SWAHILI CENTER REPRESENTS LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS AT CULTURE FORUM IN GHANA

The Swahili Performing Arts Center Managing Director, Kheiri Jumbe, will this week be attending the African Cultural Capital’s City Forum on Culture and Development in Accra, Ghana. The aim of the City Forum on Culture and Development is to strategize on ways to infuse Culture and creative industry agendas at the heart national development policy agendas.

During the forum, culture leaders from several African countries will explore development policies in their respective countries in relation to funding modalities and programming approaches . Countries represented at the forum taking place from 7-10 November 2011 are the hosts Ghana, Tanzania, Cameroun, Morocco, South Africa, Nigeria and Mozambique. Delegates taking part in the forum include cultural leaders, Parliamentarians, civic officials and members on several international agencies dealing with culture and the arts.

The Mayor of Accra, Hon. Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, will be the host of the 4-day event which has been organized by the City of Accra, The Arterial Network, UNESCO, The Goethe Institut and Agenda 21 of Spain.

‘My personal ambition and that of the Swahili Center as stakeholders in culture in Tanzania is to develop ways in which the competitiveness of culture in the context of its productivity can be enhanced for the benefit of the local economy,’ commented Mr. Jumbe when asked about the purpose of his participation.

Many studies conducted on the social and economic impact of cultural and creative industries have shown positive contribution towards social cohesion, economic development and poverty reduction. UNCTAD data shows that cultural and creative industries worldwide grew an average of 8.7% annually. However, in many developing countries culture is not mainstreamed into development policies despite UNESCO recognizing it as a vector for development and promoter of international cooperation. As a result, there is generally lack of long-term, coordinated effort and funding in the sector in many developing countries. Inevitably, most support for culture in developing countries comes from international donors and multinational corporations, who only tend to concentrate on short-term and highly visible projects that are usually insufficient to render the sector viable.

Zanzibar has been invited to participate at the forum on the merit of both the tangible and intangible cultural assets present in Stonetown. The Forum is taking place at the renowned Accra International Conference Center.

The Swahili Performing Arts Center is a local not-for-profit organization based in Zanzibar and operates under the mission of furthering the development of authentic Swahili performing arts disciplines from Zanzibar and the Swahili Coast through empowerment, production, presentation and outreach.

END

For more information about this press release, kindly contact me via this address.

Kheiri A.Y, Jumbe

Managing Director

The Swahili Performing Arts Center

Zanzibar, United Rep. of Tanzania

Mobile: +255-77-362-0202

www.swahili-center.org