Peer-to-peer learning workshop on policies for creativity

UNESCO, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture of Namibia, is organizing a “Peer-to-peer learning workshop on policies for creativity: Monitoring and implementing the 2005 Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions” from 29 March to 1 April 2022 in Swakopmund, Namibia.

Originally planned in 2021 and postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this workshop, proposes to reflect on strategic orientations for future participatory policy monitoring and policy making for creativity in light of the upcoming “UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development Mondiacult 2022”.

This workshop builds on the results and achievements of a series of sub-regional training of trainers on participatory policy monitoring held in 2019, and of the implementation of the EU/UNESCO project “Supporting new regulatory frameworks to strengthen the cultural and creative industries and promote South-South cooperation” on participatory policy making and peer-to-peer learning.

Gathering representatives from fifteen countries from around the world, it is expected that the workshop serves as a policy lab on creativity, sustainable development and thinking the future post-COVID-19. Through focus group sessions, the peer-to-peer exchanges aim to provide opportunities to exchange knowledge and experiences leading to mutual learning on the future of policies for creativity. Moreover, these exchanges are equally organized with a view to create a community of practice around policy monitoring and formulation for creativity as well as to build local expertise and capacities.

To this end, the workshop will count on the presence of the 15 partner countries from the EU/UNESCO project as well as several African partner countries from the UNESCO-Sida project “Reshaping cultural policies”, and representatives from the sub-region that have engaged in the Quadrennial Periodic Reporting (QPR) exercise and in the EU/UNESCO project during the first phase. Representatives from Botswana, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Gabon, Georgia, Jamaica, Kenya, Mauritius, Mexico, Namibia, Palestine, South Sudan, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, as well as members of the 2005 Convention Expert Facility, selected national experts and representatives from UNESCO field offices will thus be present.

The workshop is supported by the European Union and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.