Eight African countries, including Ghana, have been selected to form the African Copyright and Access to Knowledge network (ACA2K network) to investigate the relationship between copyright and education in Africa.

The team will, between this year and 2010, gather research evidence and engage policy makers in efforts to ensure maximum use of copyright law flexibilities that have the potential to increase access to learning materials in the study countries.

Both digital and hard copy resources will be probed.

A lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana, Mr Poku Adusei, is the leader of the Ghana research team.

He told the Daily Graphic that the network was being launched against the backdrop of world intellectual property, which is celebrated every year on April 26.

He said after the completion of the country studies, there would be a comparative review of the findings across all the countries and the presentation of research findings and policy recommendations through a national policy dialogue seminar in each country.

The other countries which will provide the multidisciplinary team are Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda. They will be supported by a team of international advisors.

Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and South Africa's Shuttleworth Foundation are supporting the ACA2K network through the LINK Centre of Wits University in Johannesburg.

In January this year, the network held a methodology workshop in Johannesburg and it has finalised a methodology guide to serve as a road map for the project's research and policy engagement activities.

According to the activities guidelines, researchers in the study countries will investigate the "copyright environment", namely, policies, laws, regulations, practices and perceptions, in the respective countries in relation to access to learning materials, with emphasis on university learning environments.

Mr Poku said of central concern to the network would be the need to find out which copyright law flexibilities were being deployed in each of the study countries and the effects those flexibilities had in the countries.

Examples of important possible flexibilities are legal exceptions, limitations and regulations that cater for the use of learning materials in teaching, research and distance learning and the adaptation and use of learning materials by sensory-disabled.

Also of concern are gender dynamics at play in the national copyright environments and in the realities of access to learning materials, both digital and hard copy.

Credit: Daily Graphic