Developing awareness and professional skills of IP tools in Tanzania - A need for action

What is the project Developing awareness and professional skills of IP tools in Tanzania?

With constant changes and growth in our global economy, a more systematic approach should be taken in order to foster, take advantage of, and strengthen emerging and dynamic innovation initiatives in the region. By providing local institutions with IP know-how, innovative approaches and the opportunity to collectively learn from each other’s experiences, vital steps in embracing innovation as a community practice begins to take shape, and lays the foundation for broad-based, accelerated and sustainable growth.

There is great need to strengthen innovation, research and development capacities in the United Republic of Tanzania. More importantly, actions need to focus on connecting capacity to policy to support and assist persons in the effective creation, development, protection and facilitation of partnerships to commercialize IP.

The seven-month project, June 2016 to January 2017, Developing awareness and professional skills of IP tools in Tanzania supports the development of IP awareness and professional skills among designated Tanzanian and East African stakeholders across public, academic and private sectors. By coming together and collectively learning from each other, stakeholders across various sectors can initiate conversations and explore lucrative ways to stimulate and enhance local, regional and international export capacities.

Our approach is to:

• utilize tools for user and market testing, as REALITY matters
• utilize methods for identifying, developing, protecting and disseminating IP, as SUSTAINABILITY and KNOWLEDGE matters
• utilize tools for pro- and pretotyping, as PRACTICE matters
• utilize tools for engaging innovators, as RELATION matters
• utilize tools for design thinking and idea development, as MINDSET matters.

Watch the process in the mind map video (from the workshops):