The regional cultural and creative industries development project was officially launched on January 11, 2023 in Port-Louis, Mauritius.
This partnership project between the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) and the French Development Agency (AFD) ? COI-AFD ? promotes gender equality aims to stimulate the sectors of cultural and creative industries (CCI) through interventions in the fields of heritage, cultural entrepreneurship, training, mobility, co-creation or even governance.
Indeed, the steering committee of the cultural and creative industries project, held in Mauritius on January 9 and 10, 2023, validated the first activities. In the next few weeks, the actions will be launched. On the program: training, mobility, heritage and even innovations.
A kind project
The ICC project has a particularity. It is above all a project to promote gender equality. By intervening in the CCI sectors, the COI aims to strengthen social cohesion and, more particularly, to reduce gender inequalities. Thus, the project will ensure equal access to opportunities. The activities should, among other things, make it possible to improve the participation of women in cultural jobs and positions of responsibility through training, to raise awareness of discrimination and the means of preventing and combating it, to promote inclusion and respect for the diversity. Moreover, a gender action plan will be drawn up on the basis of a regional diagnosis to irrigate all of the project’s actions.
Diversity of activities and actors
The other particularity of the ICC project is diversity. Indeed, the project will mobilize a wide range of actors in the CCI sectors, both public and private. The activities will focus on the choreographic and visual arts sectors, on tangible and intangible heritage, training in cultural management or museography as well as on mobility, co-creation or even the promotion of cultural goods and services.
What activities for 2023?
For the first operational year of the project, the IOC will implement the following activities: First cycle of mobility grants, between 25 and 40 for 2023; Inventory of traditional architectures and initiatives emanating from women bearers of tradition; Creation of a curriculum in contemporary dance, training of 10 to 15 teachers/performers; Podcast on literary, choreographic and musical heritage; Supports the emergence of a regional sector of creation and digital arts through e-sport and training in cultural management, museography, cultural entrepreneurship, etc.
Some activities will be carried out over several years, such as mobility grants. These first actions will make it possible to launch a diversified movement of support for the CCIs. Other activities will be set up over the next few years, in particular for co-creation, diploma training or the export of cultural goods and services.
A lever for socio-economic development
In 2018, Ernst & Young confirmed the economic potential of CCIs in Africa and the Middle East: 49 billion dollars ($) in revenue and 2 million jobs. As part of the ICC project, a study will be conducted to better understand the socio-economic contribution of the sectors to the economies of the Member States. In any case, there is no doubt that the diversity of sectors contributes to employment, growth and social development.
This is why the ICC project is also part of the dynamic of supporting regional economic recovery. And for good reason, a UNESCO study estimates that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to losses of revenue from the cultural and creative industries of 20 to 40%.
A solid partnership for a shared Indianoceania
The ICC project is one of the manifestations of the IOC’s diversified partnership with the French Development Agency in favor of regional public goods. Indeed, the AFD, donor of the ICC project to the tune of €5.1 million, also supports the IOC in the areas of governance and stability, climate resilience and health.
“We share the same vision and the same concern to invest in favor of these public goods which condition our present and our future”, emphasizes Pr. Vêlayoudom Marimoutou, Secretary General of the IOC.
The project was officially launched on January 11, 2023 in the presence of some 80 representatives of IOC Member States and partners and, above all, actors from the CCI sectors. The ceremony was also marked by a three-voice performance by Shenaz Patel, Daniella Bastien and Mélanie Pérès.
Source: Seychelles Nation