The Courier

José Rafael Lantigua, Dominican Republic Minister of Culture, Onofre Rojas, EFD National Authorising Officer, Sir John Kaputin, ACP Secretary General.

© Hegel Goutier

In inaugurating on October 13, 2006 the 2nd Meeting of ACP Ministers of Culture and the 1st Cultural Festival of the ACP Group of States, the President of the Dominican Republic, Lionel Fernandez, put the seal of success on a long-awaited event. Persistence, not only on the part of the ACP Secretariat but also from its European Commission partners and the Dominican Republic itself, as well as organisers and artists from three continents, had paid off.

It all began in Dakar in 2003 with the 1st Meeting of ACP Ministers of Culture

When ACP Ministers of Culture meeting for the first time in the Senegalese capital decided to organise the first cultural festival of the 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and to adopt on June 20, 2003 a plan of action and agreement, they were no doubt unaware of two things. The first is that this agreement would have such a huge impact on international groups in the cultural field. They are now viewed as innovative, if not revolutionary, in their role in the creative and economic development strategy of poor countries. The second is that the preparation of 1st ACP Festival was to encounter so many obstacles. Originally, this festival was to have been held in Haiti in 2004 to celebrate the second centenary of the country’s independence. But political events in the country changed everything. After repeated postponements, the festival was finally held at another time and in another place. The one constant in all this was the soil of the Island of Quiskeya.

The guiding light: Dakar

Through the many twists and turns, the Dakar Plan of Action and Agreement paved the way, their international credibility acting as a guarantee for the festival which was the only the visible part of the enterprise, together perhaps with the plan for an ACP Cultural Foundation. The invisible part was the whole body of proposals to build clear cultural policies in ACP countries and regions to safeguard and protect cultural heritage. Also part of the plan was to strengthen cultural cooperation between ACP States and their development partners, and improve the abilities of the ACP States in all these fields – above all in developing cultural industries. The ministers of culture led the way to what would be a genuinely historic event: the position adopted by the ACP Heads of State in Maputo, Mozambique, on the role of culture in sustainable development.

The consolidation: Santo Domingo

The document adopted by the 2nd Meeting of ACP Ministers of Culture in Santo Domingo amplifies the strategies defined in Dakar. It promotes the development of South-South cooperation, starting with an active partnership between the ACP and Brazil in the field of cultural programmes and lends its support to a project to open a ‘House of Africa’ in the country. It also develops an approach to lessen the digital divide in the ACP States as a means of combating illiteracy and promoting an integration of culture into education to highlight cultural diversity.

In line with the reforms in the Dominican Republic

One of the principal players of the Cultural Festival’s success in the Dominican Republic was the National Authorising Officer (NAO) of the European Development Fund (EDF). This is the representative of the Dominican Government responsible for managing cooperation with the European Union. He stressed, as did the other Dominican officials, the coming together of the interests of the ACP Group of States as a whole and his own country’s national and regional agenda at a time when it is trying to give impetus to the role of culture in the Caribbean and Central and South America.

On one hand, the President of the Dominican Republic had just completed a broad consultation with artists, seeking a programme to develop the competitiveness of creative industries. On the other, the country is in the process of implementing constitutional reforms covering the cultural issue, as President Fernandez stressed at the Festival. “In the case of the Dominican Republic it is a case of transforming third generation rights, such as cultural rights contained in international agreements and treaties, so that they can feature in the fundamental rights of the State Constitution”, he said.

The Festival was held at a time when sections of Dominican society are involved in assessing the very foundations of their society, stressing the recognition of African heritage.

Minister of Culture, José Rafael Lantigua, one of the key figures in organising the meeting of Ministers of Culture and the ACP Festival in Santo Domingo, sums up the problem as follows: “The new models to characterize the Dominican identity, promoted by driven and distinguished researchers, (…) were born from the moment that the African heritage was assumed as a vital component of our culture. For this reason, as we celebrate the presence of Africa, alongside with other Caribbean and Pacific States, represented in this summit of Ministers of Culture, we also celebrate the cultural richness of which we are the owners and addressees, and in which the fusion of races and cultures has fulfilled a vital and unchanging role”.

ACP-EU cooperation and the financing of culture

The economic and social importance of culture for the development of ACP countries is stipulated in the Cotonou Agreement (Article 27) signed in June 2000.
The financial aspects of Dakar Action Plan have been implemented in close cooperation with the European Commission. The ACP Group and the European Commission have identified two cultural programmes to be financed under the 9th EDF:

• The Support Programme for the ACP film industry and the audiovisual sector (budget €8 m).
• The Support Programme for the ACP cultural industries, with a budget of €6,333,333.

Contact: Secretariat of the Group of ACP States, Department of Policy Questions and Human Development, Mrs. Aya Kasasa, aya.kasasa@acp.int

Financing of the 1st ACP Cultural Festival

European Commission: €1,000,000
Dominican Republic: €2,500,000
 

The Dominican Republic

• Area: 48,730 km²
• Population: 9,365,818 (2007)
• Capital: Santo Domingo
• Per capita GDP: €8,000
• Development index: 0.751 (94th place out of 177)
• Political structure: President Leonel Fernandez Reyna since 16 August 2004 for a 4-year term. Elected by universal suffrage. Date of next elections: May 2008.

Santo Domingo

• Population: 2,253,437 (2006)
• Economy of Santo Domingo: services and manufacturing
• Education: 18 universities, including the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, the only public university and the oldest in the New World.
• Museums: 10 museums

Sources: CIA: UNDP, www.presidencia.gov.do