On Monday, 18 March 2024, Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) delivered the following oral statement (in person) at the 9th meeting of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB).
With respect to Article 11.2, the current references to “to all developing countries” are not optimal if you want to encourage more sharing of technology.
While soft obligations to share technology with developing countries are helpful and appropriate, creating mechanisms where countries have a self-interest to cooperate should also be included.
One approach that could have a higher ceiling on what technology is shared is an opt-in pool, where the benefits of the pool are only available to countries that opt-in.
To opt-in, parties would agree to some combination of terms and conditions on government funded R&D, levels of relevant R&D funding, and conditions on procurement.