| Description: |
Pursuant to a request by the Registrar General of The Gambia for WIPO’s assistance in the elaboration of a national intellectual property (IP) policy and strategy, a needs assessment mission was undertaken by two consultants in April 2012. The purpose of the mission was to assess the state of play of the IP system in Gambia; identify weaknesses, constraints and opportunities; and make concrete proposals on specific needs-oriented activities and projects for implementation within the framework of the proposed national IP policy and strategy in order to enhance Gambia’s capacity to create, protect and make strategic use of IP rights and assets as tools for economic growth and development.
The Mission was organized to incorporate a national Forum on national IP policy and strategy which brought together all the relevant stakeholders and partners with a view to sensitizing them on the need to leverage IP for development and to provide a platform for a review and possible validation of the findings and recommendations of the expert reports.
Key elements in the two reports were agreed, and the next steps were to be the merging of the two reports for the formulation of a comprehensive national IP policy and strategy with focused action points for implementation. Given that the two reports were drafted in 2012, and owing to the evolving nature of the Copyright system in the country, another report on Copyright was commissioned in 2014 which presents a more up to date state of affairs.
In November 2014, the Registrar General of the Gambia requested WIPO’s assistance in the final drafting of the Policy and Strategy (copy attached), to which WIPO has responded positively. In this regard, two experts, Dr. Susan Isiko Štrba, international consultant, and
Ms. Amie Bensouda, national consultant, have been identified to undertake the assignment.
The Experts will undertake a five-day mission entailing Focus Group meetings aimed at obtaining an update on both |