Deadline: 21-Apr-23
Women entrepreneurs from indigenous peoples or local communities, such as artisans, designers, performing artists, researchers, healers, or small-scale farmers, who have a project or business based on traditional knowledge or traditional cultural expressions with an intellectual property component, are encouraged to apply for Training, Mentoring and Matchmaking Program.
Entrepreneurship based on traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions celebrates the rich and diverse cultures and traditions of indigenous peoples and local communities around the world, strengthening their sense of identity and belonging, as well as creating jobs and generating income.
The program aims to strengthen the capacity of indigenous and local community women entrepreneurs to make strategic and effective use of intellectual property tools in support of their businesses.
It is hoped that the program will encourage women entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity related to traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, and lead to sustainable prosperity for women and their communities, thus supporting the implementation of many of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Program Structure
- The program has a practical approach and consists of a training phase and a mentoring and matchmaking phase.
- The training phase will consist of a practical workshop at WIPO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, that includes a mixture of short presentations, case studies and group work, to take place from September 18 to 22, 2023.
- During the practical workshop, participants will have the opportunity to:
- Build capacity in intellectual property and acquire the skills necessary for an effective use of intellectual property rights, including in the digital economy;
- Acquire basic knowledge of related fields useful in an entrepreneurial context, such as business modeling, marketing and digital storytelling.
- The practical workshop will also provide the opportunity for participants to network and share experiences with other indigenous and local community women entrepreneurs from around the world to further develop their projects and businesses. Time will be allocated to presentations and discussions of each of the participants’ projects.
- The mentoring and matchmaking phase will take place in 2024. During that phase, mentors will be assigned to individual participants to provide guidance and support in the implementation of the intellectual property components of the participants’ projects and businesses.
- Mentoring will be provided through video chat, emailing and telephone communication by WIPO and/or its program collaborators.
- In delivering the objectives of the program, WIPO will work with program collaborators and experts who bring deep and valuable experiences to the table.
How can participants benefit from the program?
- The program can, for example:
- Assist creative and innovative entrepreneurs to sustainably brand and commercialize products and services based on traditional knowledge and/or traditional cultural expressions;
- Help communities identify and manage intellectual property issues that can arise in the context of projects focused on the documentation and digitization of traditional knowledge and/or traditional cultural expressions; or
- Help folk, art, and cultural festival organizers, as well as the artists, performers, and exhibitors at such festivals, to monitor and manage the use of intellectual property rights in that context.
Eligibility Criteria
- 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:
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- Africa
- The Arctic
- Asia
- Central and South America and the Caribbean
- Eastern Europe, the Russian Federation, Central Asia and Transcaucasia
- North America
- the Pacific
- The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will select up to 20 participants.
- Applications from young indigenous and local community women entrepreneurs are strongly encouraged.
- Language requirements: Participants should be able to effectively communicate in English.
For more information, visit WIPO.