Guyana is a country rich with a diverse cultural heritage and culture plays a critical role in the shaping of Guyanese identity.  Creative activity coming out of our particular cultural context also has tremendous potential of contributing more directly to national development via the potential diversification of the economy. 

Despite tremendous advocacy on the need to create, consult upon and implement a national cultural policy, both PPP and APNU+AFC has resisted moving forward on this area.  TCI’s policy for culture and creativity has three thematic areas: Mainstreaming Culture in Development; Cultural Heritage Preservation, Protection and Promotion; and Creative Arts and Cultural Industries Development.

Mainstreaming Culture in Development

Our plan has been developed in keeping with international policy development standards, most notably the recommendations coming out of the texts Report on the post-2015 Dialogues on Culture and Development and Re|Shaping Cultural Policies.  This ensures that not only does Guyana’s policy speak categorically to strategies for mainstreaming culture in development but that it aligns with the larger global post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda with respect to culture.  For the first five years of the ten-year development and implantation cycle 2020-2025, the three areas under primary focus will be Education, Environment and Citizenship.  The next five years will focus on Sustainable Urbanization; Gender; and Poverty Reduction.

Cultural Heritage Preservation, Protection and Promotion

Cultural Heritage Preservation and Protection is currently the strongest area of operation for Guyana with long-established programmes particularly in the area of protection of built heritage.  The successes here have been reflected most recently in the National Trust of Guyana winning an internationally recognized Green Apple Award in 2016 for its work on built heritage protection.  That said, these successes have been achieved in a generally poor policy and operational environment with most cultural heritage mechanisms suffering from poor governance or increasingly dilapidated or otherwise inadequate infrastructure.  Additionally, the successes in Tangible Cultural Heritage protection have been offset by significant failure in Intangible Cultural Heritage Stewardship.

The general policy thrust in this area will be to:

* Assess the correct state of our tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

            * Develop mechanisms to strengthen weak areas.

* Bring Guyana inline with out international commitment and obligations on cultural heritage preservation and protection, and add the element promotion to government programmes.

Creative Arts and Cultural Industries Development

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates that trade in creative goods and services grew 134 percent between 2002 and 2011, reaching a total of US $646 billion in the latter year.  Creative Industry development is increasingly becoming a central pillar of economic development and/or diversification for developed and developing countries alike.

Guyana is a fledgling creative industries environment, but one with tremendous potential for growth based on our diverse multicultural heritage.  Additionally, our landscape provides a rich and variegated backdrop for the development of cultural industry initiatives such as filmmaking and festivals.

The central thrust for this component of the national cultural policy process will be the establishment of an intelligence collection mechanism for current creative industry sectors, the mapping of human and institutional resources nationally and internationally, and strategic support for creative industry stakeholders.

The general objectives of policy in the area of Creative Arts and Cultural Industries Development will be to:

* Create an environment where the creative citizen has a fundamental right to exist as an individual and to contribute to society to the best of their ability without fear.

* Establish innovative educational mechanisms to enhance the development of the creative citizen.

* Establish and maintain mechanisms that sustain and reward artistic excellence through transparent and innovative systems.

* Create an environment where the creative citizen can earn a fair and dignified living.

* Affirm in policy as well as practice the critical role that the creative expression has to play in economic development as well as national social cohesion. 

PILLARS OF THE NATIONAL CULTURAL POLICY

The policy is, and derivative implementation strategies will be, based on five main pillars:

National Development Centrality – this is inclusive of but not limited to the specific objectives of the thematic area, Mainstreaming Culture in Development.  The policy is meant to support national development in myriad tangible and intangible ways, including primarily those areas related to cultural and artistic expression, but inclusive of the spectrum of human rights and larger freedom

International Integration – the policy comes at a time when the international community is mainstreaming culture in development as a core pillar of an overall sustainable development paradigm.   This policy recognizes that not only is Guyana bound by several international obligations, but that we can provide a critical leadership role via our inherent cultural diversity as a microcosm of a globalized world, as well as our unique strategic position as a vibrant member of several regional blocs.

General Resilience – considering the critical importance of culture to development, cultural policy necessarily has to be sustainable in the long term, resilient to a variety of factors including the social, economic, technological, environmental and political.  Consequently the primary focus in this regard has to be on consultation, consensus, resource mobilization and innovation.

General Integrity – cultural policy initiatives cannot be sustainable if there is little integrity in the processes and people involved in implementation, whether it speaks to competence or governance.  In keeping with the UNESCO 2005 Convention, policy-based mechanisms for governance are a key component of this aspect of the framework policy.  The policy implementation will therefore focus on transparency in the management of cultural initiatives and human resource development to ensure competence in the execution of programmes.

Cultural Equity – if the primary quality of Guyana’s cultural landscape is diversity, it is critical that there is equity in the preservation and expression of that diversity.  All policy measures will be developed within the context of that diversity, whether we are considering the religious, the ethnic or the geographical.  Inherent in the concept of cultural equity is the decentralization of support for culture and the empowerment of communities for cultural self-expression and engagement.

IMPLEMENTATION FRAMEWORK

The policy will be implemented over a period of ten years 2020-2030, divided into two policy development cycles, particularly covering the Mainstreaming Culture in Development thematic area.  Within that ten-year framework, there will be five biennial implementation programmes, each divided into the two budgetary years it covers.  While the Ministry of Education will be the primary agency with portfolio responsibility for policy development, implementation and monitoring and evaluation, various specific ministries will provide lead responsibility on specific policy-derivative initiatives – for example, the Ministry of Legal Affairs will have lead responsibility for updating intellectual property laws, Copyright legislation in particular, although coordination and planning on the overall process will fall under the Ministry of Education.

FINANCING

The financing strategy for programmes coming out of the National Cultural Policy will be based upon coordinating government expenditure, international financing, and private sector support both through investment and via corporate social responsibility initiatives.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES AND INDICATORS

In each thematic area, there are several expected outcomes which will be measured against specific indicators as the policy development process is enhanced. In the thematic area of Mainstreaming Culture in Development, the core expected outcome will be significantly increased sensitivity to cultural dimensions in national development initiatives; in Cultural Heritage Preservation, Protection and Promotion, the expected outcome is enhanced programmatic and budgetary support for CHPPP measures; in Creative Arts and Cultural Industries Development, the core outcome will be an enhanced skills development and investment environment for the arts and creative industries.  A system of national indicators in each area will be developed based upon the UNESCO Culture for Development Indicators methodology manual.

Immediate Agenda

*  Reconstitute and reform the Guyana Prize Management Committee and reestablish the Guyana Prize for Literature

*   Reestablish the National Drama Festival

*   Update and pass the 2004 Copyright Bill; establish supporting mechanisms to support legislation.

*   Establish an overall National Culture Commission to implement national cultural policy