In our mini-series to mark the 20th anniversary of the 2001 Doha Declaration, we turn to a lawyer and economist who worked as a consultant to the World Trade Organization (WTO) during the process leading up to the agreement on the declaration. Dr. Carlos Correa also attended the ministerial conference itself in 2001 in Doha, along with all the key actors. He is now the Executive Director of the South Centre, an intergovernmental organisation of developing countries, and continues to work with their governments on issues around intellectual property and public health.

With the recent postponement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Geneva, uncertainty swirls around the fate of the WTO TRIPS Waiver on intellectual property of COVID-19 medical tools, which was to have been central to the ministerial discussions and the culmination of many months of mobilisation and support for the proposal first brought by India and South Africa in October 2020.