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UNESCO Joins the 4th Africa in Colours Festival in Kigali, Rwanda
The festival aimed to promote a creative economy in Africa while enabling creative entrepreneurs and artists in African countries to enhance their networks on a Pan-African platform. During the Festival, six events were organized, including a conference session, an immersive technologies exhibition, concerts, films fashion shows, a creative masterclass, and Visit Rwanda activities.
Representatives from several fields in the CCI sector in Africa were invited to join panel sessions, namely filmmakers and producers, music producers, fashion designers, visual artists, writers, artist incubators and investors, cultural event organizers, music and media entrepreneurs, as well as funding agencies. The participants discussed how best to commit themselves to building together a sustainable creative economy for Africa while positioning the African market as a creative continent. During the panel sessions, proposals were raised to tackle the current challenges faced by the CCI sector in Africa;
- To establish a common working platform between with governments and civil society to deal with violations of intellectual property rights and copyrights;
- To promote arts education through formal and non-formal education, in partnership with the government, associations, NGOs, civil society, and UN agencies. This requires the development of curriculum, syllabus, texts, and teaching guidance in art education;
- To enhance the African creative movement and its market by synchronizing creative events, so as to raise awareness more effectively in the continent and beyond;
- To deliberate jointly about global issues such as climate change and poverty alleviation in the CCI sector.
In collaboration and partnership with various partners including governments from across Africa and beyond, it is necessary to empower civil society-driven networks in Africa, to support creatives from across the world, and to inspire the current and next generation working in the CCI sector. Incubation is the core element in AIC projects, to find and bring solutions to major challenges the world is facing, which is articulated in the 2030 UN Agenda, through technology, art, culture and creativity, while focusing on encouraging young Africans to easy access to the job market in the CCI sector.
Masanori Nagaoka, Regional Advisor to Culture at the UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office in Nairobi, commended the AIC initiative for a joint approach involving all levels of stakeholders to identify challenges, opportunities, and identify solutions to promote the growth of the CCI sector. He also introduced the 2022 UNESCO Global Report entitled Re/Shaping Policies for Creativity Report by sharing a situation analysis and overview of the state of the cultural and creative sectors, through insightful new data and trends at a global level and policy recommendations to foster creative ecosystems to a sustainable world by 2030 and beyond.
According to the 2022 UNESCO Global Report, culture and creativity account for 3.1% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 6.2% of all employment in 2022. Exports of cultural goods and services doubled in value from 2005 to reach US$389.1 billion in 2019. Besides being one of the youngest and fastest-growing economic sectors in the world, new and ongoing challenges also make the creative economy one of the most vulnerable sectors that is often overlooked by public and private investment.
