Intellectual Property Day Celebration 2018: "Powering change: Women in innovation and creativity"

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I was very pleased to accept the invitation by the Registrar-General in the Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Jemima Oware, to join the commemoration of World Intellectual Property Day.

I agree with the organizers that this annual celebration by the World Intellectual Property Organization, known as WIPO, and its Member States provides an important opportunity to remind ourselves and spread the message that intellectual property is about solving problems.  It is about innovations that improve our well-being and safety and livelihoods.

And it is particularly important that this year we are setting time aside to acknowledge the critically important role of women in innovation and creativity – the theme for this year’s celebration around the world.

·         When women’s ingenuity, creativity, and talents are unleashed,

·         when women have equal opportunity to protect the results of their innovation through patents and other intellectual property laws,

·         when women have equal opportunities to invest in launching new businesses, and

·         when girls in high school and universities are welcomed to study science and engineering and medicine and creative arts and business,

then – when these conditions are met -  whole economies and local communities benefit.

This is the theme for this year’s celebration, and I have the honour of reading out to you the full message for today from the Director General of WIPO, Mr. Francis Gurry.  I quote…

 “This year our World Intellectual Property Day theme is “Powering change: Women in innovation and creativity.”

“This is an exceptionally important issue. That is why today we are celebrating the talents and accomplishments of women inventors and creators around the globe.

“But we have work to do.  Available statistics indicate that the level of participation by women in innovation and creativity is below par. This is unfair to women and a loss for our world, which needs a full team working on our most-pressing common challenges.

“On the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day, I call on everyone, everywhere, to ensure that we each do everything in our power to increase the full participation of women in innovation and creativity.

“In the case of innovation, if we take the use of WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) as an example, in 1995, only 17 percent of international patent applications filed under that system included a woman among the inventors listed.

“The good news is that this number is rising and now nearly one-third of all international patent applications contain at least one woman inventor. But that figure is still well below the parity we all seek.

“Intellectual property exists to encourage innovation and creativity, which stimulate improvements in our quality of life, spur economic growth and address the radical challenges we confront such as climate change, clean energy, food security and health.

“To address these challenges, we need the benefit of all of humanity’s resources. A deficit in the participation of women means that the current levels of innovation and creativity are suboptimal, and we are simply not reaping the full benefits that flow from innovation and creativity. At present, humanity is not realizing its full innovative and creative potential.

“That is why on the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day, I call on everyone, everywhere, to ensure that we each do everything in our power to increase the full participation of women in innovation and creativity.

“This will lead to much greater opportunity and fairness for women and enormous benefits for the world.

“I wish you all a very happy, fruitful and innovative World Intellectual Property Day.”

Ladies and Gentlemen,

A couple of decades ago, I headed the small enterprise for employment department at the UN’s International Labour Organization.  And at that time, we used to often quote a statistic that 1 or 2 percent of people everywhere were born entrepreneurs – that society really could not hold them back.

But the economies that thrived were those that created a welcoming enabling environment for new business startups and growth, so that the next 5-10 percent of would-be entrepreneurs could achieve their potential. 

I think that in our families and communities we all know some amazing women entrepreneurs, women who have launched and nurtured small businesses on the basis of some innovation, some idea, that gave them an edge in the marketplace because the created products or services that people valued. And I think we are privileged to have many such women celebrating with us here this morning!

Ensuring gender equality and empowering women is the 5th of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It is a critical human right in itself.  But is also widely acknowledged that progress on the other Sustainable Development Goals – on industrialization, on decent work, on environment and health – will only be met if we have the full participation of women in innovation and creativity.

Intellectual property is one critical element in unleashing women’s potential.  The UN in Ghana coordinates work with many partners on other aspects, such as women’s education, leadership, and entrepreneurship.

I am grateful that you are here this morning, to celebrate World Intellectual Property Day. And I thank you for doing what you can to answer the call of WIPO’s Director General, “to increase the full participation of women in innovation and creativity.”