| Description: |
Strengthening cooperation mechanisms and programs tailored to the needs of developing countries, LDCs and countries with economies in transition” (ER III.4) is one of the key deliverables of the work plan of the Division for Least Developed Countries. During the past years, the Division undertook a number of such partnership programs with the United Nations system organizations as well as other inter-governmental organizations.
Accordingly, the Division in its Work Plan for 2017, incorporated activities to build upon WIPO’s previous cooperation programs with UN ESCAP (held in 2015 and 2016).
The proposed activity for this year will focus on identifying priority needs of the LDCs of the region in the area of innovation and technological capacity building and the use of intellectual property system. Attention will be given to discuss areas of cooperation to support LDCs in their effort to develop national innovation institutions. The program will provide a platform to assess the policy, technical and institutional needs of the LDCs of the region. IP related priorities and challenges that arises from LDCs involvement within a regional and sub-regional settings and common interests and needs areas will be discussed. The goal is to explore how to maximize and leverage commonalities in need based cooperation programs and build strategic cooperation programs involving WIPO, LDCs and relevant regional and sub-regional organizations and institutions.
In view of the above, it is proposed to organize a set of three back to back joint programs at the UN ESCAP Secretariat in Bangkok
The first program will bring together LDCs from across Asia and the Pacific region. This will be followed by two sub-regional consultative meetings for the LDCs of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The first initiative will take up the cross regional landscape of issues related to innovation and |