For so long developing countries, including African countries, have been told that stronger protection of intellectual property rights is required for economic progress. This hypothesis is rooted into neo-liberal economic thinking driven by familiar institutions such as the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation and the World Trade Organization among others. United States and its allies have over decades linked stronger intellectual property to market access. The ability of African countries and others to fully participate in the international trade is now tied to the extent they are able to have robust intellectual property laws. However, this approach has failed to recognized the nature of knowledge production that goes on in indigenous and local communities that constitute the majority of African States. Because of their close relationship with nature and biological resources, most knowledge production in these communities is linked to the uses and dealings with biological and natural resources through traditional knowledge, including African religions. Yet the global standard of intellectual property articulated under the WTO framework through the international agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) does not recognize traditional knowledge.
Over the years, African countries have exerted pressure on the international systems on how best to protect and recognize their contribution to knowledge which centers on genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. In the last sixteen years, African and like-minded countries countries have held out hope for using the platform of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)’s special committee on genetic resources and intellectual property, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expression to fix the gap in global intellectual property order that has historically failed to accommodate the interests of African and other developing countries over their traditional knowledge, and their historic and innovative utilizations of genetic resources. These negotiations have met resistance from leading industrialized countries led by the United States and its allies, including Japan and the European Union.
Drawn out battle over genetic resources dampens Africa’s hopes
by Dr. Chidi Oguamanam, Professor of Law, University of Ottawa, for The Conversation