CASE STUDIES FROM AFRICA

telecommunication networks), and institutional quality (especially the regulatory environment
for services); second, policies affecting trade, investment, and labour mobility in services; and
third, proactive policies for services designed to promote exports or investment. Nevertheless, it
must be recalled that different services have different roles to play in the economy, have
dissimilar market structures, are governed by different sets of regulations, and rely on different
modes of supply in competing in the international market. 55 Thus, the determinants of service
exports are likely to vary across subsectors and, in this particular aspect, the cultural services is
not an exception.
Endowments
Labour/Human Capital
Human capital is lacking in technical capacities in Burkina Faso. 56 However, the cultural
heritage includes a number of tangible and intangible assets that have helped to shape a
comparative advantage in cultural services. Its organisational specificities, and particularly the
emergence of the ‘groupements naam’ movement 57 , have allowed a good and responsible
management of the cultural diversity. Traditional mechanisms of conflict prevention through
mediation, identity formation, endogenous development approaches, beliefs, systems of social
sanctioning that allow for sustainable development, the role of local knowledge systems in
agriculture, and the importance of culture in the social autonomy of women all together are
social elements of culture that play a major role in development. The preservation, recognition,
and promotion of these elements are therefore a must to ensure the continuity of social cohesion
and the conservation of the comparative advantage that Burkinabe human capital represents. It
is furthermore repeated, throughout the UNCTAD Creative Economy Reports (2008, 2010), that
culture and cultural industries can play a role in social and human development. In this vein,
cultural traditions can therefore represent not only a way to support social development in rural
areas, but also be of great potential benefit for boosting the economy. Accordingly, the recent
emergence of several platforms and associations to facilitate entrepreneurship and
competitiveness in the cultural industry can be, amongst others, correlated to some traditional
ways of mediation and interaction.
Burkina Faso possesses rich human capital for cultural goods production and exports but much
less for cultural services. It can be explained by the novelty that cultural services exports
represents for a country like Burkina Faso. Developing countries have to build their capacities
to add value to, and promote their cultural heritage.
Statistics on cultural actors underline their presence in all aspects of daily life and the growing
number of performances made by theatre and dance companies stimulates local creativity.
55
Goswami et al. (2012), op.cit. p 13.
56
OIF, 2009. Op. cit.
57
The ‘groupements naam’ are peasant mutual assistance organizations based on the traditional age-set associations
of Mossi culture.
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