Acquisition of TK in the CGIAR
Wall Street Journal reporter Rober Therow interviewing sweet potato farmer in his field - CIP project near Mpigi, Uganda
What is it?
“There is a body of information that has enabled people to maintain their cattle - come war, come peace, come drought, come water - How can we strengthen this? How can we build on this? How can we incorporate it?” Okeyo Mwai, Animal breeder from ILRI.
TK often does not qualify for conventional IPR protection. However, communities that are the holders of TK, often suffer from a lack of information and power when it comes to the enforcement of their rights. Scientists who work with indigenous communities therefore have ‘ethical responsibilities’ as TK often forms the basis of their research. While gathering, storing and publishing TK scientists are, in effect, managing Intellectual Assets that belong to indigenous people.
CAS-IP recently conducted a study comparing the practices of scientists working with communities and traditional knowledge in several CGIAR centres. The objective was to understand what CG scientists have found to be useful and practical ways of ensuring that communities participate in negotiation of prior informed consent, and that their TK is protected against misappropriation. Giving back research results to communities, in a manner that is useful to them (e.g., in native languages) is seen to be as one of the most important aspects in these relationships. Capturing some of these experiences will facilitate a more harmonized approach to the acquisition of TK within the CGIAR. Based on these studies, CAS-IP has prepared a set of suggested guidelines for the use and acquisition of TK by CGIAR scientists to the CGIAR-Genetic Resources Policy Committee (GRPC) as the first step in the process of the GRPC’s formulation of a set of recommended guidelines for CGIAR Centers to adopt.
What does CAS-IP intend to deliver?
CAS-IP will publish the results of the study in the form of a research paper. The study and resulting paper will raise awareness about the use of research contributions from communities in an ethical and responsible manner and produce case studies that will identify examples of the use of TK in research. CAS-IP also intends to explore ways to provide feedback to communities involved in research and supply practical information and advice to CGIAR scientists to consider when using TK.
