A/HRC/9/17 page 8 assistance, technology transfer, procurement and pricing, research and development, international cooperation, local capacity-building and many issues that no one partnership covered. Consequently, the Working Group agreed that a desk review would be conducted of the Intergovernmental Working Group global strategy and plan of action, seeking clarifications where necessary from the Intergovernmental Working Group, with particular attention to the monitoring and evaluation process within the global strategy. The plan of action matrix was also considered a good example of a specific and consolidated approach to monitoring. The Working Group further agreed that more than one partnership should be studied to allow a broader basis for the task force to elaborate the criteria in relation to target 8.E, while taking into account the work of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. In this context, views were exchanged on the values of studying the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, UNITAID, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization Alliance. 22. With regard to technology transfer, considered of particular importance in a number of interventions, a representative of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) gave a briefing on the work of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council. She outlined the substantive themes of the Commission for the next five years, including themes relating to the building of an information society, with a view to narrowing the digital divide, and to examining the implications of science and technology for development. Issues relating to technology transfer would be a part of these themes, but not the focus of the whole exercise. As potential partnerships for the task force to evaluate, other interventions suggested the Development Agenda of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which included a set of 45 recommendations to enhance the development dimensions of the Organization’s activities, and the Clean Development Mechanism, which was mentioned as the most successful multilateral environmental agreement in the United Nations system, with a very good incentive mechanism. The Working Group agreed that the task force should examine first the Clean Development Mechanism, and then the WIPO Development Agenda, if the time frame and circumstances permitted, given that the workplan of WIPO might not fit in with the timeline of the task force’s work. 23. In a later discussion, in response to the remark made by Canada that technology transfer was not the language used in Millennium Development Goal 8, which referred instead to making available the benefits of technology, especially information and communications (target 8.F), the Chairperson-Rapporteur pointed out that it had been the understanding of the Working Group at its previous sessions and at the ninth session that “technology transfer” was a general term that included the specific references in Millennium Development Goal 8 and discussions around additional partnerships had been interpreted accordingly. 24. The issue of external debt was another area of global partnership that drew strong support in terms of thematic expansion. Reference was made to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative and the Inter-American Development Bank as options for task force evaluation in this area. With respect to the review of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative, it was suggested that the task force approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. With regard to the

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