GII 2018 Features at African Union Policy Meeting
October 4, 2018
The African Union (AU) invited WIPO to present the findings of the Global Innovation Index (GII) on 20 September 2018 as part of a training course entitled Design and Evaluation of Innovation Policy (DEIP), co-organized by UNU-MERIT and hosted by Morocco.
The event served as a platform to launch the GII 2018 in the North Africa region. Dr. Philippe Kuhutama Mawoko, Executive Secretary, the African Observatory for STI (AOSTI), African Union, made introductory remarks. Dr. Mawoko joined the Advisory Board of the GII in 2018, and commented that he hoped for further and closer collaboration between WIPO, the GII team and the African Union. He highlighted the important role that the GII plays in strengthening science, technology and innovation (STI) capacities of African countries, and how innovation metrics can contribute to the evaluation of innovation policies as well as a better understanding of their contribution to economic and societal goals.
Preserving innovation momentum
Lorena Rivera León, of the core GII team at WIPO, presented the findings of the 2018 edition of the GII. She highlighted Africa’s performance in the GII, with a special focus on characterizing the main differences among innovation ecosystems in Africa and the North African region. She also emphasized the importance of preserving innovation momentum in the region, as well as the need to collect innovation metrics for a better assessment of innovation strengths.
Morocco in the spotlight
Mr. Nour-Eddine Boukharouaa, Moroccan Office of Industrial and Commercial Property (OMPIC), presented the performance of Morocco in the GII. He also discussed the approach taken in Morocco to use the GII to foster the collection of innovation statistics and improve the innovation performance of the country over time.
The regional launch event was attended by representatives and experts in STI from Algeria, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia.