United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

At its meeting of 26-27 June 2025, the Council for TRIPS agreed to invite intergovernmental organization observers to the Council to update the information on their technical and financial cooperation programmes relating to the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement.

The present document reproduces the information which has been received from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) by means of a communication dated 2 October 2025.

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INTRODUCTION

1.  The UNCTAD secretariat, in accordance with its mandate under Bridgetown Covenant (2021) and taking into account international and regional initiatives, such as those by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), World Health Organization (WHO), and the African Union, implements a work programme on advancing the development dimension of intellectual property (IP) rights as they relate to key economic sectors.

2.  UNCTAD works on building coherence between IP, investment and trade policies to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, to address the changes brought by frontier technologies and to build productive capacity in vital sectors of developing countries' economies, including the bio‑pharmaceutical and vaccine sectors. It also engages in improving the effective participation of developing countries in international IP norm setting, upgrading national IP policies and advancing regional cooperation on IP rights. The work programme is partially funded by donor governments and institutions.