Development Agenda Group

Comments on WIPO MTSP 2010-2015 (A/48/3) [4]

The Development Agenda Group views the Medium Term Strategic Plan as in important blueprint for guiding WIPO’s work in the next five years, and as a key instrument for translating the broad strategic goals agreed to by Member States into concrete and actionable programs under the biennium Program and Budget documents. As stated by the Director General in his foreword to the MTSP, the original purpose for which the MTSP was proposed as a ‘new mechanism’ in 2006, was to increase the involvement of Member States in the preparation and follow-up to the Program and Budget. As such, the Group welcomes the Director General’s initiative in submitting a draft MTSP and for eliciting the views of Member States in three rounds of consultations.

In view of the importance of this exercise, the Group fully shares the Director-General’s view expressed in his foreword that the MTSP should represent shared ownership and a joint endeavor between the Secretariat and the Member States on the basis of a shared understanding and unified commitment, in order to ensure its successful implementation. In this spirit, the Development Agenda Group is committed to engaging seriously in an intense process of consultations and has already demonstrated this by providing detailed comments and specific amendments to the first draft of the MTSP, within the stipulated deadline. The proposed amendments reflect changes in the text sought by DAG in order to more accurately capture the collective views of its Member States on important elements in the MTSP. Some of these changes were reflected in the revised MTSP document dated 29 July 2010 and the latest version presented to Member States on 20 August 2010, although several important sections of the text remain unchanged.

Given the significance attached to this process by DAG Member States, the Group continues to be concerned about several elements in the text, that present serious difficulties to the Member States of the Group. The Group is particularly concerned about the inclusion of new ideas in areas like norm-setting and global challenges that have not been discussed or agreed to by Member States in any inter-governmental body in WIPO so far. The absence of a specific section in the MTSP on the implementation of the WIPO Development Agenda, the most important, overarching process to take place in WIPO in the medium term 2010-2015, is another area of concern. Finally, the lack of clear linkages between the narratives under various Strategic Goals to specific programs already being executed by the Secretariat, is another gap that needs to be addressed, if the MTSP is to act as a bridge between WIPO’s Strategic Goals and the Program and Budget.

In this context, and with a view to collaboratively developing a commonly agreed strategic plan for WIPO in the medium term, DAG Member States offer further detailed comments along with specific proposals for modification with regard to issues that are of concern to the Members of the Group. While the Director General’s Foreword contains elements with which DAG members are unable to agree, comments on the same have already been provided in DAG’s first submission dated 12 July 2010 and are not being repeated here, since it is now understood that the Foreword represents the personal views of the Director General and not the collective vision of Member States. DAG comments on substantive elements of the MTSP text dated 19 August 2010 are given below. The DAG hopes that its views on these and other critical issues will be taken on board, paving the way for a collectively shared vision for the MTSP.

Mission

The mission statement is significant because it implies an agreement between Member States and the Secretariat about the direction that WIPO should take. Hence, the mission statement should broadly reflect the shared vision of Member States on a range of issues regarding the work of WIPO, and should be in conformity with the agreed objective of WIPO under the WIPO Convention and the responsibility of WIPO as a UN Specialized Agency under the WIPO-UN Agreement.

Under the WIPO Convention, the objective of WIPO is to “promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world through cooperation among States and, where appropriate, in collaboration with any other international organization, and to ensure administrative cooperation among the Unions.”

Under the WIPO/UN agreement, WIPO is responsible for “taking appropriate action in accordance with its basic instrument, treaties and agreements administered by it, inter alia, for promoting creative intellectual activity and for facilitating the transfer of technology related to industrial property to the developing countries in order to accelerate economic, social and cultural development”.

The mission proposed in the MTSP adequately extends the role of WIPO to broader promotion of innovation and creativity for development, but conditions the statement, noting that the way to achieve this is through a “balanced and effective” international IP system. The introduction of “balance” in the mission is positive. However, the term “effective” relates to stronger harmonized international IP standards, as is used in many IP agreements. Including it in the MTSP 2010-2015 would give the impression that the current system is ineffective.

Therefore, the word “effective” in the mission statement should be replaced by the word “accessible”. The use of the word “accessible” would be consistent with WIPO’s general mission statement available on its website.