WIPO Unveils Results Of Training Department Assessment, But Keeps Document Secret

The World Intellectual Property Organization training arm has been undergoing an external assessment which was presented to member states during the organisation’s committee on development last week. But the document was not made publicly available.

The 11th session of the Committee on Development and Intellectual Property (CDIP) took place from 13-17 May. While member states were discussing improvements on WIPO’s technical assistance, some delegations enquired about the results of an external review of the WIPO Academy and the status of its publication.

The WIPO Academy was established in 1998 and provides face-to-face and distance learning courses on IP. On 15 May, Carlotta Graffigna, executive director of the WIPO Academy and Intellectual Property Human Capital Development at WIPO, presented a summary of the results of the external review.

The review served in particular to ensure and that the Academy is responding to the priorities of WIPO member states, she said, and that it coordinates well with other programmes of the organisation involved in capacity building.

The assessment was also undertaken to find out if the budget of the Academy was used to work in the niche where WIPO, as an organisation, has a comparative advantage, and concentrating on activities in which the organisation has this advantage and not in areas where “others are doing things better than us or in a more efficient way than us,” she said.

The idea was that the assessment would be “relatively” short and fast, and “action-oriented,” so that proposals could be made to member states for the upcoming biennium. This information is to be submitted in the draft Programme and Budget, to be discussed at the next meeting of the Program and Budget Committee, taking place from 8-12 July for the 2014-2015 biennium.

Graffigna said she had studied the External Review [pdf] of WIPO Technical Assistance in the Area of Cooperation for Development, and was impressed by the groundwork that had been done. She thus recommended to assign the assessment of the Academy to Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, one of the authors of the External Review, also considering the work done understanding the organisation.

The external review is at the heart of the discussions on technical assistance in the CDIP, with developing countries requesting decisions on the implementation of the recommendations of the external review, while developed countries find that a high number of these recommendations have been, or are in the process of being implemented by the WIPO secretariat (IPW, WIPO, 16 May 2013).

Internal Managerial Tool, WIPO Says

The report was commissioned with the understanding that “this would be an internal managerial tool for broader management and the Director General” to reassess priorities and direction if necessary, Graffigna explained. It also includes consideration and appreciation of the skill set of the Academy and thus contains a personnel dimension.

The 20-page document was received by WIPO, she said. The report answered the questions of the terms of reference in an “extremely concise” way and “sketches an ambitious plan for reorienting some of the activities of the Academy. Its main message is that WIPO has a definite comparative advantage when compared to other players in capacity building and training in IP, she said.

Reasons for this comparative advantage are in particular WIPO’s multilingualism, being in direct relationship with member states and their needs, projects and activities, being custodians of several treaties, having invested already heavily in a distance learning platform which the report considers unique, she said.

In the report, some recommendations lay at the policy level and some at the reorientation level, Graffigna said, and it confirms that WIPO should concentrate on its niche areas.

According to the report, she said, the WIPO Academy distance learning is an “excellent programme,” but could be more focussed on topics and areas in which training should be carried out. The report also indicated that although WIPO had involved itself in academic institution work, the organisation should rethink whether its real niche is engaging in education rather than in professional training. [corrected]

The recommendations or strategic directions that have been considered of importance have been integrated into the WIPO proposal for the next biennium, she said, pointing out that in order to implement those recommendations, WIPO would need more time than two years, but rather four or five years.

Today, according to Graffigna, WIPO Academy has a portfolio of predictable training opportunities offered on a yearly basis but many areas in WIPO undertake many activities which “are in the end capacity building.” This makes it difficult for member states to navigate, she said.

In the next biennium, WIPO could offer a unified catalogue at the organisation level containing what is offered on a yearly basis as capacity building but classified by subjects, languages and mode of delivery, she said.