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Cultural cooperation partnership with bulawayo city council
Description of the policy/measure
In the contexts of urban growth, increased social inequality, gender disparities and cultural fragmentation and the agency to formulate culture-led urban regeneration strategies, the cultural cooperation partnership between nhimbe trust and bulawayo city council promotes and strengthens the role of arts and culture as drivers of inclusive and sustainable development,through the mainstreaming cultural initiatives and expressions in the city of bulawayo’s urban development strategies. the partnership pays homage to the city’s cultural assets which are anchored on the city’s rich diversity of minority cultural expressions which are a product of the city’s history as an industrial base which brought migrants from malawi, congo, swaziland, zambia, botswana and south africa. the magic in this centuries-old mix of cultural expressions has produced ground-breaking artistic originality and innovation as well as a world-renowned cultural legacy across all artistic genres. framed within the logic of a local government – civil society cultural cooperation partnership, the measure leverages on this richness in cultural diversity to create inclusive and enabling artistic / creative platforms that enable citizens to participate meaningfully in the cultural life of the city. this is aimed at creating participatory, resilient and inclusive communities who are committed to amplifying their competencies and innovative capacities as co-creators of the city. the establishment, maintenance and resourcing of creative spaces and platforms, is informed by the aspiration of partners to domesticate and localise sustainable development goals, through their role as not only as consumers of cultural goods and services, but as active participants who, in their diversity in cultural expressions, can take a lead in the planning, ownership and execution of sustainable development strategies. overall, the measure: • fosters social cohesion, city innovation and resilience through cultural expressions as a conduit • enhances social and cultural justice through the domestication and localisation of sustainable development, through a culture lens • enhances creative liberty and cultural participation through facilitating access to public spaces and facilities
2005 Convention Monitoring Framework Goal(s)
Area(s) of Monitoring
Cultural Domain(s)
This measure was reported by civil societyResults achieved
• declaration of 1st of june annually to be celebrated as bulawayo day, with a corresponding bulawayo arts festival to run from the 2nd to the 5th of june:in the spirit of social and cultural cohesion, bulawayo day and bulawayo arts festival establish mechanisms for the integration of sdgs and the national arts, culture and heritage policy into the strategic parameters of bulawayo’s urban development strategy, meeting the goals of the 2005 unesco convention and targets of sustainable development goals, in particular sdg 1 (poverty alleviation), sdg 5 (gender equality), sdg 10 (reduced inequalities), sdg 11 (sustainable communities), sdg 16 (peace justice and strong institutions) • establishment and launch of bulawayo cultural affairs office (bcao):bcao is a point of intersection between local government, creative civil society, artists and cultural professionals. the office facilitates access to cultural spaces and facilities, promotes community participatory arts and further extends technical expertise to local government on culture-led sdg domestication and localisation • establishment of a partnership with united cities and local governments (uclg):this partnership seeks to create an enabling platform for zimbabwean local authories to be trained in strategies of domesticating and localising sustainable development agendas, through a culture perspective. this training is in alignment to national principles and aspirations of devolution • formulation of a draft cultural policy and corresponding strategic plan for the city:cognizant of the value of arts and culture as a driver for sustainable development, the draft policy and strategy seek to protect and promote the diversity of local cultural expressions through recognizing them as indivisible to the aspirations of the city’s development agenda • launch and endorsement of bulawayo, arts, culture and heritage endowment fund (bachef): to operationalise the dictates of agenda 21 for culture, the fund establishes a funding base by the city of bulawayo to culture-led development. it endeavours to provide a sustainable funding resource base for artistic and cultural expressions