Providing Global Public Goods
states that people's well being everywhere, in richer as well as poorer
countries, clearly depends on both, private goods and public goods. To the
extent that public goods are becoming more globalized, people's well being
also depends on global public goods. As the recent past has shown,
people's health, for example, critically depends on how the international
community decides to manage knowledge. Do we just focus on ensuring
intellectual property rights (e.g. through patents)? Or, do we
concurrently—and with the same amount of political determination—encourage
complementary efforts to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge,
especially those that are of critical importance to development? No doubt,
innovation and the dynamic efficiency of economies have to be rewarded
through such measures as intellectual property rights. But it is the
application of knowledge to development and its consequent dissemination,
that also matters.
Thus, global public goods can be
seen as inputs to the development process. National policy priorities as
well as internationally agreed-upon goals and objectives, such as the
Millennium Development Goals, are the end. Similarly, global public goods
are important ingredients to realize human rights. For example, without
increasing globalization (i.e. world-wide spread, cross-border
harmonization and international monitoring) of institutions, such as those
linked to the rule of law, respect for human rights would not be as strong
and entrenched as it is today.
