CASE STUDIES FROM AFRICA

Professionalising artists and cultural entrepreneurs, and evolving participatory
processes
Opening up culture at social, financial, and political levels for its due recognition and
development.
A series of workshops and activities are therefore going to be conjointly implemented by the
government and the OIF for the remaining period of the programme. Each of the four main axes
will include a renewable one-year action plan agreed by all stakeholders.
Other Promotional Efforts
The government sponsors most of the major festivals. This situation eases media coverage both
nationally and internationally. In addition, the government offers logistic support, providing
transportation and materials such as the sound system. It also helps the organisers to apply to
Partenaire Technique et Financier (PTFs) to obtain funds and technical support.
It is deeply recognised by the government that the festivals and the cultural events contribute
strongly to the image of the country. There is no specific policy and very few funds for
encouraging promotional efforts abroad, but all public and private cultural services
stakeholders are working together to improve the visibility of these events.
Lessons Learnt and Best Practices
Looking at existing comparative advantages and current innovative support programmes or
initiatives of the cultural services industry in Burkina Faso, the following paragraphs attempt to
describe best practices for other African economies and the next steps to be undertaken, before
proposing a more complete list of both general and specific recommendations to its further
development.
In Burkina Faso, tourism, crafts, and established cultural festivals are thus foregrounded as
cultural industries with potential to support accelerated growth and sustainable development.
Access to finance being the priority for cultural enterprises, and to ensure that cultural and
recreational industries become a real engine of social and economic development as expected in
the SCADD, the government of Burkina Faso intensively consulted and supported the sectors
over the last few years. Following the adoption of the National Cultural Policy (2009), the
government released in November 2013 a support strategy for the development of cultural and
creative industries. Throughout numerous conversations with artists, managers, and
interlocutors in the cultural field, there seems to be a striking unanimity that funding and
financing are pressing issues. Recently, the stakeholders have argued for a 1% levy on cinemas,
nightclubs, and other venues, and through ad hoc levies on imported cultural goods, to fund
projects in the field of culture and to help the sector gain greater autonomy. This funding and
technical support mechanism for the cultural and creative industries of Burkina Faso is the
Agency for the Development of Cultural and Creative Industries (ADDIC). Endowed with
management autonomy, under the technical supervision of the Ministry of Culture and
Tourism, the ADDIC aims to be a sustainable funding mechanism for cultural development
activities. Its three main objectives are:
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