The Doha Development Round and NGOs: players or pariahs?
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The Doha Development Round and NGOs: players or pariahs?
NGO’s are believed to be playing an important role in the Doha Development Round. In spite of clear advancements in bureaucratic authenticity, previous optimism concerning the authorities of NGO’s to create important, meaning full and normative changes in the global IPR administration was premature. Following the affirmation of Doha in 2001, the demands of NGO’s were met by the EU legislators without any protest. They had demanded for the creation of additional changes in the less important areas. They also wanted present rules in the IPR governance to retain an onward momentum in World Trade Organization trade cooperation to be clarified. This implies that NGOs works to develop the legitimacy of policymaking (Great Britain, 2006). On the other hand, NGOs and international civil society are recognized as a subject of international and regional democratic control hence their demands have always been taken seriously by the policymakers.
NGOs are also considered as players in the Doha Development Round because they are able to support policies that encourage unbiased distribution of resources in the international economy. Moreover, they are also capable of initiating independent projects meant to reduce worldwide inequalities. Therefore, such roles could not be played by the Doha Development Round legislators thus they are also players. It is evident that NGOs were included by the EU to dialogue before the Doha Declaration. They used the media to create public debate and distribute information concerning the connection between IPR protection and the problem of AIDs in Africa (Oyejide, African Economic Research Consortium & African Imperatives in the New World Trade Order, 2003). The achievements of Doha Development Round of restoring continuous inequalities in the global trade regulations, ensuring that members’ rights are protected was recognized by legislators. From this description, it becomes visible that NGOs played an important role in creating additional reasonable external trade rules in Europe.
NGOs have also played important roles in informing the public about the effectiveness of Doha round. For instance, a number of NGOs recently stated that Doha Round will make the current international food crisis to intensify. This is because they do not only make food prices to me more unpredictable, but also make developing nations to depend on imports. They have also demanded that any solutions of the Doha Development Round should contain circumstances where it is economically unproductive in terms of producing a certain product. To prove their participation, a number of NGOs issued their criticisms and drafted a memo to the World Trade Organization to have a more clear and democratic supervisory in the Doha Round. In particular, they requested WTO to avoid holding secret informal gatherings that developing nations are always not invited to attend or take part in.
They also demanded that if the meetings were to take place, then WTO was to inform all the parties involved a few hours before their commencements. Many NGOs requested the WTO to consider helping delegates from small developing countries and those provided with less financial assistance (Bossche & Zdouc, 2013). This was aimed at ensuring that the delegates fully take part in the meetings. Even most of the proposals have not been put into practice by the World Trade Organization; it has taken necessary steps to improve transparency. They have done this by developing their website and making their documents to be accessed by the public quickly. Moreover, it is planning to make important advancements to the rules of procedure. Conclusively, it is important to agree that NGOs have played an important role in ensuring that the activities of Doha Development Round are transparent and indiscriminative.
References
Bossche, P. ., & Zdouc, W. (2013). The law and policy of the World Trade Organization: Text, cases, and materials.
Great Britain. (2006). The WTO Hong Kong Ministerial and the Doha Developmewnt Agenda: Third report of Session 2005-06. London: Stationery Office.
Oyejide, T. A., African Economic Research Consortium., & African Imperatives in the New World Trade Order (Project). (2003). Africa and the Doha development agenda: Review of selected issues. Nairobi, Kenya: African Economic Research Consortium.
