Girona Seminar on Culture and Development

Release/publication date : September 2010
Published on : 09/06/2010

Following the Brussels Symposium on "Culture as a Vector of Development" in April 2009, the European Commission organised an international seminar on culture and development in Girona, Spain from 4-6 May 2010, in the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union.

The seminar brought together more than 250 government representatives, funding agencies, research institutes and arts professionals from the African, Caribbean, Pacific and European regions to reflect on the progress made since the Brussels Symposium and to plan further.

Members of Arterial Network's Executive Committee and representatives of its key funding partners attended the Seminar. Of particular importance was a panel discussion in which a representative of the British Council and the Director of La Francophonie spoke together with the Secretary General of Arterial Network about working together in pursuit of common objectives in Africa. This follows the meeting (reported on in the April newsletter) of 17 European agencies and Arterial Network in Brussels on 22 March.

The following "Girona Statement" was read on behalf of these agencies:

As a follow-up to the meetings in April and December 2009 organised by the European Commission on the theme of "Culture and Development", the British Council convened a meeting in Brussels in March this year attended by 17 cultural agencies, mainly based in Europe but working in Africa, to share information and to discuss ways in which they might collaborate in the future. This was a groundbreaking initiative to find ways of working in partnership. As well as EUNIC members and European cultural agencies, the meeting also included ARTerial, which represents 30 member agencies from its own African network, UNESCO, the Commonwealth Foundation, the European Commission, the ACP secretariat and La Francophonie.

All agencies agreed that they share common aims in Africa, and see great benefit in working together to pursue these multilaterally. There is considerable synergy between their current programmes, and general agreement that our cultural activity in Africa should be seen as an integral part of the development process.

From the information shared at the meeting, we learned about the geographic interests and capacities of each agency, and have drawn up a chart to show these. Few agencies are able to cover all the countries of Africa, but we believe working in partnership will offer much greater support for the development of intercontinental networks, mobility of artists, access to markets and developing a consistent methodology for mapping the cultural industries across Africa. By the end of the first meeting, the group identified four key areas to focus on together:

1.Mapping the cultural industries - to provide essential data to cultural policy-makers on all aspects of the creative sector across Africa.
2.Festivals - an opportunity for intercultural dialogue between north and south, a space for exchange and dialogue, and for greater traffic between European and African artists and their audiences. Working in support of festivals also provides new opportunities for working effectively in conflict and post-conflict societies.
3.Training and Development - developing new models to share learning and information between individuals and institutions; strengthening cultural institutions across Africa.
4.Policy Development - a means of ensuring the long-term sustainability of cultural institutions across Africa.

The Francophonie took the initiative of organising a second meeting in Paris in April, to take forward discussions on mapping the cultural industries in particular and to prepare for the Girona meeting. Sharing knowledge about which agencies had already been involved in cultural mapping, their respective methodologies and their assessments of individual countries was particularly revealing. It was clear that a shared approach to the subject is infinitely preferable to individual agencies working in a vacuum. It will also encourage greater efficiency and effectiveness.

The group has agreed that it will meet to set targets and deadlines for the four specific activities it has identified, allowing a two-year period to complete and assess its joint endeavours :

-Working together to coordinate the mapping of cultural and creative industries in Africa, building local networks to ensure accurate and up-to-date information.
-Recognising festivals as significant platforms for artistic exchange and dialogue, and as important tools to help in the development of creative cities and economies. Festivals also provide important opportunities to promote greater intercultural dialogue, and to encourage greater diversity and integration between north and south.
-Sharing information on training programmes in order to build a coherent strategy of cultural development in the framework of national cultural policies.
-Sharing information and good practices about specific access of financial credit for the cultural and creative industries.

This is a new way of working, breaking the mould of bilateral activity in a shared ambition to create greater impact, to develop, amplify and enrich our work through collaboration and partnership. This new approach aims to build and strengthen the cultural and creative industries in Africa, and to convince governments of the crucial role of culture in development and the need to integrate culture as a specific item in the millennium development goals.

Partners

  • Arterial network
  • Media, Sports and Entertainment Group (MSE)
  • Gens de la Caraïbe
  • Groupe 30 Afrique
  • Alliance Française VANUATU
  • PACIFIC ARTS ALLIANCE
  • FURTHER ARTS
  • Zimbabwe : Culture Fund Of Zimbabwe Trust
  • RDC : Groupe TACCEMS
  • Rwanda : Positive Production
  • Togo : Kadam Kadam
  • Niger : ONG Culture Art Humanité
  • Collectif 2004 Images
  • Africultures Burkina-Faso
  • Bénincultures / Editions Plurielles
  • Africiné
  • Afrilivres

With the support of