Knowledge and Innovation in Africa: Scenarios for the Future

This 2013 book is the product of three years of literature reviews, expert interviews and scenario-building exercises by the Open AIR network. The authors trace the contours of knowledge and innovation in Africa from the founding civilisations to today’s current realities, and then set out the drivers of change that can be expected to shape innovation systems on the continent between now and the year 2035.

The Blue Economy and The Need for Open IP

By Eashan Karnik, cross-posted from Smart Prosperity Institute The need to adopt clean energy technologies is a pressing issue not just in Canada, but internationally...

Canada’s 2017 Copyright Review: Reflections on the Congress 2017

By Sileshi Hirko  Introduction The last week of May 2017 was a week of great academic activity in Canada, Congress 2017. This event is run by...

Reconciling Copyright with Creativity: New Insights from 2018 Conferences (Part I)

By Helen Chuma-Okoro and Nicole Tumaine Access to knowledge (A2K) is necessary to further innovation and creativity. Due to the exclusive nature of...

Open Data Brings Farmers and Researchers Together

How can farmers and researchers use open data to work together for food security? Open data and other forms of open access to knowledge help facilitate these relationships.

Focusing on Indigenous Data Sovereignty as Part of ‘Shifting Horizons’

By Toni Valenti On Thursday, March 28th, Open AIR attended the Indigenous Data Sovereignty panel at the Shifting Horizons research data conference at the University of Ottawa....

Chapitre 1: Innovation, propriété intellectuelle et développement en Afrique

Jeremy de Beer, Chidi Oguamanam et Tobias Schonwetter Date de publication : septembre 2017 Télécharger : Chapitre 1: Innovation, propriété intellectuelle et développement en Afrique (3.7MB) ...

Attention aux accords internationaux d’investissement !!

unsplash photo for blogpost
Par Abdelhamid Benhmade À quelques semaines près, l’Organisation mondiale du commerce tiendra sa douzième conférence ministérielle pour discuter de plusieurs dossiers tant complexes qu’épineux, entre...

La transition vers des villes et des territoires durables le role...

Par Abdelhamid Benhmade En réponse à l’invitation de Cités et Gouvernements Locaux Unis d’Afrique (CGLU Afrique), j’ai eu la possibilité d’assister à la 8èmeédition du...

Is Creativity and Innovation All About Intellectual Property?

In the recently concluded ‘African Ministerial Conference: Intellectual Property for an Emerging Africa’ organized in part by WIPO (here), one cannot help but think that all roads leading to creativity and innovation are paved with intellectual property (IP) laws and institutions. Put differently, the level of creativity and innovation in a society is dependent solely on how we tinker with and enforce IP laws. This ‘IP parochialism’, as I call it, is manifest in the conference program. Of course, the response would be that the conference was solely about IP and as such there was no need to look beyond IP. This is an erroneous view.