The global
trade of creative goods and services totaled a record US$624 billion in 2011
and more than doubled from 2002 to 2011, according to a special edition of the
United Nations Creative Economy Report which was launched in Paris, France,
this month.
 |
| Life is art: an artist at work in a shop window. © SWAN. |
Yet, many
governments are still not doing enough to support culture and to encourage
creativity and innovation. While culture ministers have to keep begging for
a greater slice of the budget pie around the world, those who control the purse
strings still need convincing.
“In most
cases, culture has been relegated to inferior status in trade discourse and
economic prescriptions within the world’s banking and financial sectors and
ministries of finance,” says Jamaica’s Minister of Youth and Culture, Lisa Hanna.
“This is in
spite of the data that show that culture and creative industries are among the
fastest growing sectors in the world, even in the face of a global recession,”
Hanna said in a speech at the UN General Assembly earlier this year. She reiterated the points last week before the launch of the report at the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO.
Apart from the
financial aspect, the report stresses that “creativity and culture also have
a significant non-monetary value that contributes to inclusive social
development, to dialogue and understanding between peoples”.
The creative
economy gives rise to job creation and export earnings for countries, the
report shows, with the sector including new media, performing arts, audiovisual
products, design, publishing and the visual arts.
 |
| A young man learns film-making in Guatemala. © UNESCO/International Fund for Cultural Diversity. |
Between 2002 and 2011, developing countries experienced an average of 12.1 percent annual growth in exports of creative
goods, but there is still an “urgent need" to find new development pathways that can encourage creativity and innovation, the report says. The aim is to achieve sustainable growth that is both inclusive and equitable, it adds.
Many experts
would like to see culture become a part of the next UN programme when the
current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reach their term in 2015, and
they’re making their voices increasingly heard.
“We want culture to be a definite part of the post-2015 agenda which will be decided next year, and we're ready to negotiate our role," said Francesco Bandarin, UNESCO’s Assistant-Director General for
Culture.
He told SWAN that culture isn't just about "going to a concert or the cinema after work" but it includes "valuing local musical traditions" such as the "immensely rich traditions in Africa", and setting up enterprises that generate employment in the music industry, for instance.
Hanna, the
Jamaican minister, said there is evidence that “culture provides a platform
which transcends all boundaries … and unites all peoples in our collective
engagement to secure equals rights and justice, peace and security, recognition
and acceptance for ordinary men and women of the world.”
 |
| Music spices up the Caribbean economy. © SWAN |
But she said
that in spite of her nation’s “creative imagination and global impact”, Jamaica
had not been able to “reap the full rewards of its cultural prowess”.
“This is
largely a consequence of global economic and industrial policies that have not
taken into account the role of culture in development,” Hanna said.
The report aims to change attitudes by the breadth of its coverage. It highlights examples of how the creative economy is diverse and
innovative, “enhancing lives and livelihoods” at the local level in developing
countries.
In Argentina, for instance, the cultural and
creative industries employ some 300,000 people and represent 3.5 percent of the
country’s GDP, while in Morocco, publishing and printing employ 1.8 per cent of
the workforce, with a turnover of more than US$370 million, the report says.
In Bangkok, Thailand, there are more than
20,000 businesses in the fashion industry alone, while across the region, young
people are earning a living as small-scale designers and dressmakers.
In Zimbabwe,
the Pamberi Book Trust Café is an “innovative example of the arts being made
into a sustainable business”, the report says. The partnership between an
independent cultural non-governmental organization and a commercial entity has
given rise to projects such as FLAME (female literary, arts and music
enterprise) that bring women artists into Zimbabwean mainstream arts.
These
pioneering programmes help to boost the participation of creative industry
professionals in both local and global markets, the report states.
(For more
information: www.creativeeconomyreport2013.com)
