Sisule F. Musungu - There was anticipation, hope and a sense that multilateralism was experiencing one of those good moments. That was last week at the 20th Session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The anticipation and hope, by many, was that the Committee meeting would end with a definite work programme towards a legal instrument to improve access to copyright material for those who are blind or with visual impairment or with print disability. Finally, the world of intellectual property (IP) was going to act decisively to end “the Book Famine”.
Archive for the ‘Governance of International Organizations’ Category
Why WIPO Must Rethink its Committee Procedures and the Meaning of its Programme & Budget
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010Is our Health in the Right Hands?
Monday, January 18th, 2010Sisule F. Musungu - The 126th session of the Executive Board (EB) of the World Health Organization (WHO) meets in Geneva from Today (Monday, 18th January 2010) to Friday with a packed agenda. This meeting comes in the wake of increasing questions regarding the management and governance of the world health body which for far too long has escaped serious public scrutiny by hiding behind the perception that it is a technical body whose work ordinary mortals can not understand.
IQsensato at the Seventh WTO Ministerial Conference
Monday, November 30th, 2009Sisule F. Musungu - IQsensato has been accredited to, and will be participating in the Seventh World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference which takes place the Geneva International Conference Centre (CICG) from 30th November 2009 to 2 December 2009. As part of our participation, IQsensato is organising/co-organising two key side events at the main NGO Centre during the Ministerial in addition to blogging on the Ideas in Development Blog. Both events are open to all accredited delegates (government, international organisations, NGOs) to the Ministerial conference.
The WIPO Developing Agenda – Some Thoughts on Coordination Mechanisms, Monitoring, Assessing and Reporting Modalities
Thursday, November 19th, 2009Susan Isiko Štrba - On the third day of its Fourth Session, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) embarked on the discussion on coordination mechanisms and monitoring, assessment and reporting modalities on the implementation of recommendations of the Development Agenda (DA). The discussion, which is a continued from the Third Session of the CDIP, is based on two proposals presented by Algeria, Brazil and Pakistan on the one hand and the Group B on the other.
WIPO Public Policy Issues Conference - 28 Men and 3 Women
Monday, July 13th, 2009The Programme of the on-going WIPO Conference on IP and Public Policy Issues is quite astonishing in one respect. Its gender Insensitivity! Among the 31 speakers and moderators for the two day conference there are only three (3) women one of which is the head of a UN agency. In some sense you can think of it as a conference of 28 men and 3 women. It reminds you of another recent major event, the G20 London summit which was a summit of 18 men and 2 women. For the WIPO Conference, gender is particularly important when you consider the key issues under discussion - climate change; public health; and food security. In my earlier post on the conference, I mentioned that the programme could have been better. The gender issue is probably the most glaring.
