Implementing WIPO’s Development Agenda in North Africa and the Middle East

Mosques, Tunis, 1932, by Smithsonian American Art Museum, on Flickr.
Mosques, Tunis, 1932, by Smithsonian American Art Museum, on Flickr.

The World Intellectual Property Organization invited me to speak about my trade and development research, specifically my book Implementing the WIPO’s Development Agenda, during an outreach and capacity-building seminar in Tunis, Tunisia.

It was surprising (though in hindsight, it shouldn’t have been) that most of the representatives from WIPO’s Arab country member states had not even heard of WIPO’s Development Agenda, let alone understood its purpose and effect.

By the end the seminar’s third day, however, people began to see how the agenda might influence their activities at the national level, and what might be done to promote its underlying values. The experience proved to me the need for and value of WIPO’s work in this area.

Here is a summary of what I had to say during my four separate but complementary presentations: