Supporting the cultural and creative sectors

The aim is to foster the economic and social development of the ACP countries by stimulating the cultural and creative sectors.  The other objectives are to: promote the growth of the creative sector’s economic revenue; enable the creation of jobs linked to the cultural sector; and improve accessibility and recognition and commercial exploitation of artists.

Support for four strands will be extended so as to achieve these objectives, namely:

·         creating/producing high-quality goods and services, at competitive prices, and in increased quantities

·         access to national, regional and international markets, circulation/dissemination/promotion of ACP goods and services

·         visual literacy

·         improving access to financing through innovative mechanisms that allow co-financing and aim to reduce ACP cultural operators’  dependency on international financing.

It is recalled that the Partnership Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, and the European Union (EU), signed in Cotonou on 23 June 2000 and revised in 2005 (the Cotonou Agreement), identifies culture as an integral part of the cooperation strategy in the partnership between the ACP countries and the EU.

The ‘2014-2020 Strategy Paper and Indicative Programme’ for intra ACP cooperation, 11th EDF, provides for the implementation of a programme designed to increase the revenue of creative industries in ACP countries by fostering recognition of their work, encouraging its commercial exploitation and improving its accessibility both locally and internationally.

In addition, at the 4^th meeting of Ministers held in Brussels in November 2017, the ACP States adopted a new Declaration on Culture. The Ministers of the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries recognised the key role of culture as a driver for economic growth and sustainable human development and reaffirmed their commitment to making culture a priority sector in their countries by implementing concrete actions and programmes.