The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the World International Property Organization (WIPO) are organizing a meeting on the theme “Towards Sustainable Development:  Partnership for Innovation and Technological Capacity Building  for the Least Developed Countries of Africa”.  The meeting will be held in Addis Ababa on the 26^th and 27^th of October, 2015.

Participants will include representatives from government ministries/departments, universities, research institutions, chambers of commerce, industry and the private sectors from African LDCs.  In addition, regional and international experts from different countries and officials from UN-ECA and WIPO will participate as speakers. 

The objective of the meeting is to discuss the importance of using scientific and technical information that can be found in patent documents and scientific journals for the use of national development endeavors. The meeting will take into account the existing national innovation and technological capacity building scenarios of the participating LDCs of the region and will examine as to how LDCs can build their innovation and technological capacity through greater access to and use of patent information system and other databases containing technical and scientific knowledge.

The meeting will highlight the importance of global and regional cooperation as well as nationally focused initiatives of UN organizations to provide need-based and development oriented assistance suitable for strengthening innovation and creativity in the LDCs.  From this perspective, WIPO and UN ECA can make important contribution towards developing capacity in science, innovation and technology and its application for development in the LDCs. The expected outcome of the meeting is the identification of specific issues for further partnership between the LDCs and the two organizations, in addition to undertaking a focused need analysis on the basis of identified development issues for further cooperation.

Contacts