Impact Study: UNESCO-Aschberg Programme for Artists and Cultural Professionals

The public sector institutions have limited experience in facilitating trade among such firms and the non-traditional sectors, like the creative industries, are relatively new areas of engagement for whichmost trade and investment agencies are largely ill-equipped to facilitate. As such, from the supply-side, it can be posited that structural impediments have thwarted the region’s efforts to take full advantage of the EPA benefits in the trade of both goods and services. This set of challenges is compounded by demand-side issues, such as weak market relationships with potential importers, consumers and audiences; low market presence in strategic marketplaces (e.g. trade fairs and expositions), and limited visibility in the digital arena. The picture is similar in the creative sector, as we examine the concrete steps taken towards full implementation of the CARIFORUM-EU EPA, by the EU, the EU Member States and CARIFORUM States.

Almost every government in the CARIFORUM region has deepened its institutional focus on the creative sector with the aim of boosting exports and generating new sources of employment, particularly targeted at youth

39 Culture in the CARIFORUM-EU EPA