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UNITED NATIONS CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT FUND Microfinance |
Issue 16 / September 2005 |
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Book Review - Poor People's Knowledge: Promoting Intellectual Property in Developing Countries
Edited by J. Michael Finger, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute, and Philip Schuler, Development Research Group, World Bank By Lutsia Willoughby, New School University, New York. 
Poor People's Knowledge: Promoting Intellectual Property in Developing Countries is a collection of essays on how to increase the knowledge poor people create, own and sell rather than buy. The main premise of the book is that increases in the earnings of poor people in developing countries comes from their innovation, knowledge, and creative skills. The book's focus is on two issues: first, the defense of traditional knowledge against misappropriation by industrial country interests, and second, the policing of biopiracy on the part of industrial country interests. Case studies depict traditional crafts and ways of preventing counterfeit crafts designs; the African music industry; the activities of fair trade organizations; biopiracy; the use of intellectual property laws and other tools to protect traditional knowledge. These case studies describe attempts to help poor people get along in the modern world and use modern instruments for managing the ownership of knowledge to either collect the commercial value of that knowledge or to prevent its use in a way that its owners consider inappropriate. The authors of the case studies have themselves participated in helping poor people to create new opportunities. In addition, the book brings attention to the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Agreement on the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS). TRIPS deals with knowledge that industrial countries own and poor people buy. TRIPS identifies opportunities for industrial countries in the developing world and provides a way for them benefit from these opportunities through the WTO. However it does not provide a mechanism to ensure these advantages trickle down to the developing countries. The central question addressed in the book is: what is traditional knowledge and how does it link to the modern world? Coenraad Visser (chapter 9) defines traditional knowledge as including traditional and tradition-based cultural expressions such as stories, music, dance, and crafts. Visser warns against overdrawing the distinction between traditional and modern knowledge. No one's life is entirely traditional and no one's life is entirely modern. Traditional versus modern is better thought of as opposite ends of a scale: each community fits somewhere along the spectrum in some combination of modern and traditional. Many people who are members of more traditional communities are poor but many poor people continue to live in the modern world. Nelly Arvelo-Jimenez's essay (chapter 1) demonstrates how old and new can be successfully mixed together. She argues that the traditional knowledge of the Yekuana people of the Amazon and the Orinoco Basins is a reserve of knowledge for alternative economic and social modes of living and ways of life. This case study reports an interaction between the Yekuana and modern society in a way that preserves the traditional culture, and demonstrates that when creatively managed, the dynamic of the indigenous culture can be maintained. Drank J. Penna, Monique Thormann, and J. Michael Finger (chapter 4) present the African music business as another example of an industry that has significant potential. It currently makes up about half of the fast growing world music segment of recorded music, however, financial institutions in Africa will not lend to the music industry and weak collection agencies make the collection of royalties problematic. "Big fish eat little fish" is how Africans describe the economic structure of the industry. A scheme to support development of this industry emerged from the World Bank's project to help developing countries make more effective the use of WTO. The major success of the Africa Music Project has been to assist musicians in Senegal in recognizing that they can help themselves. F/p> Maureen Liebl and Tirthankar Roy (chapter 2) remind us that handicraft in India has value beyond its capacity to generate income. India's craft traditions and craft skills are rare and irreplaceable resources as links to the past and means of preserving cultural meaning into the future. They also recognize that in the natural evolution of things it is neither possible nor desirable to preserve every single piece of the past. Artisans in India face the same intellectual property problems as in other developing countries. The study looks into two possible ways to improve the situation for artisans. First, to increase the income of craft producers. The prerequisites are adaptation of skills and products to meet new requirements in market access and supply. Second, to sustain the traditional skill base and to protect the artisan's traditional knowledge resources. The key is this area is development of intellectual property rights legislation and implementation. In conclusion, this book depicts valuable insights on how to help poor people master the commercial and legal tools needed to collect the value of their knowledge. These stories tell us about entrepreneurship and finding creative ways to introduce traditional insight into products useful for consumers in mass markets. I would encourage anyone interested in development to read this book. *To purchase Poor People's Knowledge: Promoting Intellectual Property in Developing Countries, please visit the International Year of Microcredit's Made by Microentrepreneurs online store: http://www.yearofmicrocredit.org/pages/getinvolved/getinvolved_shopmarketplace.asp#books |
