Brazzaville and Kinshasa hosted ACP-EU Culture’s 2nd regional meeting

Against the backdrop of the 6th edition of the International Festival of Popular Music and Traditional Dances (Feux de Brazza), the ACP-EU Culture Programme organised its regional meeting for the Central African zone from 6 to 10 December 2022 in Brazzaville and Kinshasa.

Placed under the high patronage of the Ministers of Culture of Congo and the D.R. of Congo, the event made it possible to strengthen the visibility of the ACP-EU Culture programme “Creating in Central Africa” and to enhance the results obtained to date. The regional meeting also contributed to advocate with national and regional authorities for increased support to the cultural and creative sectors and served as a privileged framework for meetings and exchanges between the representations of the Organisation of ACP States (OACPS) and the European Union (EU) at regional level and African cultural operators.

At the opening ceremony in Brazzaville on 6 December, the representative of the EU Delegation in Brazzaville, Jakob Haushofer, recalled that culture is a space for dialogue and co-creation. “Through culture, young people can strengthen the cultural links between our two continents, as advocated by the Global Gateway strategy.

For his part, H.E. Georges Rebelo Chikoti, Secretary General of the OEACP insisted on the effectiveness of the ACP-EU partnership in supporting the cultural and creative sectors. “Since 2003, with our strategic partner, the European Union, we have developed a set of strategies that have been translated into programmes to support CCIs”.

The head of the ACP-EU Culture Technical Assistance Unit, Gian Giuseppe Simeone, recalled the functioning of the programme, of which “Creating in Central Africa” is one of the regional components. He also insisted on the fact that its success, beyond the financing of projects, will also be measured by the capacity to mobilise public, private and civil society actors within real regional cultural ecosystems that can ensure the relay of the efforts carried out by the OEACP and the EU under the ACP-EU Culture programme.

Following the keynote speeches, a panel composed of project leaders recalled the importance of the support granted by the ACP-EU Culture programme in the emergence of talent and innovative projects, making it possible to make a concrete contribution to the cultural policies put in place by the States, to raise awareness among young people of the value of cultural heritage and to make the authorities aware of the as yet untapped potential of the cultural and creative sectors.

Networking of cultural actors

The week was also punctuated by the second edition of the networking event “Creating in Central Africa”. Organised under the theme “Innovating through partnership: the challenge of financing CCIs and culture in Central Africa”, the event focused on the complementarity and diversification of financing and self-financing systems for culture through the development of innovative economic models.

In this context, project leaders were able to learn from each other through experience sharing, networking and the various training courses offered by the “Create in Central Africa” consortium in Brazzaville and Kinshasa on subjects such as setting up financing projects, project monitoring and management of the logical framework and copyright.

On 9 December in Kinshasa, the Minister of Culture of the D.R. of Congo, the Hon. Catherine Katumbu Furaha, presided over a ceremony to hand over grants from the ACP-EU Culture Programme to the 14 beneficiaries of the second call of the “Create in Central Africa” component.

*Cameroon, Congo, DR Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Chad and the Central African Republic.