Lessons from COVID-19: Strengthening Antimicrobial Stewardship Prior and During Pandemics
By Dr Rasha Abdelsalam Elshenawy
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a complex impact on the silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). While increased antibiotic misuse and disrupted antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs exacerbated AMR in some settings, heightened awareness and improved infection prevention measures implemented to control COVID-19 provided valuable lessons on sustaining these practices in the fight against AMR. This brief highlights lessons learned from the pandemic, such as the importance of access to antimicrobials and the urgent need for resilient and sustainable AMS integrated into pandemic preparedness, strengthening infection prevention and surveillance systems, enhancing access and use of diagnostics, and promoting a One Health approach. By leveraging these lessons, policymakers can build more resilient health systems, maintain the effectiveness of antimicrobials and be better prepared for future pandemics, particularly in developing countries. Immediate action is essential to protect public health and combat AMR effectively.
The Riyadh Design Law Treaty: Harmonizing Global Design Procedures with Mixed Implications
By Nirmalya Syam
The Riyadh Design Law Treaty (DLT), adopted on November 22, 2024, aims to harmonize and simplify the global registration procedures for industrial designs. By standardizing procedural requirements across jurisdictions, the treaty seeks to create a more predictable and accessible system for designers, particularly benefiting small-scale designers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, the DLT can have implications for developing countries, as many lack significant design-intensive industries. Key provisions in the DLT include a 12-month grace period, deferred publication, divisional applications, and the option to require disclosures regarding traditional knowledge and cultural expressions used in a design. While the treaty enhances global design protection, concerns persist regarding its impact on local designers, market competition, and procedural fairness. The immediate advantages of the DLT for developing countries are limited, highlighting the need for continued technical assistance and capacity-building efforts.
The WIPO Development Agenda: Progress and Challenges in 2025
By Nirmalya Syam
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Development Agenda (DA), adopted in 2007, seeks to align intellectual property (IP) policies with the development priorities of member States. Enduring challenges persist despite some progress including the adoption of treaties to facilitate access to copyright protected works for visually impaired and print disabled persons, and the recent treaty on IP, genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, and the adoption of several projects for implementing different DA recommendations. DA projects, however, have had limited impact on mainstreaming a development orientation in WIPO, there is limited promotion of use of IP flexibilities for development, and WIPO’s technical assistance continues to lack a development orientation. There is also a sustained absence of consideration and reporting of development related issues across WIPO bodies. Divergent interpretations of “development”, weak coordination and monitoring systems, and governance inequities have hindered the DA’s transformative potential. This brief examines these issues and advances recommendations to address the challenges to establish an effective DA.
Towards a UN Protocol for Taxing Cross-Border Services in a Digitalized Economy
By Abdul Muheet Chowdhary, Anne Wanyagathi Maina and Kolawole Omole
This Policy Brief offers a way forward on the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation’s (UNFCITC) protocol for taxing cross-border services in a digitalized economy. Such a protocol can provide a way to standardize and harmonize the existing plethora of widely varying Digital Services Taxes (DSTs), which can reduce political tension between the Global North and South, ease compliance costs and uncertainties for business, while providing a basis for the elimination of double taxation. The revenue generated can help bridge the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) financing gap and for the realization of human rights in the Global South. The Group of Twenty (G20) can act as a forum where key countries in the North and South can hammer out the architecture of the protocol for taxing cross-border services.
South Centre Inputs to FfD4 Elements Paper – Debt Sustainability, Business and Finance, Taxation
By Yuefen Li, Danish, Abdul Muheet Chowdhary
The upcoming 4th conference on financing for development (FfD4) represents an important opportunity for developing countries to achieve a deep reform of the international financial architecture so that it meets their sustainable development needs and enhances the scale of development finance to fully realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Based on the inputs provided by the South Centre to the FfD4 process, this policy brief highlights some of the key messages, problem statements and policy solutions in the areas of sovereign debt, private business and finance, and international tax cooperation that should be considered by the countries of the global South in their deliberations towards achieving ambitious outcomes at FfD4.
Determining the Upper Bound of the Scoping Criteria for Amount B in the OECD/G20 Two-Pillar Solution: A Policy Guide for Developing Jurisdictions
By Chetan Rao, Ruchika Sharma, and Dr. Vijit Patel
Amount B, a component of the OECD/G20 Two-Pillar Solution, has been designed to simplify transfer pricing for baseline distribution activities. With the aim of developing a practical policy guide for developing jurisdictions to fine tune the quantitative scoping criterion under Amount B, i.e., “annual operating expense to annual net revenue” ratio, this paper critically analyses various aspects of this criterion. The upper bound of this ratio is purported to help jurisdictions in identifying baseline distributors. It is currently set as a flexible range from 20% to 30%, with the choice available to each adopting jurisdiction deciding the exact point in the range for implementation of Amount B within its jurisdiction. Given the lack of any data-backed rationale in the Amount B report for development of this range, the authors suggest that the upper bound range might have been politically negotiated. For this very reason, developing countries need to tread carefully while setting the upper-bound and consider both its tax as well as policy implications. Through an empirical analysis of independent distributors in India, the paper highlights the link between the upper bound, functionality, and profitability, illustrating how these metrics impact developing countries with lower asset and expense intensities. The findings suggest that setting the upper bound at the higher end of the range could unintentionally bring above-baseline distributors into scope, thus foregoing long-term taxing rights for developing jurisdictions. Through this analysis, the paper offers practical insights and recommendations for jurisdictions, especially developing ones, for setting this upper bound to protect their taxing rights and minimize risks of misclassification of above-baseline distributors as baseline.
Towards a Balanced WIPO Design Law Treaty (DLT) for Developing Countries
By Nirmalya Syam
The WIPO Design Law Treaty (DLT) aims to harmonize and simplify global industrial design registration procedures, encourage digital applications and reduce costs. While the reforms required by the DLT could boost efficiency, they will mainly benefit enterprises from developed countries with resources to secure global design rights. This policy brief highlights the key concerns for developing countries, particularly the treaty’s potential impacts on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and indigenous communities. It advocates for critical adjustments in the DLT negotiation texts to allow for policy space in the DLT – binding technical assistance, flexible grace periods, enabling disclosure of the origin and source of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions used in designs that are sought to be registered, and optional divisional and electronic filing provisions.
Ensuring a Balanced Approach for the Global South in UNCITRAL Working Group III
By José Manuel Alvarez Zarate
This paper examines the ongoing efforts of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group III (WG III) to reform the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system. It argues that the current approach prioritises the concerns of developed countries over those of the Global South. The document highlights the disproportionate focus on the Permanent Multilateral Investment Court (MIC) and related issues, while neglecting procedural and cross-cutting concerns crucial for developing nations. The paper proposes concrete actions to rebalance the discussions, including prioritising procedural reforms and ensuring equitable representation in the MIC’s structure and appointment process. It emphasises the need for transparency, depoliticisation, and genuine consideration of the Global South’s concerns to achieve a genuinely legitimate and balanced ISDS reform.
Painting the Grass Green: A Climate Change Carve-Out in Investment Agreements
By Daniel Uribe
During the Twenty-Eighth Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP-28) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), States recognised the critical need to accelerate efforts to mitigate climate change and called on Parties to take action to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. However, implementing such a transition finds obstacles in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms, which can undermine regulatory actions necessary for climate policies, leading to a ‘regulatory chill’. As a response to these challenges, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Future of Investment Treaties program has proposed a model carve-out provision to exclude fossil fuel sectors from ISDS protection with procedural safeguards, but its effectiveness may be limited. A holistic reform of investment agreements and additional measures, such as withdrawal from international investment agreements, are necessary to safeguard regulatory space and promote sustainable investment and a just transition.
Understanding the New WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge
By Nirmalya Syam and Carlos M. Correa
A new WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources, and Associated Traditional Knowledge was adopted on 24 May 2024. The treaty creates an international obligation for patent applicants to disclose the source or origin of genetic resources (GRs) and associated traditional knowledge (TK) in patent applications. This development marks a significant step towards mitigating the misappropriation of GRs and TK, particularly benefiting developing countries that have long advocated for such a framework. While the treaty establishes minimum standards for disclosure and sanctions, it permits contracting parties considerable flexibility in implementation and opens avenues for future expansion of its scope to address emerging technologies and derivative products.
Unpacking the WTO MC13 Decision on the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce
By Vahini Naidu
The 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted a decision that marks a pivotal shift in the operational framework of the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce (WPEC) of the organisation. This Policy Brief examines how this Decision can enhance the trajectory of the e-commerce discourse within the WTO, elaborates on its implications and makes recommendations aimed at facilitating developing countries’ engagement in the WPEC.
The Design of a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation
By Sol Picciotto
The creation of a UN-led framework for international tax cooperation is an opportunity for an institutional and conceptual reset, to re-establish a global perspective that has been disrupted by the assumption of an increasingly dominant role in international tax by the OECD. The OECD’s expansive proselytisation of its approach, aiming to encourage foreign investment by restricting taxation of income at source where it derives, has paradoxically taken place in counterpoint with growing concerns about the evident dysfunctionality of that approach. The current process should learn from the past to design a global framework fit for the future, by embodying the aims and general principles that have come to be recognised especially in the recent period as essential guideposts for effective international tax reform.
