AfrIPI coordinated the African Session in the GI Conference in Montpellier, discussing innovative approaches

In July 2022, AfrIPI participated in the international conference ‘Worldwide perspectives on Geographical Indications: An International Conference for Researchers, Policy Makers and Practitioners’, organised by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), contributing to the dedicated discussions on recent practices and research between the academic world, practitioners’ network, and the policy sphere from all over the world.

Within the dedicated Africa session, coordinated by the AfrIPI project, experts discussed innovative approaches in the field of protection, governance and marketing. The session highlighted the GI projects’ innovative achievements in Africa on GIs and brought together a wide range of actors in the field of GIs, including researchers, public authorities, producers and their collective organisations, public authorities, and international organisations.

Among the important aspects of GI development in the world, the African Union’s Continental Strategy for GIs in Africa has reaffirmed the strong potential of GI protection in Africa as a tool for territorial development and job creation in the regions where the GIs are produced, for facilitating coordination and synergies between projects and stakeholders, for giving value to traditional know-how and bringing added economic value to products. The strategy and its action plan represent a transition in the approach towards articulating key result areas that are interdependent and mutually reinforcing; that is, strategic issues of production and productivity, agribusinesses and agro-industries, agricultural markets, and sustainable environmental management.

Among various initiatives, the AfrIPI project proposes supporting the Continental Strategy’s action plan, as well as other relevant projects such as the Project to support the establishment of geographical indications in African countries (PAMPIG) and the GI support fund. Two years after the launch of the AfrIPI project, this session was an opportunity to take stock of the situation and assess how the Continental Strategy has been a lever to spreading innovative approaches in the field of GIs.

Watch the event recording: