UNESCO Addis Ababa Liaison Office in collaboration with the Ethiopian Women Visual Artist Association organized capacity-building Workshop on the use of digital environment for artwork, held on 22 February 2022 at Desalegn Hotel in Addis Ababa. The workshop was organized in the framework of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions https://en.unesco.org/creativity/convention/texts .
In the opening speech Dr Yumiko Yokozeki, Director and representative of UNESCO Addis Ababa Liaison Office, stated that the revolution in digital environment provided a competitive advantage in the economy, creating benefits and efficiencies, while driving innovation and creating more job opportunities in cultural and creative industries. The Director stressed the need for women artists to develop their capacity in order to cope with the technology and she insisted that UNESCO would continue supporting Ethiopian women artists.
The Director expressed her sincere thanks to the Government of Sweden and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) for supporting the capacity-building activities in the project ‘Reshaping Cultural Policies for the Promotion of Fundamental Freedoms and the Diversity of Cultural Expressions’.
Mr. Teferi Teklu, Director of Cultural Industry Development in the Ministry of Culture and Sport, made a keynote speech in which he explained that progress towards gender equality requires urgent policy interventions in the areas of artistic freedom and promotion of diversity of cultural expression. Ms. Senafkish Zeleke, President of the Association, thanked UNESCO, Addis Ababa, for organizing the capacity-building program, which is timely and important for women artists.
Dr. Bekele Mekonen, associate professor of fine arts, a poet and educator, Ms. Ruth Ademasu, a multimedia visual artist and photographer, and Mr. Seminas Hadera, founder and Manager of Gerar - Creative Hub for advertisement - were the resource persons for the training. The trainees expressed their gratitude for the opportunity and the exposure to the importance and challenges of digitization and promotion of artwork. Twenty of the participants registered to join the Association.
Operational Guidelines on the Implementation of the Convention in the digital Environment: https://en.unesco.org/creativity/sites/creativity/files/sessions/digital_operational_guidelines_en.pdf