In 2019, Panama took a leap into a new era for its culture sector by transforming the National Institute for Culture into a ministry dedicated to culture. The creation of this new Ministry represents the government’s commitment to ensuring the cultural rights of the people of Panama in order to reduce inequality in the country. The next step is to create strong institutional and programmatic frameworks to enable the Government to harness the potential of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) to achieve the 2030 sustainable development goals.

The project assists Panama in designing measures to develop a consultation body  within the Ministry of Culture that  would be responsible for culture programmes and regulating funding to be made available under “Create in Panama 2030”, a strategic national programme for creative economy for sustainable development. It will also support Panama in conceptualizing a participatory and transparent system of governance for culture.  

The project responds to the following needs and challenges identified by the Ministry of Culture:

• The multiplicity and dispersion of actors involved in policy-making which complicates the panorama for governance and the definition of priorities;
• The lack of connection among creative sectors due to a lack of common frame and capacity building;  
• The lack of public-private sector coordination mechanisms;
• The need for a mechanism to streamline activities of various entities to foster collaboration and support networks in the CCIs.