A gender take on intellectual property and traditional medicine

By: Gibb H
Published by: The International Working Group on Gender, Macroeconomics and International Economics, 2007
Via: Eldis

What roles do women, particularly indigenous women, play as custodians of traditional knowledge (TK) and as consumers and producers of traditional medicines? What is being protected by intellectual property rights (IPRs)? This paper summarises current discussions on intellectual property and traditional medicinal knowledge (TMK) in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) from a gender perspective.

The paper finds that there are different visions of “protecting” TK: a “business” vision and a “sustainability” vision. The “business case” is concerned with promoting innovation and commercialisation of TK and emphasises the need to protect traditional knowledge and secure fair and equitable sharing of benefits to be derived from the use of biodiversity and associated traditional medicine. The “sustainability case” is concerned more with ensuring traditional users’ continued access to traditional medicines. This view is concerned with over-harvesting due to intensified local use or exploitation to meet export demand.

A gender perspective shows women’s and men’s different and often complementary roles and responsibilities in TMK, different access to resources and the knowledge associated with those resources.The author highlights that women’s TK is generally not well documented, thus strategies and frameworks that rely on formal systems of knowledge may exclude their TK. As women play key roles in TMK, trade development and promotion policies and strategies need to address persisting gender-based barriers that constrain women from gaining income from their TK (for example, barriers to inheritance and ownership of property), and recognise them as legitimate stakeholders in policy dialogues.

The paper suggests that developed and developing countries orient the focus of discussions on intellectual property and TK more closely to health concerns. Policy measures should be more consistent with the Doha directive, by adopting a rights-based approach in order to better address gender concerns than do current trade models. This strategy would imply a more bottom-up approach to international rule-making, in which traditional and community governance mechanisms would be better reflected in national and international IP regimes.