Statement by India on the report of the Director General on the implementation of the Development Agenda, CDIP/11/2, delivered by Smt. Alpana Dubey, First Secretary (Economic) May 13-17, 2013

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          I would like to thank the Director General for the preparation and the presentation of the report on implementation and mainstreaming of the WIPO development agenda recommendations in 2012. The Report shows that several important steps have been taken by WIPO Member States, the Director-General and his team to ensure greater development orientation in WIPO’s work and mainstreaming of the Development Agenda.

          The report describes the key developments in the implementation of the Development Agenda projects and mainstreaming of development agenda in various programs and WIPO bodies, including development of Country Plans in a number of countries, mainstreaming of Development Agenda into various courses offered by WIPO Academy, Technical assistance and capacity building to developing countries and their institutions, Establishment of the WIPO Re:Search Platform to enable developed country institutions to share IP with developing country institutions, Legislative assistance to countries bearing in mind the applicable flexibilities relevant to countries at differing levels of development.

          With reference to Development Agenda Recommendation 22, and in response of member state’s requests at the earlier sessions of CDIP, we take note of the part of report regarding WIPO’s work on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and WIPO joining the MDG Gap Task Force and its contribution in the discussions on the item related to access to essential and affordable medicines and IP rights. Further, WIPO also became a member of the UN System Task Team (UNTT) on the Post-2015 UN Development Agenda and specifically contributed to the Working Group on Global Partnerships for Development.  We would like to hear more on WIPO’s contribution from the development agenda perspective, which would also give more insight to member states.

          We note the overview of the status of all DA projects in the Annex of this document and the independent evaluation reports of 12 projects presented in earlier sessions of CDIP.  We would request that Secretariat to reflect any substantive progress with respect to mainstreaming of the DA while reporting and evaluating the projects.

          We also note the report on DA mainstreaming in work of other WIPO bodies with interest, following the mandate of 39th session of WIPO GA on Coordination Mechanism, and the information contained on activities in other WIPO bodies on implementation of DA recommendations. However, we feel that it should be more analytical in presenting the results on the implementation of the Development Agenda and able to contribute from DA perspective for actual realization of the DA goals in the work of those relevant committees.

          In this context, the decision on the Coordination Mechanism with respect to the PBC and the CWS would also be very important, which may contribute in better coordination among different WIPO bodies for the implementation of the Development Agenda and the evaluation of the progress made in this direction.

          The process of external review of the DA, as foreseen under the Coordination Mechanism which will begin later this year and conclude in 2014, would certainly provide further insight to the Member States and WIPO management on its future implementation. We are ready to play a constructive role in any future deliberation on the issue.

          However, in this context we would also like to mention that completion of many DA projects would not contemplated into implementation of specific DA recommendations. Development Agenda is a long-term ‘work in progress’, whose objective is to achieve a more balanced intellectual property.

          Thank you.

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