U.N.-Affiliated Initiative Gets an Assist from Rivkin Radler

The Island Women Open Network (IWON), created by the Sustainable Energy and Climate Resilience Initiative in partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), signed an agreement engaging Rivkin Radler LLP for legal assistance.

IWON’s main objective is to empower women and children at the grassroots level to transform the sustainable-energy sector of Small Island Developing States (SIDS DOCK) in the Pacific, Caribbean, Africa and Indian Ocean. A key element of this initiative focuses on member-states’ biodiversity and economic development through sustainable natural resources.

Rivkin Radler’s team – composed of Marc S. Ullman, Steven Shapiro, Shari Claire Lewis and Nancy Del Pizzo  – initially will focus on IWON’s Biodiversity Initiative, particularly with developing a regulatory framework that will allow member states to sell herbal products, dietary supplements and cosmetics into the U.S. market, while maintaining compliance with the guidelines set forth by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Legal work will also focus on organizing and protecting IWON’s  intellectual property and cyber security.

SIDS DOCK was launched in 2010 to “bring about the transformation of the SIDS energy sector, which is considered by islands as the most effective and sustainable manner to build resilience to climate change.”

According to SIDS DOCK, the IWON initiative is particularly important “as it pertains to the protection, conservation and sustainable use” of “biodiversity resources.”