WIPO Indigenous and Local Community Women Entrepreneurship Program

Deadline: 6-Sep-21

Applications are now open for the WIPO Indigenous and Local Community Women Entrepreneurship Program to encourage women entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity related to traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions by strengthening the capacity of indigenous and local community women entrepreneurs to make strategic and effective use of intellectual property tools in support of their entrepreneurial activities.

The Program provides participants the opportunity to:

build capacity in intellectual property and acquire the skills necessary for an effective use of the intellectual property system, including in the digital economy;
acquire basic knowledge of related fields useful in an entrepreneurial context, such as business modelling, marketing and digital storytelling;
benefit from the support of a mentor to further develop and implement projects and businesses based on traditional knowledge and/or traditional cultural expressions that have an intellectual property component; and
meet amongst Program participants, share and learn from each other’s experiences, but also meet potential partners who can provide support with the implementation of the intellectual property components of their projects and businesses.

Eligibility Criteria

Women entrepreneurs from indigenous peoples and local communities, such as artisans, designers, performing artists, researchers, healers, or small-scale farmers, who are planning or have already initiated a project or business based on traditional knowledge and/or traditional cultural expressions with an intellectual property component, are encouraged to apply.
WIPO will select up to 25 participants. Provided that an adequate number of applications are received, every effort will be made to select at least two participants from each of the seven geo-cultural regions recognized by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, namely
- Africa;
- Arctic;
- Asia;
- Central, South-America and the Caribbean;
- Eastern Europe, the Russian Federation, Central Asia, and Transcaucasia;
- North America; and
- the Pacific regions.
Applications from young indigenous and local community women entrepreneurs are strongly encouraged.