Implementation of the new Cultural Policies

The cultural policies of The Ministry of Culture are meant to contribute to the social and  cultural demands of the country. They are organized into four programmatic axis:

- De colonization:

 These policies propose a cultural project with processes that provoke a shift in consciousness, with a strong sense of what is Ecuadorian, one that is oriented toward the redefinition of the processes of cultural production, development and diffusion. This implies decoding implicit language that is consistently reproduced by racism, elitism, euro-centrism, sexism, regionalism and ideological traditionalism. It also means changing explicit language that tends to devalue cultural services and products as well as cultural and artistic education. Additionally, this new point of view critiques the didactic of culture that limits art, minimizes the role of artistic learning; and lacks the sufficient level of diversification to respond to local needs, the strengthening of local and national identity and achieving the goals of the National Plan of Development Sumak Kawsay.  

There are three policies in de colonization:

1. To contribute to the construction of a democratic, intercultural society that is respectful of all differences, promotes equity, is knowledgeable and proud of owr own history and our characteristics. 
2. To contribute to the shaping of a democratically conscious society that is critical of all kinds of discrimination, and driven towards the construction of self-esteem, pride and internal unity of the nation country.
3. To contribute to the strengthening of all cultural creation processes  in Ecuador, valorizing our forms of knowledge and practices in cultural production, diffusion and consumption.  

- Cultural Rights: 

In the framework of international declarations of cultural rights, there are four policies in cultural rights: 
1. To guarantee the cultural rights of all individuals and collectives, in conditions of equity, equality and in the framework of a plurinational and multicultural society. 
2. To promote the development of human talent and creativity of the population without any kind of discrimination. 
3. To strengthen national identity, the construction of citizenship, access to information and the knowledge of all Ecuadorian society through the development of national systems of memory containers, with a new focus and modern technology. 
4. To promote the access to public spaces to all citizens, without any kind of discrimination. 

- Cultural Entrepreneurship: 

In order to increase the access of all people at the national and international level to Ecuadorian cultural industries, it is necessary to broaden access to live cultural creation, but also to stimulate the development of technology in order to ease the access of the population to cultural products and services. 
There are four policies in this matter: 

1. To drive the generation of information and the construction of cultural knowledge as the base for the creation of public policy. 
2. To promote the production, commercialization and consumption of the products from the diverse Ecuadorian cultural industries. 
3. To watch over the respect for the laws and regulations that are oriented toward the protection of cultural industries as strategic resources for the construction of the national cultural sovereignty and identity. 
4. To promote the consumption of cultural industries at the national and international level. 

- New Contemporary Ecuadorian Identity: 

In culture, the concept of identity is intimately linked to subjectivity because it is a matter of preference. This means that individuals have the right to choose what groups they belong to, and the amalgamation of their choices make up an intercultural society. The recognition and valorization of cultural expressions and the construction of symbolic referents that fill Ecuadorians with pride are part of the construction of a new contemporary Ecuadorian identity, formed on the basis of the diversity of identities that the Ministry of Culture must boost,  strengthen and consolidate. 
There is a policy in this area: 

1. To promote the knowledge and valorization of our cultural and identity-oriented diversity, fostering self-esteem and the pride to be Ecuadorians. 

These four programmatic axis are complemented by four transversal axis that will add to the public activity in favor of the cultural development of Ecuador: 

- Interculturalism: 

Defined as a new social contract among the diverse Ecuadorian population, it is a concept based on acceptance and respect of what is different in others. Interculturalism points to and encourages a political and social process aimed towards the construction of  societies, relationships and new conditions of life. This not only includes an economic point of view, but a cosmology of life that includes ancestral knowledge, spiritualism and the human relationship with nature. This concept is based on two principles: the premise that there are no superior or inferior cultures, and that contact between them enriches each other; and the premise of democracy, which guarantees gobernability in diverse societies. 

- Integral Equality: 

Refers to the policies that aims towards equal opportunities for the whole population through institutional tools that can help breach the gap in people's access to goods and services. Integral Equality must facilitate traditionally disregarded cities and regions with access to the benefits of cultural expressions from all over the world, and also the promotion of their own cultural richness. 

- Strengthening of Institutionalism: 

Strengthening human talent and the National System of Culture from a decentralized perspective that potentiates, articulates, promotes, articulates, stimulates and amplifies all cultural undertakings linked to public and private institutions that contribute to culture. 

- The cultural positioning of Ecuador abroad: 

Systematic diffusion of cultural and artistic expressions and the strengthening of cultural cooperation with other countries and international organizations. 

Challenges identified in the implementation of this measure:

The elaboration of the cultural policies reflect a shift in the political landscape of Ecuador, and therefore they are concepts that attempt to provide long-term solutions to deep-rooted problems that include racism, discrimination, intolerance, low levels of institutionalization, etc. These challenges are enormous, and the solutions to them require a national-level break with old social models, and the construction of new ones.