This webinar seeks to educate librarians in Sub-Saharan Africa to understand what their roles are relating to copyright and neighboring rights issues and how to engage in and around WIPO organized events. More importantly, engaging meaningfully with in-country stakeholders on copyright, in order to push for rights that matter to libraries in sub-Saharan Africa, should arguably be a key part of library advocacy in general. Join us, 30 November 12:00-13:30 UTC.

Our objectives are to raise awareness to librarians in sub-Saharan Africa about WIPO and how to engage; support librarians in sub-Saharan Africa to develop in-country plans for WIPO engagement, and to use this to advance national reforms; and to co-create a community of librarians in sub-Saharan Africa who will draft an advocacy engagement plan to engage to push library agenda on WIPO related matters.

The webinar is intended for varied audiences, including librarians, national libraries, library associations, library not-for profit organisations/NGOs, and development partners.

Speakers

Photo of Dr Dick KawooyaDick Kawooya

Dr Dick Kawooya coordinates advocacy in Africa for the project ‘Contributing to Public Interest Copyright Policy at WIPO: Promoting Access to Knowledge and the Right to Research’. He works closely with the EIFL Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager, Teresa Hackett.

Dick is an Associate Professor at the School of Information Science (iSchool), University of South Carolina. He has 18 years’ experience of research, teaching and advocacy in the field of intellectual property (IP), with a special focus on IP and innovation, IP and the informal economy in Africa, and copyright and access to knowledge.

Dick has been involved in several major international projects. He was Lead Researcher for the African Copyright and Access to Knowledge (ACA2K) Project (2006-2010), and he participated in Open AIR, the African Innovation Research and Training Project (2010-2014) where he studied the role of IP in technology transfer in Africa’s emerging informal economies.

Dick has served as a member of the Commonwealth of Learning (CoL) Copyright Expert Group and was EIFL’s first national copyright expert in Uganda, representing the Consortium of Ugandan University Libraries.

Dick has consulted with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on the study of innovation and intellectual property in developing countries. He has participated in negotiations at WIPO on copyright limitations and exceptions, including the Marrakesh Treaty for persons with print disabilities, and was an expert panelist at an International Conference on Copyright Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries, Archives, Museums and Educational & Research Institutions organized by WIPO in 2019. He has advised African delegates on copyright issues and has participated in consultative meetings with the African Union Permanent Delegation in Geneva on copyright in the digital environment.

Dick holds a PhD in Communications and Information from the University of Tennessee, where his doctoral research explored Ugandan traditional musicians’ and their IP ownership.

Photo of Teresa HackettTeresa Hackett

Teresa Hackett is Copyright and Libraries Programme Manager at EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries), an NGO that works with libraries in over 50 developing and transition economy countries to enable access to knowledge. With 20 years working in the area of public interest copyright law reform, Teresa supports a network of specialist copyright librarians, many of whom have achieved success in improving national copyright laws, and has contributed to over 20 nations joining WIPO’s Marrakesh Treaty for persons with print disabilities. Prior to joining EIFL, Teresa held a number of policy and technical positions including Director of the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA), and consultant to the European Commission’s library research programme. In 2018, Teresa received the IFLA Medal for distinguished contribution to international librarianship in the field of copyright and in 2015, was recognized by the Shuttleworth Foundation as an agent of social change.