GHANA’S MINISTER FOR TOURISM, ARTS, AND CULTURE SPEAKS AT THE UNESCO WORLD CONFERENCE ON CULTURAL POLICIES AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, MONDIACULT, IN MEXICO CITY

The Honorable Minister, who was amongst the High-Level Officials invited to speak at the Conference, delivered his statement on the 28^th of September 2022 after the official Opening of the Conference by H.E. Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico, H.E. Ms. Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, Secretary of Culture of México and H.E. Ms. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO.

Beginning his Statement, otherwise known as “intervention”, Dr. Awal, commended UNESCO and the Government of Mexico for their joint efforts in organizing this historic conference. He continued by emphasizing that Ghana is a country that recognizes culture as a dynamic phenomenon and “global public good” that has the proclivity to promote socio-economic development, peace, unity, social justice, reconciliation, human rights, and gender equality. He pointed out that this acknowledgment is what has made culture to be mainstreamed in the National Development Plan of Ghana (2018-2057) as a critical tool and vehicle for Ghana’s socio-economic development agenda. He further established that the importance of Culture in the Ghanaian context is demonstrated in the concept of SANKOFA, a concept that establishes the linkages between the present positive aspects of our Culture to the past. The concept affirms the synchronic relationship or co-existence of the past, present, and future. The Sankofa renaissance is therefore a conscious attempt to revisit the past and adopt all the positive cultural practices and traditional values through a careful interplay with the demands of modern technology within this contemporary era of globalization.

Regarding Ghana’s Culture Policy, the Honorable Minister mentioned that Ghana has initiated the process to review the 2004 Culture Policy of Ghana.  According to the Minister, after 18 years of its operationalization, there is a need for the Culture Policy to be reviewed due to the current global challenges, the digital Revolution, the  Covid-19 Pandemic, and other global challenges attacking both big and small nations ferociously, with the view of making the culture and creative sectors resilient to overcome unexpected storms as and when they appear.

The Minister intimated that the review process will consider regional and global discussions, recommendations, and guidelines and accommodate modern development trends because of our constant interaction with other cultures vis-à-vis globalization, ratification of international Conventions, and evolution of the creative arts, pandemics, and their impact on emerging economies. According to the Minister, Ghana envisions a bottom-up approach involving grassroots participation in the review process. He believes that the future of cultural policies and sustainable development approaches depends on their integrated value-proposition to local communities desiring that both should facilitate their well-being and needs.

Dr. Awal asserted that a renewed and strengthened Culture Policy of Ghana will help the country to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their related targets as culture is transversally recognized in the SDGs. He again intimated that the implementation of a renewed and strengthened Culture Policy would propel the growth of digital technology and support a more balanced inflow of cultural goods and services, the mobility of artists and cultural professionals, and freedom of creation and create jobs for the Ghanaian youth an agenda that is a priority of the government of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

According to the Minister, Ghana’s strategic axis for the implementation of a renewed and strengthened Culture Policy of Ghana in respect of promoting the growth of culture and creative industries in Ghana will among others include the following:

• Initiate policies and programs to build productive and sustainable industries with the support and use of positive Ghanaian cultural values, institutions, and resources to create employment, generate wealth, and ensure the growth and stability of the nation.
• Support the Creative Arts Agency and other relevant institutions to promote creative and cultural industries and invest in training, equipment, entrepreneurship, creative ventures and initiatives, and marketing to enhance the wealth and benefits accruing to producers and their communities.
• Initiate policies to make arts and cultural programs and products accessible to all.
• Provide support to regulatory bodies to set up Standards and Create mechanisms for recognizing and rewarding excellence.

The Minister concluded his intervention by assuring UNESCO of Ghana’s commitment to developing an integrated, inclusive, and comprehensive Culture Policy Framework which will help develop Ghana’s culture and creative sectors.

He also thanked UNESCO for confirming ACCRA (Ghana) as the next UNESCO World Book Capital starting in 2023 which would offer immense opportunities for the book industry and the creative and cultural industries in general.

The UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development –MONDIACULT 2022 is convened by the UNESCO Director-General and hosted by the Government of Mexico from 28 to 30 September 2022. Forty years after the first MONDIACULT World Conference on Cultural Policies held in Mexico City (Mexico) in 1982, and 24 years after the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies for Development held in Stockholm (Sweden) in 1998, the World Conference will provide new momentum for the global policy dialogue on culture for sustainable development, spearheaded by UNESCO in line with its cultural mandate to advance the free exchange of ideas and knowledge by encouraging cooperation among countries as enshrined in its Constitution.