The Fourth Meeting of the ARIPO sub-group of the ad hoc working group on GIs

The fourth meeting of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) sub-group of the ad hoc working group on geographical indications (GIs) took place online on 15 March 2023. It had representatives from six ARIPO Member States – Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia. Zambia was the chair of the session. 

The aim of the meeting was to review the:

• draft needs assessment questionnaire, presented by Dr Courage Adanu, AfrIPI Short-Term expert for Needs Assessment; 

• draft legal assistance questionnaire, presented by Professor Ben Sihanya, AfrIPI short-term expert for Legal Assistance. 

The participants finalised the consolidated questionnaire’s format and recommended its dissemination to the ARIPO Member States.

The next meeting in this series is tentatively scheduled for May 2023, and two more will follow this year.

This series of meetings are part of AfrIPI’s Activity ‘Technical support for the development of the legal framework for GIs in ARIPO countries’. It is being implemented under the 2022 and 2023 Annual Work Plan. Its main purpose is to support the ARIPO ad hoc working group on GIs to move towards creating an enabling legal and institutional framework in accordance with international best practices. In 2023, the specific objective is to follow up on the work done by the working group in 2022.