The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat under the Support to the Industrialisation and Productive Sectors (SIPS) programme is convening a regional capacity building training on strengthening of regional and national Intellectual Property Rights Policies and Regulations (IPRs) and Trade Related Intellectual Property Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) compliance.
The training is being conducted in partnership with the African Regional Intellectual Property Oganisation (ARIPO) in Harare, Zimbabwe from 5th to 15th October 2022. According to ARIPO Intellectual Property is a very wide field of law that affects human kind in all daily activities in the consumption of products and services and it is comprised of three components, namely industrial property; copyright and related rights; as well as emerging issues of Intellectual Property. This can be an invention (patent/utility model), a design (industrial design), a brand name (trademark), or a literary and artistic work (copyright). Intellectual property protection is critical to fostering innovation. Without protection of ideas, businesses and individuals would not reap the full benefits of their inventions and innovations and would focus less on research and development.
The SIPS IPR training workshops , which are being held in hybrid format with virtual and physical participants from SADC Member States comprising of Policy Makers, SMEs in the Leather and ARV Value Chains, began on 5th October 2022 and will run until 15th October 2022. The training programme seeks to educate high-level officials across SADC on the nature and policy implications of their IPR obligations and the way that these can be deployed in support of key sectors in SADC Member States.
The training also aims to raise awareness of IPRs among selected small and medium enterprises in SADC Member States in the leather and anti-retroviral value chains. The programme consists of three modules each targeting specific actors in the region. Each module will be delivered over a period of three days in a hybrid format with the physical sessions being held at ARIPO Secretariat, Harare, Zimbabwe.
The first module addresses IPR policy targeting intellectual property rights and policy makers, while the second module covers IRP training for small and medium enterprises in the leather value chain. The third module covers IPR training in the anti-retroviral value chains. Each module will comprise formal presentations by experts in each area. A certificate of attendance will be presented to participants upon successful completion of the training workshop.
SIPS is a Programme funded by the European Union (EU) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). SIPS aims to enhance the regional policy and regulatory environment and also private sector participation in regional value chains, namely in the SADC regional ARV, COVID-19-relevant Medical and Pharmaceutical Products (CMPPs), and leather value chains under Result 2. The objective of SIPS is to contribute to the SADC industrialisation and regional integration agenda by improving the performance and growth of selected regional value chains as well as the related services within the agro-processing and pharmaceutical sectors.
SADC will oversee enhanced policy, regulatory and business environment on national and regional levels for development and sustainable operation of the regional value chains for selected products in the agro-processing and pharmaceutical sectors, while the German development agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), a key implementer of SIPS, coordinates the enhance participation of the private sector in the ARV, CMPP and leather value chains under Result Area 2.
Result Area 1, which is implemented by the SADC Secretariat, seeks to enhance the policy, regulatory and business environment at national and regional levels for the development and sustainable operation of regional value chains in the agro-processing and pharmaceutical sectors.
