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

The Caribbean Development Bank launched its Cultural and Creative Industries Innovation Fund (CIIF) on December 14, 2018. CIIF is intended to be a multi-donor Fund that will support the creative and cultural industries (CCI) sector development, and encourage innovation, job creation and improved enterprise sustainability by providing grant financing and technical assistance (TA). In its initial phase, CIIFwill focus onenhancing the technical capacityandknowledge of MSMEs and business support organizations in the CCI sector to develop new products/services, implement new business models, improve employee and managerial capacity, and improve their competitiveness. It is intended that these efforts will result in increased participation in local, regional and international markets, including new market access provided under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). CIIF will also provide targeted support for financing research, with a national, regional and/or sub-regional focus on developing or improving appropriate data collection frameworks, data capture of baseline data, market trends, and information on the development profile and needs of the CCIs sector. The aim is to assist in quantifying the contribution and potential of these industries for growth and development, including the impact the EPA has had on the sector, in order to inform future resource allocations. Europe and the Caribbean have enormous cultural and creative assets, awealth of ideas, artists and creative people. The CARIFORUM-EU EPA offers the opportunity to increase cultural exchanges and business cooperation. CIIF therefore values the importance of the EPA as an effective mechanism to facilitate market access. The hope is that throughCIIF’s interventions and collaborationwithpartners, Caribbean cultural practitioners will be able to exploit the opportunities afforded through increased market penetration and presence. Lisa Harding Coordinator of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development, Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)

on the sector, and to strengthen the existing knowledge infrastructure related to cultural industries 47 . It also seeks to enhance the technical capacity and knowledge of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the cultural industries to improve their competitiveness in local, regional and international markets and to strengthen businesses that support the cultural industries in their delivery of capacity building activities at national and regional levels.

67 Culture in the CARIFORUM-EU EPA

47. For further details, see: http://www.caribank.org/news/cdb-establishes-cultural-creative- industries-innovation-fund