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WANTED: A GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE BANK

Proposal outlined in a new study sponsored by UNDP, Global Public Goods

Recommends new partnership between UNESCO and WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization

Embargoed until 10 May 1999, 12.00 EST

Knowledge is perhaps one of the most crucial public goods. As Joseph E. Stiglitz notes in his chapter on "Knowledge as a Global Public Good", US President Thomas Jefferson described the public benefits of knowledge elegantly by saying, "He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction for himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper from mine, receive light without darkening me."

That type of enlightenment can be one of the most valuable goods that people and nations can share. Yet at present, knowledge has no one institutional home. Responsibility for collecting and sharing knowledge is dispersed among a network of libraries, or with organisations like the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), or other multilateral agencies including the World Bank (which Stiglitz notes is regarded by its staff as "a knowledge bank").

There is plenty of information around, but access to knowledge for all is not easy. For example, Internet is a useful vehicle for the swift and widespread dissemination of knowledge: yet Internet growth remains slowest in developing countries.

Another challenge to access are intellectual property rights that are "too strong", or that assign exclusive rights to individuals over a corpus of knowledge that was created by past generations and constitute a global resource pool.

In his chapter, Stiglitz argues for the need to create an actual knowledge bank; that is, a body that can assemble, sort, store, disseminate and constantly update knowledge of special relevance to developing countries and to poor people. Such an arrangement could significantly reduce the underuse of knowledge that exists today, by building a network of participating local, national and regional centres. In this way, the world's pool of knowledge could be diversified, drawing in the experiences of international scientists as well as indigenous people.

Creating knowledge in the fields that matter is another challenge. Lincoln C. Chen, Tim G. Evans and Richard A. Cash note in their chapter on "Health as a Global Public Good" that, because pharmaceutical companies tend to focus research and development activity on "profitable" diseases that generally affect the world's richer populations, the dangerous health hazards faced by the poor receive less attention. Again, a knowledge bank could help to close access gaps and pave the way for medical breakthroughs that could benefit the most disease-stricken people.

The knowledge bank could function as a type of global public library, making available well-sorted, pre-screened information, and helping to promote research into such neglected areas as tropical diseases or tropical agriculture.

How could such a knowledge bank be financed? Stiglitz mentions a fee, that inventors who are seeking patents could pay for the use of the global knowledge stock. The users could themselves become knowledge scouts, bringing new facts to the knowledge bank in exchange for a small payment.

The editors offer a further option: they suggest creating a link between WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and UNESCO, the UN Education, Science and Culture Organization. While WIPO is involved in the registration of patents against a fee, UNESCO's mission is to help expand education and knowledge facilities world-wide. Hence, some of the income earned by WIPO through its registration activities could be channelled to UNESCO, in particular for the purpose of enhancing the availability and accessibility of knowledge of special relevance to poorer people, such as tropical agriculture and health.