Post 2015: Global Action for an Inclusive and Sustainable Future

CHApTER THREE
The EU is
recognised
among members
of the OECD/DAC
as a driving force
for promoting
developmentfriendly
policies
and PCD.
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• A patenting system that does not benefit
the poor: the current international system
of patenting and intellectual property rights
(Ipr) negatively affects developing countries
in important areas such as access to affordable
medicines, patenting of seeds and genetic
material as well as protecting genetic resources
and benefit sharing. an overall issue is that the
system does not promote innovation unless there
is a clear market demand and expected return on
investment, which is frequently not guaranteed
in developing countries. 30 there is increasing
recognition of the need to make the patenting
and Ipr system more development-friendly.
although various un policy processes over the
past decade have presented important opportunities
to make global policies more development-friendly,
there has been only progress. For example, the
annual conference of parties (cop) meetings on
climate change, the 2010 biodiversity meeting in
nagoya, the continuing Doha Development round
(DDr) and the 2012 rio+20 conference all failed
to result in binding decisions on reversing global
environmental change or promoting trade in a
manner that would make a real positive difference
to poor countries.
3.3.2 EU steps to promote PCD
For several decades, there has been often intense
debate on the effects of wider Eu policies on
developing countries. the need to discuss
these policies and where possible improve their
contribution to development has now become
an accepted and politically prominent feature of
European development policy.
EuropEan rEport on DEvElopmEnt 2013
the lisbon treaty, which entered into force in
December 2009, builds on earlier Eu treaties in
stating (art. 208) that the union ‘shall take account
of the objectives of development cooperation in the
policies that it implements which are likely to affect
developing countries’. the primary objective of this
cooperation is defined as ‘the reduction and, in the
long term, the eradication of poverty’. the European
consensus on Development clarifies this treaty
requirement by defining the process of promoting
pcD as ‘ensuring that the EU takes account of
the objectives of development cooperation in all
policies that it implements which are likely to affect
developing countries, and that these policies support
development objectives’ (Eu, 2005). the consensus
also identified specific areas in which to monitor
progress towards pcD. In 2009 the European
council focused on five global pcD challenges in
which the Eu wanted to engage more proactively:
trade and finance, food security, climate change,
migration and security (GaErc, 2009).
the Eu is recognised among the members of
the oEcD/Dac as a driving force for promoting
development-friendly policies and that, compared to
most other members, it has made stronger and more
frequent statements on the need to promote pcD.
this standpoint has gained increasing support as
was evident at the busan High-level Forum (HlF)
in 2011 or more recently at the oEcD in the central
importance given to pcD in its new Strategy for
Development (oEcD, 2012). 31 Eu and oEcD policy
debates and evaluations of efforts to promote pcD
have also contributed to the understanding that it
can be furthered at various interconnected levels:
inside development policy, between the policies
30 a particular example is medical innovation. an analysis published by officials from two ministries in the netherlands concluded that ‘pharmaceutical
companies were not inclined to develop new medicines for diseases in resource-poor countries without a clear market demand that promised
a reasonable return on investment’ (Wijnberg and monster, 2009). current signs of increasing drug-resistance among HIv, tuberculosis and
malaria patients in different parts of the world (Kendall, 2012) indicate that discussions in the World Health assembly to explore alternatives
to promoting medical innovation for diseases in resource-poor countries have not been translated into practice (Wijnberg and monster, 2009).
31 In 2011 there was increased attention paid to this issue in the discussions towards the busan HlF, with the outcome document acknowledging
that ‘it is essential to examine the interdependence and coherence of all public policies’. various discussions during the busan meeting and preparatory
debates pointed to the need to ‘move from aid to development effectiveness’, although then and even now there are many interpretations of
what this means in practice. However, post-busan, the discussions on setting up a Global partnership for Effective Development cooperation,
no longer refer to this: www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=DcD/Dac/EFF(2012)7/rEv1&doclanguage=En