers have led to the proliferation and stringency of private SPS measures interfering with exports of tropical fruits from developing countries.
The presentation will further underline the need for harmonization of private food safety standards and for enchanced participation of developing countries in international standard setting bodies and for South-South cooperation in food safety certification and accreditation.
South Centre participated in the first Global Review on Aid for Trade, organized by the WTO, in Geneva on 20 and 21 November.
The Review aimed at taking stock of how much trade-related aid is being delivered, for which specific purposes, and how successful such aid has been. A workshop, which preceded the Review, also provided a platform for the discussion of technical elements related to the implementation of an Aid for Trade Global Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanism. South Centre will continue to work on Aid for Trade, aiming particularly at strengthening developing countries' capacity to better articulate their aid needs and to engage effectively in a Global Evaluation mechanism.
Darlan F. Martí, Programme Officer, Trade for Development Programme contributed to a West African regional workshop on "Defining a methodology for the identification of sensitive industrial products" in the context of EPA negotiations.
The workshop was organised by the ECOWAS Commission in 
Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) from 12 to 14 November. It intended to provide governmental and private sector stakeholders with a platform to discuss the pertinence of industrial policies in West Africa, as well as a possible methodology to identify industrial products which may require special attention during the EPA liberalisation process. The South Centre has acted as a facilitator to these discussions, on the basis of the document "Guidelines for the identification of sensitive products" prepared by the Trade for Development Programme.
An opinion piece written by Yash Tandon, Executive Director, South Centre today appears in the Business Daily (Nairobi).
In the next few days, our leaders will decide whether to sign a new trade agreement with Europe. It will be a tough judgment call. The decision they make will weigh heavily on the course of our region’s development for decades to come. We have a long history with Europe in the light of which we must interpret current events. The proposed agreement by Europe will change the nature of our relationship from cooperation to one based on purely mercantile considerations. The EU and the ACP “partners” will be bound by the same rules. However, when unequal partners play by the same rules, the outcome is always in favour of the stronger side. With the proposal on the table it isn’t difficult to see who is likely to win. Analyses on the potential impact of the agreements prepared by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) show that the proposed opening up of 80 per cent of trade of the Eastern Africa Community (EAC) with Europe, will result in loss of tariff revenue of up to $130m per year.
Read the complete article at:
http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4428&Itemid=5821
Ms. Luisa Bernal, Coordinator, Trade for Development Programme, South Centre recently gave a presentation on possible elements of a development oriented trading regime and on NAMA at the Conference on Trade and Development organized by the Forum on Environment and Development in Oslo on 16 and 17 November 2007.
The topic of the meeting was the international trading regime and its implications for developing countries. The presentation made by Ms. Bernal stressed the following points:
The assessments made about the potential impact of the Doha round on developing countries, based on the proposed modalities, show that the expected benefits for developing countries are very small and unevenly distributed. The poorest countries such as LDCs and Sub-Sahara Africa are expected to realize net losses as a result of the round. The Doha round is deepening the existing framework rather than creating an alternative approach to liberalization.
South Centre is organizing a side-event on 5th December (Wedneday) at the upcoming 13th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia.
Climate change and the development prospects of developing countries are closely linked. These links need to be better understood for countries to have a more integrated and comprehensive approach to both development and climate change policy. This side-event will explore some of these linkages.
Vice Yu, Coordinator of the Global Governance for Development Programme, South Centre will be chairing the Event.
The Event will be held between 13:00-15:00 at Room: Wave (Grand Hyatt). The draft agenda for the event is available at:
http://regserver.unfccc.int/seors/file_storage/rdi15fxw3ydgygm.doc
Internet Governance Forum on 11 Nov in Rio, she illustrated the potential of the "Development Agenda" approach for Internet Governance by highlighting corresponding process within the WIPO. She highlighted in her analysis the ten key components of the process of creating the WIPO Development Agenda, and their relevance for the IGF and Internet Governance. These ten components included: (1) building momentum; (2) conceptual framework; (3) identification of key problems; (4) leadership; (5) sustained commitment; (6) Coordination amongst developing countries; (7) prioritization and focus of initiatives; (8) the role of civil society; (9) collaboration amongst developing countries and civil society, both North and South; and (10) the strategic choice of forum for the agenda. For more information, see:The South Centre recently published its third IP Quarterly for 2007. The Quarterly examines the use of the August 2003 Decision for import/export of pharmaceuticals produced under compulsory license by Rwanda and Canada. It concluded that the Rwanda-Canada case demonstrates that the August 2003 Decision is a viable option for improving access to medicines. The Rwanda-Canada use of the August 2003 Decision case so far is a success because of various factors that worked together, namely (1) an offer from a generic manufacturer to produce a new fixed dose combination drugs at no cost, (2) consent for royalty free use of their patents and non-opposition by right holders against the compulsory license, (3) the Rwandan government’s willingness to take the risk of navigating the untested system under the August 2003 Decision in order to address a public health problem, (4) the Canadian government that put in place a law that, at least in the present case, appears to be working, and (5) legal and public support from MSF that assisted the various actors navigating the procedural requirements.
However, it warns on the difficulty of using the system because of additional legal requirements under the implementing legislation in exporting countries. The difference in implementation legislation among exporting countries can also be challenging for importing countries.
It recommends developing countries to cooperate among themselves to facilitate the use of the August 2003 Decision. Furthermore, those developing countries with limited or no pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, should notify their intention to use the system in accordance with paragraph 1 (b) of the August 2003 Decision. Notification of intention to use of the system does not depend on ratification of the Protocol amending the TRIPS Agreement.
The full article is available at http://www.southcentre.org/info/sccielipquarterly/ipdev2007q3.pdf
The quarterly update also provides an update of major developments at the multilateral, regional and bilateral levels concerning intellectual property rights, innovation and access to knowledge.
With Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) set to be finalised at the end of the year, civil society is becoming increasingly alarmed that the agreements could have a potentially negative impact on the competitiveness of agriculture and the food and livelihood security of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. One tool to combat such a situation would be the ability of ACP countries to take emergency measures and restrict imports of a product temporarily – i.e. take "safeguard" measures – if its domestic industry is injured or threatened with injury, says Luisa Rodriguez, Programme Officer, South Centre in her article "Agricultural safeguard measures in the EPAs" published in the ICTSD's Trade Negotiations Insights, Volume 6. No. 7 (November 2007).
The article explores three reasons why an agricultural safeguard mechanism should be included in the EPAs and provides some recommendations on its design. Read the complete article at: http://www.ictsd.org/tni/tni_english/TNI_EN_6.7.pdf
An informal lunch meeting was organized Trade for Develoment Programme, South Centre on 5 November in advance of the WTO's Global Aid for Trade Review to be held on 20-21 November 2007.
The South Centre participated in the proceedings of the WIPO Advisory on Enforcement (ACE) held in Geneva on 1- 2 Nov 2007.
The ACE is a forum for discussion of enforcement matters and its mandate excludes norm-setting. After informal consultations, the ACE could not agree on the topic to be considered in its next session. The Chair has now invited Member States to send before February 2008 to the Secretariat proposals on the topics and on the procedure to be followed in the ACE to select future topics.
Member States asked the Secretariat to take into consideration Members' suggestions on the list of speakers to be invited for the next ACE. In making suggestions and selecting the future topics and speakers, Members should be guided by the spirit of and agreed proposals of the WIPO Development Agenda that was adopted at the past WIPO Assemblies, particularly no. 45 that reads:
"To approach intellectual property enforcement in the context of broader societal interests and especially development-oriented concerns, with a view that "the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights should contribute to the promotion of technological innovation and to the transfer and dissemination of technology, to the mutual advantage of producers and users of technological knowledge and in a manner conducive to social and economic welfare, and to a balance of rights and obligations", in accordance with Article 7 of the TRIPS Agreement."
Yash Tandon, Executive Director, South Centre spoke at the session on "Upgrading work and enterprises in the informal economy" held on 1 November as a part of the ILO Forum on Decent Work for a Fair Globalization held in Lisbon, Portugal. Dr. Tandon delivered his address on "Mainstreaming the Informal Sector: Way out of Current Neo-Malthuisan Social Implosion in the Developing Countries."
Ermias Biadgleng, Programme Officer, South Centre acted as a trainer for sessions on Investment: TRIMS and Bilateral Investment Provisions and on Intellectual Property: TRIPS and IP provisions at the "Trade Union Training on International Trade Agreements, Development and Trade Union Agenda" organized by the International Training Centre of the ILO at Turin, Italy on 31 October 2007.
Vice Yu, Coordinator, Global Governance for Development Progamme, South Centre participated in the roundtable on "The potential for South-South cooperation on influencing the emerging global economic governance architecture" organized by the South African Institute of International Affairs on 30 October 2007 in Johannesburg as a part of the conference on Global Economic Governance.
While there is widespread recognition of the need for reform, the experience of the last few years indicates that this will be a difficult process that holds many political minefields for countries. How can emerging powers and other developing states cooperate on moving the reform agenda forward? How can informal coalitions or groupings assist in this regard? What contribution can emerging powers make as responsible new actors in global governance institutions? These thoughts formed the basis of this roundtable session. More information at:
http://www.saiia.org.za/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1174
South Centre organized a follow-up meeting today (30 October 2007) to enable developing countries prepare for the process that the Chair of the Council for Trade in Services is undertaking to develop a text on services.
On Monday, 22 October 2007, the South Centre, together with the Permanent Mission of Tanzania to the UN in New York, the UN Financing for Development Office (UNFFDO), and the Centre for International Cooperation in Development and Solidarity (CIDSE), held a side-event to the UN High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development that took place on 23-24 October 2007 at UN Headquarters in New York.
The side-event titled "Selected Issues on Financing for Development: South-North Capital Flows and Innovative Sources of Financing." Speakers included Prof. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre; Mr. Vicente Paolo Yu, Programme Coordinator for Global Governance at the South Centre; Mr. Sergio Marelli of CIDSE; and HE Ambassador Monsignor Celestino Migliori, Permanent Representative of the Holy See to the UN in New York. The Chairman of the Panel was Mr. Aldo Caliari of the Center of Concern. The side-event was attended by representatives from developing country delegations and some civil society organizations.
South Centre organized its Fourth South Innovation Perspectives Seminar on 24 October at Palais des Nations, Geneva.
l Institute of Technology, Lausanne and Mr. Huang Rengang, Minister Counsellor, Chinese permanent mission to the WTO provided commentary remarks to the presentation made by Dr. Thumm.
On 24 October, South Centre organized an informal meeting for delegates on Trade in Services. Over 15 delegates participated in the meeting.
On 23 October, South Centre organized an informal meeting on Trade in Agriculture with focus on Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SP/SSM). Over 40 colleagues including civil society members from Philippines, Vietnam, Mongolia and delegates from Missions in Geneva participated in this meeting.
There is a new momentum for the conclusion of the Doha Round of negotiations. If negotiations restart, it is crucial that developing countries make progress on issues related to TRIPS Agreement where they are demandeurs and especially on the proposal for disclosure requirement. In this context, South Centre organized an informal meeting on 22 October to ensure that developing countries pose a coordinated stance on the issue. Over 25 delegates participated in this meeting.
The outcome of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations, set for this December, will change a decades-old reciprocal trading regime between the European Union (EU) and African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries. Specifically, negotiations on trade in services under the EPAs have important development implications for Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries, states Joy Kategekwa, Programme Officer at South Centre in her article "Traps Africa must avoid in talks with EU" published in the The East African (Kenya) newspaper.
The countries that constitute the ESA negotiating group are Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, many of which are also the poorest and least developed in the world. For them, ensuring universal access to basic services such as health, education, sanitation, and water, as opposed to exporting services — which is the rationale behind a free trade agreement, is the real priority, and challenge.
Read complete article at: http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/Opinion/2110200724.htm
South Centre organized symposium "Examining IP Enforcement from a Development Perspective" on 9 October 2007 gets a note in the IP-Watch.
There is more to the story of enforcing intellectual property rights than one typically reads in the media, and developing country governments should defend themselves against unfair enforcement practices, officials and activists said recently.
Speakers gave their views at a 9 October event of the intergovernmental South Centre entitled, Examining IP Enforcement from a Development Perspective. Viviana Muñoz Tellez, programme officer in the South Centre’s Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme, outlined organisations that are working on IP rights enforcement, including the World Intellectual Property Organization, World Trade Organization, Interpol, World Customs Organisation, and some governments through bilateral trade agreements.
Read the complete note at:
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=792&res=1280&print=0
South Centre in partnership with CIDSE/Centre of Concern is organizing an invitation-only panel event in New York on 22 October 2007 on South-North Capital Flows and the search for Innovative Sources of Finance. The Event seeks to present and discuss some ideas with developing country delegations working on Financing for Development issues in the context of the 2008 Review Conference for the Monterrey Consensus.
The results of policy research currently being undertaken by the co-organizers will be discussed with developing country delegations, and the Event will highlight some topical issues that might be relevant and of use to developing country delegations in the context of their preparations for the 2008 Review Conference and the 23-24 October 2007 High Level Dialogue on Financing for Development.
More information at:
http://www.southcentre.org/Events/2007Oct_Panel_Event_UNFFD.htm
http://www.un.org/esa/ffd//Events/2007_HLD_CalendarSideEvents.pdf
Mr. Vicente Yu, Coordinator- Global Governance for Development Programme, South Centre recently published an article on the Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA)-WTO relationship. According to Mr. Yu, the desire to clarify the MEA-WTO relationship is not a new one. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992 and the Uruguay Round trade negotiations from 1986 to 1994 sought to clarify the relationship between MEA trade measures and the rules of the multilateral trading system.
The articles appears as a chapter (Chapter 13) in the IISD-ICTSD-RING Trade and Environment Resource Book which was launched on 4 October 2007.
Access the publication at http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2007/trade_and_env.pdf
Darlan Martí, Programme Officer, South Centre participated in the ACP Legal Experts Meeting on the legal and institutional implications of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) held in Brussels on 10-11 October 2007.
The meeting was attended by representatives of each of the 6 ACP EPA regions (CARIFORUM, PIFS, SADC, CEMAC, COMESA and EAC, UEMOA, ECOWAS and Mauritania). In addition, permanent representatives of ACP missions in Brussels attended the meeting, as well as representatives from African Union, ECDPM, OIF, South Centre, and UNCTAD.
Vice Yu, Coordinator - Global Governance for Development Programme, was a panelist at the EcoLomics International Roundtable on “Brundtland Report plus 20, EcoLomics International plus 5 : Quo vadis Sustainable Development?”
According to Mr. Yu, the development of developing countries underpins the very concept of sustainable development, with its three pillars of environmental protection, poverty eradication, and the elimination of unsustainable production and consumption patterns. In trying to achieve sustainable development, the global community will need to understand that developing countries are not going to give up on their right to development. This fact should be clearly recognized.
He stated that the failure of the current global system, and the role played by developed countries due to their own economic and political policies in such failure, underlies the deep skepticism displayed by developing countries and the lack of credibility that developed countries have among many developing countries over initiatives backed or pushed by developed countries relating to sustainable development and reforms of global environmental institutions.
The roundtable was organized by the University of Geneva on 18 October 2007.
Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist and Acting Coordinator, IAKP, South Centre, was a panelist at the Workshop on "Strategies to Implement the WIPO Development Agenda" during the EDGE Annual Conference on 15 Oct 2007 in Vancouver, Canada.
Dr. Li offered interdisciplinary perspectives on how to implement WIPO Development Agenda. She provided an analysis of the obstacles from both international and national level: (i) At the international level, poor governance of WIPO, disconnection between Geneva-based delegate and capitals, lack of empirical study. (ii) At the national level, institutional, conceptual and methodological obstacles potentially impede the implementation of WIPO development agenda.
Background of the workshop: On 28 Sep 2007, the members of the WIPO formally adopted a Development Agenda. The General Assembly accepted the 45 recommendations made in June of this year by the Provisional Committee on Proposals Related to the WIPO Development Agenda (PCDA). WIPO members agreed to immediately implement 19 of the 45 recommendations, which were seen to not require additional human or financial resources.
The South Bulletin: Reflections and Foresights (Issue 2, 16 October 2007) produced by South Centre is out. This issue includes the following analysis and commentaries and a guest editorial by Ambassador Ma Yuzen (China).
The South Bulletin will continue to provide critical assessments of the new challenges facing the developing countries, and appraisals of the variety of negotiations in which they are engaged on a fortnightly basis. It is hoped that our constituents will appreciate these efforts, and will continue to provide critical support to the South Centre.
Sudip Chaudhuri, Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Management - Calcutta, India provides an insightful commentary on Patent Regime under the TRIPS Agreement. This commentary was recorded during the visit of Dr. Chaudhuri to the South Centre.
The South Centre Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme cordially invites you to the Fourth South Innovation Perspectives Series Seminar on Wednesday, 24 October 2007 at Palais des Nations, Room IX (Old building, 3rd Floor) from 3 pm to 5 pm.
This series is on "Making Patent Policy Work for Development: Lessons from the Swiss Experience." The keynote speaker is Dr. Nikolaus Thumm, Senior Economic Counsellor, Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property, Berne
The Commentators are Prof. Dominique Foray, Chair of Economics of Innovation, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne and Mr. Huang Rengang, Minister Counsellor, Chinese permanent mission to the WTO.
Full information about the seminar and registration procedures are available at:
http://www.southcentre.org/Events/SouthInnovationPerspectives_seminars.htm
Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist, South Centre was a panelist at the OECD organized forum on the above issue at the WTO Public Forum 2007. The other panel members included Mr. Dirk Pilat, Head of the Sceince and Technology Policy Division of the OECD and H.E. Mr. Mario Matus, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Chile to the WTO. The audio of the commentary made by Dr. Xuan Li is available below.
South Centre in its latest publication "Aid for Trade: Twenty lessons from existing aid schemes" jointly with ECDPM, reviews 3 major existing mechanisms of trade-related assistance and provides useful lessons for policymakers in the South and the North.
As WTO Members and the development community prepare to undertake a global review of the WTO Aid for Trade Initiative in mid-November, this study enumerates failures and achievements in the delivery of trade-related aid. First, these lessons are informed by an exploration of the European Commission (EC) trade-related assistance (TRA), particularly the European Development Fund (EDF) as a significant example of regional and bilateral schemes. Second, this study reviews the multi-agency Integrated Framework (IF) for Least Developed Countries. Finally, the paper describes the main achievements of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Trade Integration Mechanism (TIM).
The study is authored by Darlan Marti, Programme Officer, South Centre and Francesco Rampa and appears as ECDPM Discussion Paper No 80.
The 9th Annual Conference of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) is being organized this year in honour of Dr. Norman Girvan. Dr. Girvan is Member of the Board of South Centre.
"Reinventing the Political Economy Tradition of the Caribbean" is the theme of the conference scheduled to take place on March 26–28, 2008. Through the Conference SALISES proposes to take the work of Norman Girvan and his generation of intellectual thinkers as a point of departure for rethinking the political economy of the Caribbean. Norman Girvan holds pride of place because of the breadth and originality of his work, as well as his association with SALISES. He remains one of a small group of academics from that period who continue an intellectual engagement with the current international paradigm, seeking to find spaces for the articulation of the development challenges of countries of the South, particularly the Caribbean region and its small states. Read full text
OCTOBER 2007 (IPS) - The outcome of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations, set for this December, will change a decades-old reciprocal trading regime between the European Union and African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries. Specifically, negotiations on trade in services under the EPAs have important development implications for Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries, writes Joy Kategekwa, programme officer for trade in services at the South Centre's Trade for Development Programme.
In this article, the author writes that the EU is seeking "most favoured nation" status for its service suppliers in the ESA region, which would not only give EU companies unlimited access to the ESA market on terms similar to those enjoyed by ESA countries, in the context of their various regional integration initiatives, but also automatic access to the treatment that ESA countries give to all other trading partners, with whom they have services economic integration agreements, or with whom, the ESA process of liberalisation has led to some form of services liberalisation.
In making national treatment commitments for the EU, ESA countries lose the ability to retain any measures that favor local/ESA service suppliers, over EU ones. In sum, the outcome of the EPA on services, along the lines proposed by the EU,would bar ESA countries from implementing certain policy instruments or regulations that could increase the participation of local services suppliers particularly in the context of intra-regional trade.
More information: http://www.ipsnews.net/columns.asp?idnews=39591
IP enforcement is an issue of global importance and is something in which developing countries have invested significant administrative and judicial resources. This was the message emerging from the keynote address given by H.E SUN Zhenyu (Ambassador of People's Republic of China) and H.E Dr. Makarim Wibisono (Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia) at the International Symposium on IP Enforcement from a Development Perspective. The symposium was organized by the Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme (IAKP), South Centre at Palais des Nation on 9 October 2007. For Agenda and list of speakers visit:
http://www.southcentre.org/Events/2007Oct_Int_Symposium_IP_Enforcement.htm
The South FACE produced for the "International Symposium on Examining IP Enforcement from a Development Perspective" is now available!
View it here: http://www.southcentre.org/southface/South_Face_IAKP_9Oct.pdf
View the South FACE produced for the panel event "Global Trade Governance and the Role of the South" organized by the South Centre at the WTO Public Forum 2007 available at:
The South FACE captures the sound bytes from the eminent speakers: Dr. Nagesh Kuman (Director-General, RIS), H.E Dr. A.M Maruping (Ambassador of Lesotho, LDC-Group Coordinator), Dr. Carolyn Deere (Global Trade Governance Project, Oxford University) and Dr. Manfried Elsig (World Trade Institute, University of Berne) who spoke in the panel in the monring.
Coordinator, South Africa).
South Centre bids farewell to Ambassador Ma Yuzhen who is relinquishing his position as Board Member of the South Centre. Mr. Ma served in this capacity for the last six years. The Chairman Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, the Members of the Board, and the staff of the South Centre deeply appreciate the guidance and support Mr. Ma has provided to the Centre. Mr Ma has been a strong proponent of South-South cooperation which contributed to steady development of the South Centre over the years.
Mr. Ma is a well-known senior diplomat in China. He has spent half of his career dealing with foreign affairs-related media affairs, a task requiring a comprehensive knowledge of international affairs and China’s foreign policy. Being one of the officers in charge of foreign affairs-related media affairs during the period of the late leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai - as Deputy Director of Information, Department of Foreign Ministry (1969-1980) - he was personally involved in the press arrangements for such important events as the 1972 visit to China of the then U.S. President Nixon. Mr. Ma was Director-General of the Information Department and concurrently Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1984-1988). He served as Senior Advisor on Foreign Policy to Chinese leaders and as their spokesman.
Several eminent intellectuals and practioners from the South gathered under the Chairmanship of Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, former president of Tanzania at Chateau de Bossey, Crans-près-Céligny, Switzerland on 6 October 2007 to take stock of current and emerging issues in which developing countries are stakeholders.
The workshop, second in the South Intellectual Platform series, identified priority areas where the strength of the South lies collectively and where the South needs to assume leadership. Those present, included Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Ambassador Ma Yuzen, Norman Girvan, Deepak Nayyar, Abdul Minty, Bagher Asadi, Carlos Lopez, Martin Khor and Yash Tandon.
The South Intellectual Platform is an initiative of the South Centre to reflect on the new challenges for the South which have emerged since the work of the South Commission 15 years later. The South Intellectual Platform helds its first workshop in Geneva in 2006. More details about this initiative is available at: http://www.southcentre.org/sip/sipindex.html
South Centre has released its latest Analytical Note discussing potential governance reforms in the World Bank’s governance structures with an understanding that some reforms become more or less imperative depending on the direction of the discussions around the long-term strategic direction of the Bank.
The note concludes that reforms in the governance structures of the World Bank and other global governance institutions are needed if they are to be better able to reflect and respond to the development needs and priorities of developing countries.
View the South FACE produced for the event "Global Trade Governance and the Role of the South" organized by the South Centre at the WTO Public Forum 2007 available at:
http://www.southcentre.org/southface/South_Face-WTO-GGDP-1.pdf
The South FACE captures the sound bytes from the eminent speakers at the Panel in the morning which included: Dr. Nagesh Kuman (Director-General, RIS), H.E Dr. A.M Maruping (Ambassador of Lesotho, LDC-Group Coordinator), Dr. Carolyn Deere (Global Trade Governance Project, Oxford University) and Dr. Manfried Elsig (World Trade Institute, University of Berne).
(Picture: H.E Dr. A.M Maruping, Ambassador of Lesotho, LDC-Group Coordinator)
Vice Yu, Coordinator of Global Governance for Development Programme, moderated the panel discussion.
Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist & Acting Coordinator, Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme, South Centre is a panelist at the OECD organized forum on "The Role of Innovation and Technical Change in Harnessing Globalisation: Challenges and Opportunities."
The Forum is being organized at the annual WTO Public Forum, Geneva, 5 October 2007 under the heading: How Can the WTO Help Harness Globalisation?
Other panel members include: Mr. Dirk Pilat - Head of the Sceince and Technology Policy Division of the OECD, H.E. Mr. Mario Matus - Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Chile to the WTO, and Mr. Andreas Ebert - Regional Technology Officer, European Union, Microsoft.
Mr. Warren Giles, Journalist, Bloomberg News will be moderating the forum.
The Inter Press Service published a column piece today on Biofuels authored by Vice Yu, 
Coordinator of the Global Governance for Development Programme, South Centre.
According to Mr. Yu, biofuels should be seen as a part of a broader strategy of diversifying the energy mix that allows society to shift to more sustainable energy sources with minimal economic and social disruption. It is crucial that biofuel production does not compete directly with food production, especially in developing countries, and that the latter's poor not be made to vie for food with the livestock and automobiles of those in developed countries. More research, development, and investment needs to be made in other climate-friendly energy alternatives (i.e. biogas, solar, wind, tidal, water, geothermal, hydrogen), for power generation, transportation, and daily consumer use, to expand the use of these alternatives as future replacements for fossil fuels.
For more information, go to: http://www.ipsnews.net/columns.asp?idnews=39520
Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist and Acting Coordinator, Innovation and Access to Knowledge, South Centre expressed her concerns on increasing standards of IP protection and the negative implications it can have on the process of innovation and knowledge creation. Dr. Li shared this view as a panelist on the "Review of progress in the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010" convened by the UNCTAD on 4 October.
Dr. Li cited clear examples from TRIPS and other regional agreements and emphasised that the boundaries and objectives of innovation policy must be very clear. This would have a tremendous impact, especially on the flexibilities which LDCs would enjoy and the implication on knowledge creation.
She recommended that public interest theory must be considered a priority. This means appropriate measures must be taken at the level of TRIPS, WIPO and the World Customs Organisation. At the national level it will require striking a balance on different policy issues, namely between IP and competition.
The Panel was organized by UNCTAD under its ongoing Trade and Development Board Session.
The Eighth Meeting of the Council of Representatives of South Centre convened in Geneva on 4 October 2007.
The meeting of the Council followed the Nineteenth meeting of the Members of the Board of the South Centre under the Chairmanship of Mr. Benjamin Mkapa, the former President of Tanzania.
Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist, South Centre will be a panelist at the event under the Agenda item 4 of the UNCTAD's Trade and Development Board, Fifty-Fourth Session. The Agenda item 4 focuses on "Review of progress in the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010."
The event will be held on 4 October, Room XXVI, Palais des Nations, Geneva. Mr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General, UNCTAD will be providing the opening remarks.
On Thursday 27th September 2007, the South Centre organised an informal meeting of developing country services trade negotiators-with the aim of providing a forum for these countries to exchange ideas and thoughts in preparation for the special session of the Council for Trade in Services that was scheduled for Friday 28th September 2007.
The services negotiations are at a critical phase, wherein it it is thought by a large number of Members, particularly developed countries, that there is need to re-energise these negotiaitions and raise the profile so as to match ambition in negotiations on trade in industrial products and agriculture. As such, it has been proposed that the Chair of the Services Council prepares a text along similar lines as has been in NAMA and agriculture. While not totally opposed to the idea of the chair taking a more proactove role in these negotiations, developing countries were very cautious that this mandate does not be used in any way that disturbs the delicate flexibility in Annex C to the Hong Kong Declaration. It was thought that a text containing dates for the submission of revised and final offers, as well as one that takes stock of where negotiations are on the various aspects of Annex C was possibly useful.
We are yet to see where this process goes. What is clear though is that the intricacies of services including the negotiating architecture inherent in progressive liberalisation, the Guidelines and procedures for services negotiations and Annex C, all provide a delicate balance signaling the non-applicability of formula-like approoaches in services.
The South Centre is organizing an invitation-only International Symposium on IP Enforcement to provide developing country representatives a forum to discuss with North and South stakeholders the policy challenges that developing countries face on IP enforcement and how to integrate development concerns in the international IP enforcement agenda.
Confirmed Speakers include: Prof. Carlos Correa, University of Buenos Aires and Special Advisor, South Centre; Prof. Joshua Sarnoff, American University, Washington; Mr. Roger Kampf, Counsellor, WTO Secretariat; Mr. Pedro Roffe, Senior Fellow, ICTSD; Mr. Fernando Piérola, Counsel, Advisory Centre on WTO Law; Mr. Zhao Meisheng, State Intellectual Property Office, China; Mr. Guilherme Patriota, Permanent Mission of Brazil to WTO/WIPO; Mr. CHEN Yusong, Permanent Mission of China to the WTO, Ms. Sangeeta Shashikant, Third World Network. The event will be held on 9 October, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.
For more details: http://www.southcentre.org/Events/2007Oct_Int_Symposium_IP_Enforcement.htm
The Event will be covered by the South FACE and the South Centre Digital TV.
The South Bulletin is back. South Bulletin: Reflections and Foresights has a new look and a new format that puts greater emphasis on sharing Knowledge that Matters for the South. This is an outcome of ideas shared by several colleagues, including officials from Member Countries of South Centre in Geneva, New York, Brussels and in the Capitals who would like the Bulletin to be interactive. The new Bulletin will enable cross-sharing of experiences and fulfill specific knowledge needs on current and emerging issues in which developing countries are stakeholders.
Read this issue online at:
http://www.southcentre.org/southbulletin/1-1-oct-07.pdf
Trade in services has been portrayed as one of the complicated areas in the EPA negotiations. As ACP countries engage in the EPA services negotiations, understanding the rules, principles and concepts that govern multilateral trade, and economic integration Agreements in services, becomes central to their effective participation. This Fact Sheet no. 5 prepared by Trade for Development Programme of the South Centre explains, in a simple manner, the above-mentioned rules, principles, and concepts. It is hoped that this guide will be a useful contribution to the negotiators, in securing an outcome that is in line with ACP development objectives.
Download the Fact Sheet from http://www.southcentre.org/publications/AnalyticalNotes/Other/2007Oct_EPA_Fact_Sheet_No5.pdf
Prof. Pedro Paranagua from the Centre for Technology and Society (CTS) at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), School of Law - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil shares his foresight on the scenarios for the future of the WIPO Development Agenda. FGV-Rio works closely with the Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme (IAKP) of the South Centre.
Yash Tandon, the Executive Director of South Centre will be speaking at the OECD Forum on Ownership in Practice in Paris on September 27, 2007. He will be making a presentation at the opening session of the forum on "The two dimensions of ownership" on behalf of Dr. Norman Girvan, Board Member of the South Centre.
The OECD Global Forum on Development, of which this Workshop is a part, is an informal dialogue space for complex issues. Akey objective of the workshop is to discuss what ownership means in practice, ocusing on concrete examples from developing countries.
More information at: http://www.oecd.org/document/21/0,3343,en_21571361_37824719_38977173_1_1_1_1,00.html
The WIPO General Assembly : Thirty-Fourth (18th Ordinary) Session runs from September 25 to October 3, 2007. Ms. Viviana Munoz Tellez, Programme Officer, Innovations and Access to Knowledge Programme (IAKP), South Centre provides an insight to the "Priorities for the WIPO Assemblies 2007" in her commentary recorded on the South Centre Digital TV.
The South Centre organized a working lunch on TRIPS-related issues on 19 September for over forty WTO developing country members who are co-sponsors of the proposal to amend Article 29 of the TRIPS Agreement to include a mandatory disclosure requirement of the origin of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge claimed in patent applications.This working lunch is a follow up to a series of working lunches organised by the South Centre in 2006 and April 2007 to advance the proposal that was formally submitted to the WTO by a group of developing countries in May 2006.
During the working lunch co-sponsors of the amendment proposal shared information and discussed future scenarios and strategy. The next meeting of the TRIPS Council will be on 23-24 October.
Luisa Rodriguez, Trade for Development Programme, made a presentation at the Roundtable entitled “What’s on the table for development? A Technical analysis of development implications of draft EPA provisions”, held in Brussels on 13 September 2007.
The presentation made by Luisa Rodriguez assessed the content of the EPA texts on the basis of existing vulnerabilities of the agriculture sector in ACP countries. These vulnerabilities include: supply side constraints; dependency on a limited number of commodities, markets and preferential market access; increased frequency and extent of import surges. She made specific recommendations concerning: the process leading to regional selection of Sensitive Products, technical and financial needs to reinforce and develop ACP countries’ capacities with regards to health and sanitary standards and an agricultural safeguard mechanism.
This event was jointly organized by APRODEV and Christian Aid to help ACP and EU officials to better understand the development implications of EPA texts, in order to enable them to make a knowledgeable assessment of whether these texts will deliver the development ambitions of Cotonou or what needs to change before decisions on signing are made in December. Representatives of the EU member states, ACP representatives in Brussels and civil society organizations and think tanks participated in this event.
The Trade for Development Programme organized a Working Lunch on 18 September on WTO agriculture negotiations to enable developing country delegates to collectively exchange views on the consultations held by the Chairman of the Committee on Agriculture between the 3rd and 14th of September and strategize for the next phase of this process.
TDP Staff presented briefly comments prepared by the South Centre to the latest Chairman’s proposed draft modalities and circulated on July 2007 and invited delegations to exchange views. Delegations noted that consultations were characterized by a constructive engagement but that although almost no convergence could be reported at this stage. Main concerns in relation with this process included transparency and lack of clarity in terms of the calendar and program of meetings during the next couple of months.
South Centre organized a working lunch meeting on Monday, 17 September to facilitate discussion and assist member states to coordinate and strategize their positions on pertinent agenda items of the upcoming WIPO General Assemblies 2007 to be held from 24 September to 3 October 2007. Over 40 delegates participated in the meeting. A background note was prepared and distributed to delegates to facilitate their participation during the General Assemblies.
The meeting was chaired by Dr. Xuan Li, Acting Coordinator of the Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme (IAKP), South Centre. Prof. Carlos Correa attended the meeting in his capacity as Special Advisor to IAKP at the South Centre and provided key insights to the discussions.
Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director, South Centre gave the opening address and highlighted that the problem of large debt overhangs in developing countries is highly complex and interdependent. Debt can be, and often is, in many developing countries, a major constraint to the development of domestic production and international trade capacity, and a poor trade performance contributes to the debt burden.
Aldo Caliari from Center of Concern/CIDSE noted that trade and debt are interrelated, but the division of labor between international organizations makes it difficult to address them together in a holistic manner. 
Barry Herman one of the keynote speaker illustrated the global political linkages between trade and development. He noted that linkages between trade and debt can be made in a way that can either reduce or expand policy space for development for developing countries.
Click here to read the Day 1 and Day 2 of South Face produced during the event.
Delegations from Argentina, Benin, Mauritius, Sao Tome and Senegal were present in the seminar along with officials from international organizations including G-24, IMF, UNCTAD, Commonwealth Secretariat, UN-DESA and Eurodad.
The detailed program of the event is available online at the South Centre Website at: http://www.southcentre.org/Events/2007Sep_Debt_and_Trade_Workshop.htm
Press Release: http://www.1888pressrelease.com/south-centre-organizes-high-level-seminar-on-debt-and-trade-pr-9242ji4ym.html
"WTO provisions do not prevent the ACP countries and the EU from including adequate agriculture safeguards in the EPAs" says Luisa Bernal, Head of Trade for Development Programme (TDP), South Centre in her paper on Agriculture Special Safeguards in the context of EPAs. She adds that given the experience of the ACP countries, particularly the African countries with import surges, it will be important that adequate instruments are provided to them to address this phenomenon in the context of the EPA agreements.
Ms Bernal presented this paper in the session on "Market access and Development challenges in EPAs/WTO Doha Negotiations" at the International Conference on “Commodities, Rules of Origin, Development and Legal Dimensions of the European Union-Africa Economic Partnership Debates: The Nexus between African Issues of Concern in EPAs and the WTO Doha Development Agenda” in Upssala, Sweden on 7-8 September 2007.
The paper reviews the legal aspects related to the WTO compatibility of agriculture safeguards provisions applied between parties to a regional trade agreements, such as the proposed EPAs. It also reviews the policy debates in relation to the incidence of import surges in developing countries which has taken place in the WTO in the context of the Doha round.
The Conference was organized by The Nordic Africa Institute and focused on policy issues related to the negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements currently under negotiations between the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union. Academics and development practitioners participated in the conference.
South Centre has issued a Policy Brief " WHY INCLUSION OF SERVICES IN THE EPAs IS PROBLEMATIC" which analyses legal and development implications for Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries in negotiating trade in services under the EPAs. The outcome of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations will change a decades-old reciprocal trading regime between the European Union and African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries. Read the publication online at:
http://www.southcentre.org/info/policybrief/10Inclusion%20_of_Services_in_EPAS.pdf
It recommends that ESA countries should move really slowly and cautiously on services liberalization with the EU. There is absolute merit in strengthening cooperation, along the lines of what the Lomé Conventions used to contain so that real capacity can be built to provide domestically, to provide for export, to regulate, and so that it is mutually advantageous. As such, ESA countries may want to consider strengthening cooperation as an option to a trade Agreement.
The Policy Brief concludes that ESA countries should focus on developing domestic capacity to provide universal access to basic services, develop export capacity in niche sectors, design and improve regulatory capacity and mainstream intra-regional trade.
South Centre organized a joint session with the United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) on "Innovations and Technology Transfer" at the WIDER Conference in Helsinki on 7 September 2007.
The session was chaired by Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director of South Centre, and Dr. Guanghua Wan, Senior Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER. Presentations were made on "Patent Application as Indicator of the Geography of Innovation Activities: Problem and Perspectives " by Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist, South Centre and on "Breaking the Deadlock on Climate Change Related Technology Transfer" by Vikas Nath, South Centre.
The conference focuses on the inter-linkages between CIBS and the global economy, including the impact of these economies on their respective regions. The session by South Centre reflected on the these changes through the lens of innovations and technology transfer and provided an overview of opportunities and challenges presented by them.
Ms. Viviana Munoz Tellez, Programme Officer, Innovation and Access to Knowledge Programme at South Centre participated in the Open Consultations on Internet Governance held on 3 September 2007 in Geneva in preparation for the second annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Rio de Janeiro 12-15 November 2007.
The South Centre will be elaborating a background note to assist developing country delegates in participating in the upcoming IGF.
The IGF is an outcome of Phase II of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Tunis on November 2005. As a forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue on Internet Governance, the IGF is mandated to discuss public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance in order to foster the sustainability, robustness, security, stability and development of the Internet. Its mandate also includes advising all stakeholders in proposing ways and means to accelerate the availability and affordability of the Internet in the developing world and to contribute to capacity building for Internet governance in developing countries.
The five broad themes for the second annual IGF meeting will be: Critical Internet Resources; Access; Diversity; Openess; Security.
Link to the Internet Governance Forum http://www.intgovforum.org/
The South Centre Trade for Development Programme (TDP) organized a consultation on 4 September 2007 with over 30 delegates from developing countries to discuss the NAMA draft modalities text, recently submitted by the Chairman of the WTO Negotiating Group on Market Access.
As is common in all South Centre work, this meeting was aimed at enhancing the solidarity among developing countries, thereby enhancing their negotiating capacity. As a contribution to developing countries’ understanding of the technical implications of the text being negotiated, Darlan F. Martí presented briefly the background note: "Comments to the Chairman’s Draft NAMA Modalities". This presentation is available for viewing on the South Centre Digital TV, and a full version of the note can be downloaded here.
South Centre will be participating in the UN DESA/IFAD Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting on Tax Aspects of Domestic Resource Mobilization: A Discussion of Enduring and Emerging Issues to be held in Rome on 4-5 September 2007. Dr. Yash Tandon, Executive Director, South Centre will deliver a presentation on "Taxation of private equity funds/investments in domestic jurisdictions" under Agenda 4 on "Trade and Investment-Tax aspects."
According to Dr. Tandon, this privilegization (sic!) of the global corporate sector (which, incidentally, is also the basis of privatization) is at the root of the trepidation (indeed, fear) that governments in the South experience in making bold policies to generate self-motivated economic development, and in creating bold tax regimes. There is all-pervasive apprehension, for example, that increasing tax rates would drive investments out, and that includes both domestic as well as foreign capital. This explains the timidity of much of tax regimes in the countries of the South.
What is required is a paradigm shift that provides a more balanced perspective on the “engines” of growth, so that the corporate or private sector, whist important and significant, does not enjoy a stranglehold over policy such that governments ignore, or downgrade, the role that other social forces and economic actors play in economic growth in the developing countries.
South Centre has published its Policy Brief 9 on "The Threat of Technological Protection Measures to a Development-oriented Information Society”.
Developing countries face multiple challenges on access to knowledge and information for their development. One of the challenges is to develop an enabling institutional and policy framework. The development of digital technology and information revolution offer enormous opportunities for the production and access to knowledge goods. Copyright law plays an increasingly important role in providing incentives for the production and promotion access to works. However, such incentives must be balanced with the public interest in access.
The use of technological measures by copyright right-holders to protect works in the digital environment, combined with new international legal obligations to protect such measures poses a threat for developing countries. The obligations should be rejected, or narrowly crafted in national laws so as to promote access to knowledge for development.
Download the Policy Brief in English, French and Spanish.
Dr. Xuan Li, Lead Economist, South Centre participated in the panel discussion on "Sustainable Use and Genetic Improvement" organized by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a part of its first International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture organized in Interlaken, Switzerland from 3-7 September 2007.
According to Dr. Li, there are at least four challenges we are facing to ensure a sustainable use of animal genetic resources. The first challenge is to re-think of livestock sector policies that "distort the playing field" on which indigenous breeds compete. As we have seen, farmers are often disadvantaged by subsidies on feed, artificial insemination and other inputs that tend to favour exotic breeds. From a policy perspective, there is a need to conduct some systematic policy analysis to assess the implication of the existing livestock policies and respond it accordingly.
The second challenge is, from an economic perspective, an appropriate incentive and funding mechanisms to foster innovation is crucial. Choice needs to be made between patent and alternative mechanism, whichever is more cost-effective to foster sustainable use and innovation.
The third challenge is the interface between animal genetic resources and intellectual property seems to be underestimated. The statement “all the processes of relevant reproduction, data capture, statistics analysis, etc are in the public domain” is inaccurate. In addition, a range of rapidly developing molecular and reproductive biotechnologies also has important implications for An GR management. In order to ensure a sustainable use of animal GR, efforts must be made to carefully examine the interface between animal genetic resources and IP.
The fourth challenge is, a proper scheme to ensure an access to animal genetic resources and technology transfer as well as benefit sharing is necessary. Specifically, there is a strong need to establish an international binding treaty to stimulate the sustainable conservation and use of animal GR. Such a treaty should cover "any genetic material of animal origin of actual or potential value for food and agriculture".
Read full text at: http://www.southcentre.org/IAKP-SouthCentre-FAO-Genetic-Resources.html
