The Sunday Mail
Takudzwa Chihambakwe
IF you are in the creative and cultural sector and have been wondering why at times it appears Government seems unconcerned about matters to do with the arts, scratch your head no more.
Secretary for Rural Development, Promotion and Preservation of National Culture and Heritage, Dr Thokozile Chitepo, told the Culture for Development Indicators Forum in Harare last week that the arts sector was the State’s forgotten, poor cousin.
“The cultural sector is the weakest sector in Government currently, due to a lot of reasons. But since the creation of the ministry of culture as a stand-alone ministry, we have managed to set-up clear objectives and we are more visible and are slowly getting things in place. So definitely in the future there will have greater efficiency within the ministry than in previous years,” she said.
Dr Chitepo said while Government used an integrated results-based management system, some sectors were more advanced than others in implementation — and the arts had been found wanting in this regard.
Which was why her ministry was gathering cultural statistics in Zimbabwe, which was the main agenda of last week’s meeting.
“The process of gathering cultural statistics is really cumbersome and not straightforward at all. It will require a lot of time for us to get the information we need.
“But I can guarantee you that as the ministry of culture we are ready to engage with all the partners involved in this programme so that we get the intended results hopefully by the proposed time of May next year,” she added.
Unesco regional director Professor Hubert Gijzen underlined why it was important for Zimbabwe to have statistics from the cultural sector.
“Unesco has years of experience in the field of statistics and while this resides primarily in the education domain, since 2009, we started deploying specific tools aimed at measuring the impact of culture,” said Prof Gijzen.
“For instance 10 percent of Indonesia’s GDP comes directly or indirectly from the creative industries. In the European Union, the cultural and creative industries account for 4,2 percent of GDP, which is 540 billion euros and employing nearly seven million people.”
It was for this reason that Government and its partners, he said, were looking at the matter of cultural sector statistics to establish its potential and unlock it.
Prof Gijzen said it was crucial to integrate culture into sustainable development strategies.
“To achieve this vision, the issue of measuring impact and evidence-based strategic planning in the culture sector becomes of key importance,” he added.
