Horizontal Cooperation Missions to Strengthen the Culture Sector

Cooperation and exchange of knowledge between countries is recognized as one of the most effective tools to strengthen public institutions. In February 2014, a series of five technical assistance missions in the area of culture concluded, as part of the Project “Culture and Development: Promoting horizontal cooperation and exchange of knowledge between member states,” currently being implemented by the OAS-SEDI Department of Economic and Social Development.  

The missions focused on the implementation of Cultural Satellite Accounts in member states. This useful tool, which is increasingly being used in the region, offers a common framework to estimate the contribution of the creative and cultural industries in countries’ economies, providing evidence for decision-making and policy formulation and facilitating international statistical comparison.  

"This workshop is indeed very timely, as its convening coincides with the focused attention being paid to the cultural sector as a driver of economic growth in Barbados,” stated the Hon. Stephen Lashley, M.P., Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth at the opening of the Technical Assistance Mission in Barbados on January 30, 2014.   

“As those persons involved in development work will testify, sound policies in any sphere cannot be properly formulated if they are not informed by reliable data. Barbados, like other countries in the region, has been grappling with the dearth of available data for many years; and in no area has this been more keenly felt that within the cultural and creative sector. As we seek to develop our creative economy, it is critical that this challenge be addressed; and the hosting of this workshop is an indication that we are moving in the right direction," stressed the Minister.  

The possibility for public officials from a Ministry to learn first-hand from the experience of their peers in other countries is a valuable opportunity to share experiences and lessons learned, particularly when it relates to the implementation of innovative initiatives. "We hope to obtain a very important and positive result from this workshop, in the sense that it marks the beginning of our exploration of the current state of cultural industries in Bolivia as a source of national income," said for his part Ignacio Soqueré, Vice Minister of Inter-culture from the Ministry of Cultures and Tourism of Bolivia.

The call for horizontal technical cooperation assistance was open from July to September 2013 and the workshops were held from November 2013 to February 2014, as follows:  

•       · The Ministry of Cultures and Tourism of Bolivia welcomed a mission from UNESCO’s Institute of Statistics from February 5 to 7, 2014 in La Paz.  

•       · Experts from the SinCA (Cultural Information Systems of Argentina) from the Ministry of Culture of Argentina participated in three missions, providing assistance to the Ministries responsible  for the area of Culture in Peru (November 21 and 22, 2013), Saint Lucia (January 27 and 28, 2014), and  Barbados (January 30 and 31, 2014).  

•       ·  The Ministry of Culture and Youth of Costa Rica welcomed a mission from the Ministry of Culture of Colombia and from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Uruguay from December 2-4, 2013 in the city of San José.
  
  It is expected that the exchange of experiences and expertise among countries in the region will encourage the implementation of Cultural Satellite Accounts, which is considered to be a good practice to inform the development of policies aimed at promoting this important economic sector.
  
  The Culture and Development project is funded by the government of the United States through the Permanent Mission of the United States to the OAS.

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