Niger: The cultural turn to development and poverty reduction
Niger’s Accelerated Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy, features the role of cultural industries for growth and employment. The country, however, faces an acute need to professionalize various cultural actors. In this context, the Agency for the Promotion of Cultural Industries and Enterprises (APEIC) was established in 2010, in order to promote the cultural economy. With limited ties to entrepreneurs and economic operators, the APEIC sought the assistance of UNESCO.
The aim of the mission was to assist the Agency for the promotion of cultural industries and enterprises (APEIC) in developing a training strategy, as well as a global strategy for cultural entrepreneurs in the areas of project design, management and fundraising. This led to the preparation of APEIC’s Intervention Strategy for the Structuring of Cultural Sectors in Niger and its Action Plans for 2013-2015.
A strategy on the overall role, position and training activities of APEIC was designed. This strategy was the result of a close cooperation between the experts and the national team, as well as of numerous exchanges with the different institutional, economic and professional stakeholders involved in the cultural industries. The strategy includes a mid-term vision and annual action plans (2013-2015) and aims to generate a strong support system for cultural industries in Niger.
The collaboration between national and UNESCO experts involved several ministerial departments, including the Trade department, which took into account the culture sector in the investment code and started implementing Niger showcasing programmes that include cultural products.
Please consult here a summary of the overall results of the missions and the future steps to be taken.
During their first country mission in July 2012, the experts:
- carried out numerous assessment activities in order to better understand the environment in which the APEIC works and to identify the needs and challenges facing Nigerien cultural entrepreneurs.
- consulted a number of governmental representatives (notably the Minister for Youth, Sport and Culture – now Minister of Culture, Arts and Entertainment) as well as members of civil society and cultural operators and artists.
- identified possible partners (development agencies, international cooperation organizations, etc) for APEIC,
This preparatory work opened the way for the second and third country missions, in September and November 2012. These missions focused on:
- reinforcing APEIC's capacities and designing an action plan for the Agency.
- training activities for APEIC team, especially on the UNESCO 2005 Convention, the cultural economy, cultural industries and the modalities of supporting cultural enterprises. The Agency's group of partners and counterparts was also enlarged, to notably include members of the banking and professional training sectors.
- defining APEIC's overall strategy as well as priority training activities