Kenya’s Minister for Culture receives ResiliArt|Kenya Recommendations
Following a series of three ResiliArt|Kenya debates organized between May and July 2020 by the UNESCO Nairobi Office in partnership with the Kenya National Commission for UNESCO, the Kenyan Creative Economy Working Group, the GoDown Arts Centre, the Alliance Francaise de Nairobi, and Twaweza Communications, the final Recommendations for Resilience and Sustainable Growth for the Culture and Creative Industries in Kenya derived from the debates were officially shared with the Cabinet Secretary at the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage, Hon. (Amb.) Amina Mohamed, during an on-line hand-over meeting on 7 October 2020.
The Cabinet Secretary expressed her gratitude to the ResiliArt|Kenya team for developing concrete recommendations to guide culture policy and the recovery and resilience of the culture sector, and reiterated her Ministry’s commitment to ensuring the timely implementation of the recommendations. The meeting included the participation of the Principal Secretary for the State Department of Heritage under the Ministry, Ms. Josephta Mukobe, and other government officials, as well as representatives of the ResiliArt|Kenya organizing team.
The ResiliArt|Kenya Recommendations focus on a range of critical policy areas, including prioritizing policy frameworks for the Culture and Creative Industries, strengthening statistics and data collection, and formulating legislation for Status of the Artist in line with the UNESCO 1980 Recommendation Concerning the Status of the Artist. Some of the ResiliArt|Kenya Recommendations will be integrated into developing a Post Covid-19 strategy for the culture and creative sector, together with the Ministry of Culture and the KEPSA (Kenya Private Sector Alliance) group.
The stimulating ResiliArt|Kenya discussions have also resulted in a new series of capacity building talks dubbed Wasanii Tunajisort, (Sheng meaning Sorting Ourselves Out as Artists). The Creative Economy Working Group, who partnered in UNESCO’s ResiliArt|Kenya webinars, will spearhead discussions that aim at sharing practical insights and exchanges between creatives. Wasanii Tunajisort aims to strengthen the knowledge and capacities of artists in Kenya on pertinent topics such as taxation in the creative sector, monetization of films on-line, and scriptwriting techniques for short films. In this series, the first webinar held on 2 October 2020 was led by Entertainment and Intellectual Property lawyer Ms. Liz Lenjo and Catherine Mujomba, and tackled vital issues and shared practical examples on Copyright in Kenya.
Since the launch of the first global ResiliArt debate on World Art Day, 15 April 2020, which aimed to shed light on the impact of COVID-19 on artists, performers and other actors in the cultural and creative industries sector, over 163 national debates have been organized around the globe, including over 40 in the Africa region.
For more information on the UNESCO ResiliArt movement, please see:
https://en.unesco.org/news/resiliart-artists-and-creativity-beyond-crisis