A/HRC/12/WG.2/TF/2 page 10 has progressively expanded its scope, but not on the wider range of research issues that are specific to resource-poor settings, such as the availability of certain treatment regimes and the infrastructure required for effective access to health care in poor tropical regions. With regard to the Global Fund, the consultant emphasized its transparency, commitment to good governance and sensitivity to human rights concerns, while noting some limitations of its programming. He also referred to the new Innovation and Access paradigm, which focused on developing new “open source” models, such as the use of collective management of patent rights to expand access to technologies. Against the existing right to development criteria, both the Special Programme and the Global Fund could be regarded as consistent with right to development principles. Upon closer scrutiny, through the development of supplemental criteria, the Programme could be evaluated more critically. Such criteria would include whether the initiatives are supportive of a biomedical research and development treaty, separation of research and development initiatives from drug prices, and support for a patent pool and overall support of transparency in patent licensing arrangements. 3. Common Market of the South 35. Paraguay, currently holding the presidency of the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), reiterated the interest of MERCOSUR to maintain a dialogue with the task force. The value MERCOSUR attached to human rights was reflected in the fact that high officers from human rights and ministries of foreign affairs of MERCOSUR countries were currently meeting in Paraguay, and consideration of the prospective dialogue with the task force was on the agenda of that meeting. 4. Development Agenda of the World Intellectual Property Organization 36. The Acting Director for the WIPO Development Agenda presented background information on the Development Agenda, including recommendations on mainstreaming the development dimension, interfacing intellectual property and competition policy, and transfer of technology to developing countries. 37. UNCTAD noted that treaty provisions on transfer of technology are not obligatory, but rather couched in terms of best efforts to transfer technology. One major exception was article 66.2 of TRIPS agreement, which obliges developed countries to provide incentives for the transfer of technology to least developed countries. It is important to assess the extent to which this provision is being implemented from a right to development perspective. 38. WIPO considered that the patent system supported rules-based innovation and recalled that there were millions of patents in the public domain, freely available for further invention and innovation. However, many developing countries cannot benefit from these patents and it was time for these countries to benefit, which is what the development agenda sought to achieve. 5. Clean development mechanism In the absence of a representative from the secretariat of the United Nations Framework 39. Convention on Climate Change and of the Kyoto Protocol, UNCTAD provided a historical