UNESCO launches drive to quantify cultural contribution
Niël Terblanché
Members of the cultural community gathered at the Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre on Tuesday for the launch of a project that promises to count the economic and social weight of the arts, heritage and creative industries.
Opening the kick-off workshop, deputy minister of education, innovation, youth, sports, arts and culture Dino Ballotti said the UNESCO Culture 2030 Indicators will give policymakers a powerful tool to measure and articulate the contributions of culture, within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
He said that although global research shows that cultural and creative sectors sustain millions of jobs, in Namibia, this sector remains largely undocumented, and its true value to society and the economy has yet to be formally quantified.
Namibia is one of a handful of countries selected for the pilot under a €5 million (approximately N$104.4 million) European Union programme aimed at strengthening evidence-based cultural policy across Southern Africa.
EU ambassador to Namibia Ana Beatriz Martins told delegates the partnership is entirely dedicated to policy strengthening and will measure how culture contributes across the Sustainable Development Goals.
She said the grant covers technical assistance, the roll-out of the indicator framework and preparation of a global report for the UNESCO Mondiacult conference in September.
She highlighted the chronic shortage of reliable data.
Martins warned that without hard numbers, culture often remains undervalued in policy and development planning.
She said the project will seek to change this by building robust systems for tracking culture’s contribution to economic growth, social cohesion and even environmental stewardship.
Ballotti added that the indicators would create a national baseline of data and help Namibia craft more informed, inclusive and resilient cultural policies” anchored in the Sustainable Development Goals.
The City of Windhoek, whose smart city agenda already champions creative-sector initiatives, has signed on as the local authority partner.
Consultations have been led by the municipality’s department of economic development and community services.
Ballotti said the cooperation slots in perfectly with the government’s decision to list creative industries among its seven priorities for the next five years.
For the European Union, the workshop also sets the stage for deeper trade and investment discussions.
Martins revealed that culture and creative industries will feature prominently at the second EU–Namibia Business Forum next year, building on President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s pledge in her first State of the Nation address to empower young Namibians through creativity and innovation.
Parallel EU-funded schemes, such as the Africa-Europe Partnerships for Culture, aim to boost heritage-based tourism and cultural production in six Southern African countries, including Namibia.
Over the coming months, technical teams from UNESCO, the ministry and the Windhoek municipality will train officials, collect data and draft a report with recommendations for the government.
Ballotti urged participants to ensure the evidence they gather feeds directly into policies that make Namibia’s creative sector resilient, future-ready and transformative.
He added that if the project succeeds, Namibia could soon be able to prove in numbers what local artists have always insisted: “Culture is not an afterthought, but a driver of development.”
