Potential impact on poverty in Africa
Light Years IP is carrying out a Scoping Study of the potential of an IP approach to enhancing African exports by capturing intangible value that exists or can be generated in export markets.
The study will describe and estimate the potential scale of the new approach and its impact on the dollar value of export trade from Africa. The study will then estimate the possible contribution to poverty alleviation of increased export income reaching the poor and of improved security of that income.
The Scoping Study will also directly answer questions on what needs to be done to gain these potential benefits and what role in this effort can be played by African governments, export agencies, exporters and by foreign donors and institutions.
This study could be an important step in raising awareness of untapped opportunities and in empowering African exporters to use their IP for export income. The initial results will be presented to a major internal conference of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in July 2006.
