Development Economics: Women | 2021
Harnessing Digitalization for Africa’s Women Farmers: Shortcomings in Regional Copyright and Data Protection Laws
Abstract
Over the past few decades, the nature of agricultural activity has been transformed by the development of digital technology, along with the creation of data protection rights in intellectual property agreements. While international consensus exists regarding the potential of digital technologies and data to help Africa overcome food insecurity and poverty, a persistent gap has been identified in the ability of Africa’s female farmers to utilize digital technology for agriculture, raising questions about the suitability of current intellectual property (IP) and data regulations to meet their needs. Though previous analysis has been made on the influence of international IP and data protection on gender, the legal and policy framework necessary for enhancing the use of digital technology by female smallholder farmers in Africa remains relatively unknown. This paper helps to fill in the gap by examining the issues that affect the ability of African women to utilize digital technology for better agricultural productivity and how these are influenced by regional and multilateral intellectual property (IP) regulations. This paper highlights the need for a gender differentiated approach to IP regulation, that involves providing specific provisions for enhancing gender equality and inclusiveness for females, as key to closing the gender gap to accessing digitalization by female smallholder farmers in Africa. Further, the paper proposes a model framework for how the ‘differentiation’ principle can be applied in re-designing regional IP and data protection laws and policies that are more inclusive of the needs of female smallholder farmers in Africa. This paper focuses on provisions regulating copyright and data protection, as the forms of IPR most relevant to determining access and use of agricultural data.