Des subventions pour les industries culturelles et créatives du Pacifique

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Grants for Pacific cultural and creative industries

“We cannot protect what we don’t understand.” As traditional navigator Kaiafa Ledua delivered these remarks at a press conference on 16 April 2024, he and 11 other cultural and creative project representatives left a lasting impression with their culturally enriching presentations on what each project represented.
 

Hosted by the Pacific Community (SPC), the press conference announced the 12 recipients of the ACP-EU Programme (Pacific) Enhancing Capacity for the sustainability of the Cultural and Creative Industries in the Pacific (CCIP) project grant scheme. This now brings the total number of grants awarded by the ACP-EU CCIP Project to 20, with one grant being awarded in the first round of the scheme and seven in the second round.
 

The following have been selected as recipients of the grant scheme’s third round:

Miles Young, Director of SPC’s Human Rights and Social Development (HRSD) Division, acknowledged the continued support from the European Union (EU) as the “Only dedicated source of funding support for cultural and creative industries in the Pacific region”.
 

“There have been many lessons learnt about the kind of targeted support that is needed in the region to raise awareness and capacity for grant writing, project implementation and grant management, as well as financial management. These are lessons that will inform future projects of this nature with support from our friends, like the European Union and others,” said Mr Young.
 

The protection and promotion of positive expressions of culture, he added, was a key part of SPC’s work as SPC recognised the contributions of these industries to sustainable development in the Pacific.  
 

The ACP-EU CCIP project was designed to increase the contributions of the culture and creative sectors to economic revenue, commercial engagement, and recognition in national economies. The project also provides financial support, technical advice, mentoring, and capacity-building schemes to artists and cultural producers from across the Pacific region.
 

Pedro Velasquez, Head of Section Civil Society, Gender, Human Rights and Health at the delegation of the European Union for the Pacific, acknowledged the importance of culture in development.
 

“Culture is an engine for social and economic development and a resource for peaceful inter-community relations. It facilitates social inclusion and freedom of expression, creates and reinforces identity, and also provides civil empowerment. Something, we tend to forget is that culture provides economic growth. It provides job opportunities. Actually, in the world, 48 million jobs are created in the cultural and creative sectors. The cultural and creative sector creates more jobs than agriculture and forestry together,” he said.
 

Dr Frances Vaka’uta, Team Leader Culture for Development at SPC’s HRSD Division said while there had been a lot of interest in the grant scheme, many applicants did not meet the eligibility requirements, and others did not submit complete or feasible project proposals.
 

“The cultural and creative industries have been recognised for some time now as the fastest growing industries globally, contributing multi-million dollar returns in the developed world. Many countries are still working to address some of the gaps and challenges that have been identified since the COVID-19 pandemic, and Pacific cultural and creative industries remain under-developed due to a general lack of resources, qualified personnel, infrastructure, consistent and sustainable funding, and the lack of higher education opportunities for the arts and culture,” she said.
 

So far, the total commitment to the twenty projects funded under the ACP-EU CCIP grant scheme is valued at approximately 1.4 million Euros, spread across six of the 15 ACP Pacific countries. The selected projects under round three of the grant scheme align with national development priorities and the Pacific Regional Culture Strategy.

The ACP-EU Programme (Pacific) is funded by the European Union and the Secretariat of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), and is implemented by the Pacific Community (SPC) in partnership with the Queensland University of Technology.