Lack of statistics hinders social, cultural growth

13 Dec, 2015 - 00:12 0 Views
Lack of statistics hinders social, cultural growth Sunday Mail

The Sunday Mail

Harmony Agere
Cultural activists attending the national training workshop on data collection for capacity building on periodic reporting for the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions in Zimbabwe have lamented the limited availability of cultural statistics and data, saying this is affecting the development of the sector.
Zimbabwe is a signatory to the 2005 convention and is therefore required to submit quadrennial reports to UNESCO reflecting on progress and challenges confronting the instrument.
Activists, however, fear the absence of statistical data will compromise the process.
The 2005 convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural expressions is a policy document adopted by UNESCO to, among other objectives, promote and protect cultural diversity in its member states.
However, experts contend that the creation, production, distribution and consumption of cultural products is not being well-documented, a development which has greatly compromised social and cultural development.
They say Zimbabwe is blessed with cultural diversity and has originated a myriad of cultural products ranging from visual to performing arts for local and foreign consumption.
According to Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat), the cultural industry has, over the past few years, emerged as a source of income, employment and a tool to assert the people’s national identity.
ZimStat states that the cultural industry contributes immensely in attracting tourist inflows and building the country’s image.
Despite Government’s efforts to uplift the cultural industry, measuring the socio-economic contribution of the cultural industry to the economy remains a challenge.
It is regrettable that documentation of cultural products and expressions exported or circulated locally is not up to scratch.
There have been efforts to measure the economic contribution of Zimbabwe’s cultural industries by the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust in partnership with the ZimStat but the general feeling is that the efforts did not bring the required results.
Addressing participants at the three-day workshop organised by the National Arts Council in Msasa, Harare last week, UNESCO expert Mr Stephen Chifunyise said while cultural trade statistics may be available, what is generated by performing artists as well as intangible material is sometimes not well-measured.
He said without statistics, it would be difficult to know the amount of value cultural industries are generating.
Without knowing the value, Mr Chifunyise said, it would be difficult for cultural groups to justify their requests to have more funds allocated to the sector.
“It’s sad that we do not have statistics when it comes to culture and there is no single group working towards creating a pool of statistics which could be available in different institutions,” he said.
“How then can we develop when we do not know the value created by our various cultural expressions?
“Most arts and cultural organisations do not even have the statistics of what they are doing.”
Mr Chifunyise added that the problem is rife where performing artists are concerned.
He said it is easy to know the number of reed baskets exported to other countries since they are captured by officials at border posts.
On the other hand, what performing artists generate when they go for foreign tours is little or unknown.
Culture is a key pre-condition in enabling sustainable development as it ensures morality, innovation and creativity, and experts believe it can contribute significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Nonetheless, social and cultural development had largely remained static, thereby fuelling the perception that there is no political will to preserve culture in the country.
The recent decision by President Mugabe to create a stand-alone arts and culture ministry is however, expected to address the unavailability of statistical data as well as other challenges in the culture sector.
To deal with the problem, cultural activist Reverend Paul Damasane, who also attended the event, said organisations in the cultural sector must take the first steps and admit that they do not have data and statistics so that measures can be taken.
He also reiterated that statistics and data help to enable sustainable development, adding that players in the sector should be capacitated to collect data.
Another UNESCO expert, Ayeta Wangusa pointed out that the major stumbling block may be the fact that trade statistics are not readily available outside formal channels.
Some experts blamed the situation on ZimStat saying it should have taken the leading role in compiling statistics.
However, ZimStat’s Tourism and Cultural Statistics Manager, Mr Handrix Chigiji told the plenary that it is difficult to come up with statistics because they are usually scattered in different institutions.
“Data is still scattered in different institutions.
‘‘We mainly have data on employment in the culture sector so I think there is need to get together as stakeholders and come up with a national baseline and structure for compiling culture statistics.”
He said should such a framework be developed, it would help in the compilation of statistics in the future.
However, measuring culture and creating a database is not always easy as many organisations do not even know what to capture and how to identify cultural expressions and products.
According to the UNESCO Framework on Culture Statistics (FCS), there is need to define what culture is so that it becomes easy to identify what needs to be documented.
The FCS therefore defined culture as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, that encompasses, not only art and literature, but lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs.
Nonetheless, the FCS recognised that it is not always easy to measure these beliefs and values.
“…It is not always possible to measure such beliefs and values directly, it is possible to measure associated behaviours and practices,” reads the framework.
As such, the FCS defined culture through the identification and measurement of the behaviours and practices resulting from the beliefs and values of a society or a social group.
Research shows that the Cultural Domains defined in FCS represent a common set of economic (such as the production of goods and services) and social (such as participation in culture activities) activities that traditionally have been regarded as being cultural.
In addition, the FCS noted that related domains consist of other economic and social activities that may be considered “partially cultural” or are more often regarded as being “recreational or leisure” rather than “purely cultural.”
Experts say to a certain extent, the confusion has been a major problem in trying to come up with data and statistics.

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