Implementing the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions
To protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions by encouraging governments that are party to the convention to adopt policies and measures which promote the full participation of its citizen in the process of creation, production, dissemination and distribution and also encourage states to provide access to their own cultural expressions. The measure also aims at integrating culture in sustainable development and strengthen international cooperation.
The measure was introduced in Kenya in 2008, however there was awareness on UNESCO's role in the protection and promotion of culture.
Through programmes geared towards the promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions, such as community cultural festivals, construction of cultural centres, capacity building programmes and mapping exercises on the creative industries.
Challenges identified in the implementation of this measure:
Limited resources for effective dissemination of information and training on the convention to stakeholders hence visibility is low, coupled with lack of expertise. The government is yet to allocate adequate funding to the culture sector for its goals to be realized as at now, the funds allocated are not enough for meaningful impact. As concerns the convention, no budgets have been allocated to specifically drive the objectives of the convention apart from the usual departmental programmes. In Kenya fewer groups have applied for funding from the international fund for cultural diversity due to the limited resources available. There is a lack of understanding on the role of the creative industries and its benefits. Lack of adequate resources to mobilize stakeholders to discuss on the implementation of the convention as well as challenges within various policies not accounting for global inequalities in levels of economic develoment hence the unavailability or lack of access of some markets for cultural goods and services. Limited information due to lack of statistical data on cultural industries and lack of documentation of cultural information, copyright issues that slow growth of the creative industries and negative effects of globalization.