Designing measures to establish a participatory and transparent system of governance for culture in Panama
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:
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The project supports the Panamanian government to take steps to adopt a national programme for creative economy and sustainable development, “Create in Panama 2030”, as urged by a National Council composed of the main stakeholders of Panama’s CCIs. The objective of this strategic programme is to facilitate the definition of priorities and foster collaboration and support networks in the CCIs.
This project also accompanies the Panamanian government to develop a programmatic and regulatory body within the Ministry of Culture to spearhead the implementation of “Create in Panama 2030”. This body will be responsible for developing culture programmes and regulating funding to be made available under the “Create in Panama 2030” programme. Through this project, Panama also wishes to conceptualize a participatory, transparent and evidence-based system of governance for culture.
- May 2020: Launch of the project
- May to July 2020: Diagnostic phase, with a specific focus on the impact of the COVID crisis on the cultural sector.
- July to October 2020: Capacity building through different workshops on cultural policy and the creative economy, and Law on Culture
- May 2021: Two-day Peer-to-Peer exchange with Chile on the Creative Economy, the set-up within the Ministry and the COVID-19 crisis. The second day was open to the public and was attended by the Minister of Culture, the ADG of Culture of UNESCO, and the EU Ambassador in Panama
- End of 2021: Creation of the strategic architecture of the governance system for culture is proposed, as well as recommendations to strengthen the National Directorate of Creative Economy.
Follow-up activities in 2022:
- Capacity building on the governance system of “CREA in Panama 2030,” as well as the reinforcement of a gender transformative component under the “CREA in Panama 2030” through a study on women cultural workers in Panama.