<h2 class="posttitle">
UNCTAD Report Sees Sustainable African Growth In IP Flexibilities </h2>
<small><a href="http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/06/15/unctad-report-sees-sustainable-african-growth-in-ip-flexibilities/?utm_source=post&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alerts">http://www.ip-watch.org/2012/06/15/unctad-report-sees-sustainable-african-growth-in-ip-flexibilities/?utm_source=post&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=alerts</a><br>
<br>Published on 15 June 2012 @ 10:30 pm</small>
<p>By <a href="http://www.ip-watch.org/author/william/" title="Posts by William New" rel="author">William New</a>, Intellectual Property Watch</p>
<p>The United Nations trade and development agency this week
published its Economic Development in Africa 2012 report, which argued,
among other things, that the region’s sustainable future depends on
using flexibilities in intellectual property rights as appropriate. <span id="more-21675"></span></p>
<p>The Geneva-based UN Conference on Trade and Sustainable Development
(UNCTAD) report, which this year focusses on structural transformation
and sustainable development in Africa, is <a href="http://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=131">available here</a>. </p>
<p>The report provides a range of suggestions for achieving what it
calls a “sustainable structural transformation.” In outlining the role
of the international community, UNCTAD said African governments must
play the leading role in formulating and implementing strategies, but an
international enabling environment must be established. </p>
<p>For instance, the international context should uphold previously
agreed responsibilities such as one in which African countries are “not …
hindered in their pursuit of accelerated economic growth and structural
transformation and should seek to enhance environmental sustainability
by means of relative, rather than absolute, decoupling, the latter being
much more relevant for developed countries that have already achieved
high living standards.” </p>
<p>In addition, developed countries should “provide financial support
and facilitate technology transfer to support [sustainable structural
transformation] and design the international trade regime and
intellectual property rights regime in a way that facilitates the
sustainable development process.” </p>
<p>In terms of technology transfer, UNCTAD said, most African countries
will be “technology followers rather than technology leaders.” This
makes it necessary to create “global institutional arrangements that
increase international cooperation and collaboration in all areas
relevant to [sustainable structural transformation] and to accelerate
the transfer, adoption and adaptation of relevant technologies in
African countries.”</p>
<p>“This,” it said, “is how leapfrogging can become possible.” </p>
<p>The report highlighted several ways such international cooperation
can happen. For instance, a large body of technological knowledge lies
in the public domain. </p>
<p>“Many of the environmental technologies that developing countries are
seeking to access are off patent,” it said. In that case, better access
to such technologies is needed as well as the “know-how” needed to use
them. UNCTAD suggested a technology bank to facilitate search and
access. </p>
<p>For obtaining licensed technology, lack of financial resources could
be a “key barrier,” UNCTAD said, so there may be a case for establishing
international funds to help developing countries to purchase and
manufacture some technologies. </p>
<p>In addition, “major efforts” should be made to increase the
possibility for technologies to enter the public domain as well as to
stimulate the transfer of publicly funded technologies to developing
countries, especially those in Africa. </p>
<p>And the report called for attention to be paid to ways in which the
IP system impacts technology transfer that support “environmental
sustainability objectives.” </p>
<p>“It is important in particular that IPR facilitate technological
development and do not act as a barrier preventing African countries
from accessing and using the technologies necessary for leapfrogging,”
it said. “This is a complex issue.”</p>
<p>The report supports the notion that a “delicate balance” needs to be
found between the advantages and costs of IP rights for countries that
must obtain technology. It therefore suggests several reforms to the
global IP regime that could be supportive. These include:</p>
<p>- “broader room” for compulsory licensing. In the area of
environmental sustainability this would replicate the World Trade
Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPS) and public health amendment, which reinforced countries’
ability to use such flexibilities. </p>
<p>- strengthened standards for patenting, particularly standards of breadth and novelty</p>
<p>- limiting the length of patent protection</p>
<p>- allowing innovators to use existing patented knowledge in order to generate new innovations </p>
<p>Separately, the report also called for more development assistance
for agricultural research and development and the extension of
sustainable agriculture in Africa. </p>
<p>Among considerations for international trade, the report looks
favourably upon South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation in
order to accelerate the “transfer, assimilation and deployment of
environmentally sound technologies (EST) in Africa.” </p>
<p>This could involve technical assistance for African countries “on the
use and deployment of EST, grants for the purchase of patented EST,
training of African nationals abroad in the area of green technology use
and adaptation, and support to African technological research
institutions and universities.” </p>
<p>It said research shows growth in environmentally sound technologies,
and transfer occurring to larger developing countries such as Brazil,
China and India. Research from the World Intellectual Property
Organization, it said, argued that transfer of such technologies is not
always “unidirectional” from developed to developing countries. This
suggests that triangular cooperation mechanisms should be fostered, it
said. </p>
<p>The WIPO research UNCTAD cites is a 2011 “Global Challenges Brief”
entitled, “When policy meets evidence: What’s next in the discussion on
intellectual property, technology transfer and the environment?” </p>