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Job Title: Protection of ARC Intellectual Property Rights

Type of Contract: WAE Consultant

Division: ARC – Legal Unit

Duty Station (City, Country): Home-based

Duration: 85 days over 6 months

Reporting to: Senior Legal Counsel and Board Secretary

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

The African Risk Capacity Group (ARC) consists of two institutions, namely ARC Agency and its affiliate: ARC Ltd.

The ARC Agency was established in 2012 as a Specialised Agency of the African Union (AU) by a Conference of Plenipotentiaries to help AU Member States improve their capacities to better plan, prepare and respond to extreme weather events and natural disasters. The objective of ARC Agency is to assist AU Member States reduce the risk of loss and damage caused by extreme weather events and natural hazards affecting Africa's populations by providing targeted responses to disasters in a timely, cost-effective, objective and transparent manner. Additionally, in response to the increasing occurrence of multiple, complex trans-border public health emergencies over the last 20 years, ARC has, since 2016, been developing innovative finance mechanisms to enable country-led rapid responses to disease outbreaks and epidemics.

Since its establishment in 2012, the Secretariat of ARC Agency is hosted by the World Food Programme pursuant to an Administrative Service Agreement signed between the two parties.

ARC Ltd on the other hand was established by the ARC Agency Conference of the Parties as an affiliate of ARC Agency. ARC Ltd was registered in November 2013 under the laws of Bermuda to provide drought insurance to ARC member countries.

In 2014, ARC launched its initial drought risk insurance for its Member States through its affiliate ARC Ltd. The tropical cyclone insurance was launched in 2020. ARC has made substantial progress on Outbreak and Epidemics insurance, flood and the Extreme Climate Facility. ARC undertakes studies/research, market analysis, develops hazard models and software to run the models and related technical documentation before launching a product. For example, for the drought insurance product, the model runs within the Africa RiskView Software platform. The Africa RiskView Software is the technical engine behind ARC’s drought insurance and the tool is provided to ARC Member States to help them manage their weather risk and identify the appropriate amount of risk to transfer to the ARC risk pool. Similarly, for tropical cyclone, the tropical cyclone explorer software is utilized. A flood data explorer is also being developed. ARC has also developed a model for Outbreaks and Epidemics explorer to run the O&E risk model.

Before a product is launched, ARC shares product information and undertakes consultations with insurance companies and market experts in order to gauge the appetite for the product.

ARC Agency spends a lot of resources, both human and financial, to develop models and software for the management of extreme weather events and natural disasters. It is important that ARC’s risk models, software and other tools are adequately protected from unauthorized use and if possible, for ARC to derive some financial benefits from them. At the moment, Member States and other users are granted access to the ARC models and software through a Software Licensing Agreement. For ARC Agency’s confidential information, access is granted after signing of a Non - Disclosure Agreement. Lastly, in contracts concluded by ARC Agency, the contracts have some provisions on intellectual property incorporated.

In order to adequately protect its intellectual property, ARC Agency would like to recruit a Consultant to undertake the scope of work below.

SCOPE OF WORK:

1. To review current ARC’s Agency intellectual property’s protection regime, identify risks and make proposals for its improvement including providing for other options for protecting ARC’s intellectual property.
2. Revise the ARV Licensing Policy, the Software Licence Agreements, Non-Disclosure Agreements, intellectual property rights affirmation for consultants and contract provisions on Intellectual Property to adequately protect ARC’s interests and reducing the risk of actions against ARC.
3. Analyse the institutional, administrative and infrastructural systems and procedures related to the handling and protection of ARC’s intellectual property (i.e. location of data, storage of source codes, passwords, responsibilities for accessing these protected resources, handling of confidential information etc).

DELIVERABLES:

1. A review report of ARC’s intellectual property protection regime with recommendations on how the regime may be improved. The report will also include the institutional/administrative procedures/modalities for handling and protecting ARC’s intellectual property and confidential information.
2. Revised Legal Documents (Licensing Policy and/or procedures, Software Licensing Agreements, Non-Disclosure Agreements, Contract Provisions).
3. A presentation of the revisions made to the ARC Agency to receive feedback before finalisation of the reports and documents.
4. Improvement Report on institutional/administrative procedures/modalities for handling and protecting ARC’s intellectual property and confidential information.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Education:

Advance university degree in law, intellectual property rights; or University degree in law with advance training in intellectual property rights

Experience:

At least ten (10) years professional experience providing advice on intellectual property rights issues both nationally or in regional and international organizations.

Strong practical experience in licensing and non-disclosure agreements and protection of digital confidential information.

Technical Skills and Knowledge

• Experience in the development and revision of policies, procedures and guidelines for the protection of intellectual property rights applied to IT systems
• Practical understanding of intellectual property rights issues including copyright, patents, trademarks
• General knowledge of African Union and UN policies, rules and regulations in particular those related to the protection of intellectual property rights and confidential information
• Experience in providing innovative solutions to problems
• Solid communication, drafting and report writing skills

Competencies:

• Seeking change and innovation
• Producing results
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to write clearly and concisely
• Ability to proactively, creatively, strategically and problem solve with flexibility and adaptability
• Ability to maintain a high degree of judgment, discretion and confidentiality
• Strong organizational skills with ability to plan, coordinate and monitor own work plan
• Ability to prioritise multiple tasks under tight deadlines
• major national and regional responses.
• Demonstrated ability to take a strategic view across a large complex programme.
• Strong computer skills, including excellent skills in MS Office based word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, database and other standard software packages and systems.
• General knowledge of or experience working with African Union, NEPAD, Regional Economic Communities, Regional Technical Institutions.

Language:

Fluency in oral and written English is required.

Terms and Conditions

WFP offers a competitive compensation package which will be determined by the contract type and selected candidate’s qualifications and experience.

Please visit the following websites for detailed information on working with WFP.

http://www.wfp.org Click on: “Our work” and “Countries” to learn more about WFP’s operations.

Deadline for applications: 17 October 2021

Ref.: VA No. 141634

Qualified female applicants and qualified applicants from developing countries are especially encouraged to apply

WFP has zero tolerance for discrimination and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status

No appointment under any kind of contract will be offered to members of the UN Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), International Civil Service Commission (ICSC), FAO Finance Committee, WFP External Auditor, WFP Audit Committee, Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) and other similar bodies within the United Nations system with oversight responsibilities over WFP, both during their service and within three years of ceasing that service.