Innovation ecosystems: making intellectual property work for development, equity and structural change

UN DESA/EAPD Development Policy Seminar with the Committee for Development Policy (CDP)

Date and time: Tuesday, 5 March 2024, 1:15-2:30pm EST

Place: Room S-1523, 15th floor, UN Secretariat Building, New York (UN pass required) and online

In the Political Declaration issued at the 2023 SDG Summit, Member States committed to “bridging the science, technology and innovation divides and the responsible use of science, technology, and innovation as drivers of sustainable development and to build the capacities necessary for sustainable transformations” and to “take action to enhance the ability of developing countries to benefit from science, technology, and innovation and address the major structural impediments to accessing new and emerging technologies including through scaling up the use of open science, affordable and open-source technology, research and development, including through strengthened partnerships”, among other related pledges. This builds on the recognized importance of innovation and technology for the 2030 Agenda, as reflected in multiple goals and targets, and for the transition to a low-carbon future, among other contemporary challenges. As recognized in the Political Declaration, important lessons were learned from the COVID -19 pandemic. The current context demands a reframing of discourse and policy on innovation and innovation ecosystems, including how the policy tool of intellectual property rights is applied to advance the SDGs, climate action, structural transformation and equity.

In this Development Policy Seminar, members of the Committee for Development Policy (CDP) will address intellectual property aspects of innovation ecosystems and how they can support development, equity and structural change. Among other issues, they will discuss some of the challenges faced by developing countries in implementing the policy space available in intellectual property rights frameworks to support their development goals, and the opportunities and challenges presented by the rise of the digital economy, in particular the digital creative economy, the increase in the number of least developed countries that are advancing towards graduation and require “smooth transition” strategies that boost their structural transformation processes, and the process towards a protocol on intellectual property under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Programme:

• Opening by Shantanu Mukherjee, Director of the Economic Analysis and Policy Division at UN DESA
• Moderated by Taffere Tesfachew
• Speakers:
  • Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
  • Debapriya Bhattacharya
  • Trudi Hartzenberg
  • Keith Nurse
• Discussion