Horizontal Cooperation Missions to Strengthen the Culture Sector
Cooperation
and exchange of knowledge between countries is recognized as one of
the most effective tools to strengthen public institutions. In
February 2014, a series of five technical assistance missions in the
area of culture concluded, as part of the Project “Culture
and Development: Promoting horizontal cooperation and exchange of
knowledge between member states,” currently being implemented by the OAS-SEDI
Department of Economic and Social Development.
The missions focused on the implementation of
Cultural Satellite Accounts in member states. This
useful tool, which is increasingly being used in the region, offers
a common framework to estimate the contribution of the creative and
cultural industries in countries’ economies, providing evidence for
decision-making and policy formulation and facilitating
international statistical comparison.
"This workshop is indeed very timely, as its convening coincides
with the focused attention being paid to the cultural sector as a
driver of economic growth in Barbados,” stated the Hon. Stephen
Lashley, M.P., Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth at the opening
of the Technical Assistance Mission in Barbados on January 30,
2014.
“As those persons involved in development work will testify, sound
policies in any sphere cannot be properly formulated if they are not
informed by reliable data. Barbados, like other countries in the
region, has been grappling with the dearth of available data for
many years; and in no area has this been more keenly felt that
within the cultural and creative sector. As we seek to develop our
creative economy, it is critical that this challenge be addressed;
and the hosting of this workshop is an indication that we are moving
in the right direction," stressed the Minister.
The possibility for public officials from a Ministry to learn
first-hand from the experience of their peers in other countries is
a valuable opportunity to share experiences and lessons learned,
particularly when it relates to the implementation of innovative
initiatives. "We hope to obtain a very important and positive result
from this workshop, in the sense that it marks the beginning of our
exploration of the current state of cultural industries in Bolivia
as a source of national income," said for his part Ignacio Soqueré,
Vice Minister of Inter-culture from the Ministry of Cultures and
Tourism of Bolivia.
The call for horizontal technical cooperation
assistance was open from July to September 2013 and the workshops
were held from November 2013 to February 2014, as follows:
-
·
The Ministry of Cultures and Tourism of Bolivia
welcomed a mission from UNESCO’s Institute of
Statistics from February 5 to 7, 2014 in La Paz.
-
· Experts from the SinCA (Cultural Information Systems of Argentina)
from the Ministry of Culture of Argentina
participated in three missions, providing assistance
to the Ministries responsible for the area of
Culture in Peru (November 21 and 22, 2013), Saint
Lucia (January 27 and 28, 2014), and Barbados
(January 30 and 31, 2014).
-
· The Ministry of Culture
and Youth of Costa Rica welcomed a mission from the
Ministry of Culture of Colombia and from the Ministry of
Education and Culture of Uruguay from December 2-4, 2013
in the city of San José.
It is expected that the exchange of experiences and
expertise among countries in the region will encourage
the implementation of Cultural Satellite Accounts, which
is considered to be a good practice to inform the
development of policies aimed at promoting this
important economic sector.
The Culture and Development project is funded by the
government of the United States through the Permanent
Mission of the United States to the OAS.
» Back to newsletter