Strengthening the Creative Industries for Development in ... - unctad

STRENGTHENING THE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN MOZAMBIQUE xi
Strengthening the Creative Industries in
Mozambique
Project background
This report was prepared under the multi-agency project “Strengthening the creative industries
in five ACP [African, Caribbean and Pacific] countries through employment and trade
expansion”. This ACP pilot project is funded by the Ninth European Development Fund of the
European Commission, as a component of the Support Programme to ACP Cultural Industries
with the institutional support of the Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group and
has being jointly implemented by ILO, UNCTAD and UNESCO, during the period 2008–2011.
The idea of this project emerged during the First Meeting of the ACP Ministers of Culture held
in Dakar in June 2003, and a project proposal was presented and endorsed at the Second
Meeting of ACP Ministers of Culture held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in October
2006.
This policy-oriented report addresses the objectives set out for phase I of the project. It was
prepared by UNCTAD in collaboration with the Government of Mozambique with a view to
identify needs and priorities and recommend policies to foster employment, enhancing creative
capacities, trade expansion and the linkages between culture and development. The purpose is
to make an analytical assessment and a policy review of the current status of creative industries
in Mozambique to examine key issues and formulate policy proposals for a strategic plan of
action.
The EU-ACP Support Programme to cultural industries in ACP countries is funded by the
European Commission, managed and implemented by the Secretariat of the African, Caribbean
and Pacific Group of States (ACP). It is open to the 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)
Group of States and the European Union Member States that are signatories to the 9th
European Development Fund (EDF). It aims at reinforcing the capacities of policy and decision
makers, cultural operators and certain domains of culture and cultural industries in the ACP
countries, and it is structured around three complementary components:
(1) the establishment of an ACP Cultural Observatory as a mechanism for providing technical
advice and information in order to improve the policy, legal and institutional frameworks of the
sector; (2) an ACP/ILO/UNCTAD/UNESCO joint project to strengthen the creative industries
in 5 selected ACP countries (Fiji, Mozambique, Senegal, Trinidad and Tobago and Zambia),
implemented by the UN agencies, and (3) a grant scheme seeking to reinforce the technical,
financial and managerial capacities of ACP cultural operators and cultural industries.
The European Union remains the world’s leading donor for technical cooperation projects. In
2008, the year this project has started, the European Commission and its Member States
collectively provided 60 per cent of total development assistance for developing countries. For
ACP countries a budget of 23 billion euros has been allocated under the 10 th European
Development Fund for the period 2008-2013, nearly the double of the amount allocated under
the 9 th EDF. Furthermore, the EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, in
collaboration with the EU Commissioner for Education, Culture and Youth, in the context of
the EU-ACP policy and economic relations, organized an important EU-ACP colloquium on
the topic "Culture and Creativity, Vectors for Development" held in Brussels in April 2009.
The event gathered about 800 participants from 65 African, Caribbean, Pacific and EU
countries, including policymakers, development professionals, artists, creators and the civil
society. The innovative aspect of the colloquium was that the "Brussels Declaration" was
prepared by artists and cultural and development professionals setting three types of objectives
at policy, economic and cultural levels. The growing importance of the creative industries to
foster development was recognized by both the European and the ACP partners.