The importance of the contribution of GIs to sustainable development in Africa was underlined during a two-day round table organised jointly by OAPI, ARIPO and WIPO in Yaoundé, on “Geographical Indications in Africa: Challenges of Territorial Development, Economic Integration and Trade”. Participants recognised the need to put in place national provisions to develop protection and enhancement systems for GIs.
As one of the three pilot projects for the development and protection of GIs in Africa, the Consultative Committee for the Continental Strategy for Geographical Indications is launching the mock-up of the future Pan African Geographical Indications information hub. This would enable the visualisation, probing and testing of the functionality of the platform to be developed in the future, before it made accessible to the general public.
As identified by the Consultative Committee for the Continental Strategy for Geographical Indications in Africa, the EUIPO is supporting the identification to a set of pilot projects for the development and protection of new GIs from Africa, and more concretely from ARIPO Member States. The purpose of the assignment is to identify and assess potential GIs, providing details on the respective qualities linked to the geographical origin, the local resources mobilised and production processes involved.
As identified by the Consultative Committee for the Continental Strategy for Geographical Indications in Africa, the EUIPO organized a targeted training activity on GIs in cooperation with OAPI, called “Training by Action: Madd de Casamance”.
The main objectives of this training were to reinforce the capacities of the actors of the value chain of a potential GI, called Madd of Casamance, to the problematic of the “cahier de charges” of a GI product and to help them to structure a GI group owner, such as a GI association.
On 29 March 2019, ‘the Consultative Committee for the Continental strategy for Geographical Indications in Africa’ ,during its second meeting in Essaouira, Morocco decided to launch three new initiatives as part of the implementation of the ‘African Union Continental strategy for Geographical Indications (GIs) in Africa 2018-2023’.
On 7 March 2019, the Task force rural Africa, after consultations of its members, presented its first recommendations in the form of a report, submitted as part of the wider Joint Africa EU Strategy (JAES). These recommendations extend to mainly four strategic areas for action:
The ’AU Continental strategy for Geographical Indications in Africa 2018-2023’ was adopted by the African Union in October 2017 and endorsed as a specific deliverable of the AU-EU Summit in November 2017.
Through the development of GIs, this strategy aims to develop rural areas in Africa, preserve heritage and tradition, while helping farmers and producers in Africa to gain added-value for their quality products. It is implemented at the African, regional and national level.