Legal and technical assistance to AU Commission on IP

The main objective of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is to create a single continental market for goods and services, with the free movement of people and investments, and thus pave the way for accelerating the establishment of the Continental Customs Union and the African Customs Union. Since the AfrIPI project is designed to facilitate the ongoing negotiations (in particular Phase II, dealing with intellectual property rights) and later implementation of the AfCFTA; AfrIPI will provide legal and technical assistance to the AU Commission with regard to the IPR related topics of AfCFTA phase 2. This includes not only legal and technical support, but also capacity building. With this aim, AfrIPI will deploy a long-term IPR expert, for the entire duration of the project, who will be in charge of providing such legal and technical assistance. The expert will be based at the premises of the AfCFTA Secretariat.