POLICY BRIEF
MOBILITY OF ARTISTS AND CREATIVE SERVICE PROVIDERS WITHIN THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY COMMON MARKET
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This policy brief is a result of implementing CDEA’s Creative Economy Incubator for fashion and accessories designers, filmmakers and musicians from Uganda and Tanzania funded by GIZ. The Creative Economy Incubator is part of the EAC’s Incubator for Integration and Development in East Africa (IIDEA). CDEA’s Creative Economy Incubator has so far provided business and technical skills to 17 fashion and accessories designers and 32 musicians from Uganda and Tanzania. It also provided a platform for 4 incubatees to pitch their products to an audience of potential investors during the Mashariki Creative Economy Impact Investment Conference, May 11-12, 2017. In addition, CDEA will soon launch an online information and marketplace portal focused on trade in goods and services in the East African Common Market in the following creative industries: fashion and accessories design, film, interior and spatial design, literary arts and books, music and visual arts. Nevertheless, the project identified the following challenges that impacted on its implementation. • The current cultural policy of Tanzania (1997) has a national focus and does not provide a clause for mobility of artists and creative professionals to engage in cultural exchange and capacity building activities within the East African Community • The EAC members states have not yet scheduled the Recreational, Cultural and Sporting Services for liberalization under the Common Market Protocol (CMP) where the project would have been situated • The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) passed the EAC Creative and Culture Industries Bill; however it has not yet been assented into an Act of Parliament. • BASATA’s Strategic plan 2014-2017, does not recognize the East African Common Market as an opportunity of sourcing creative professionals that can provide services to improve the quality of art works and crafts of Tanzania • There is no preferential treatment by BASATA for East African artists and creative service providers when it comes to crossing borders for cultural exchange and capacity development activities • CDEA did not have a collaboration agreement with the Ministry of East African Cooperation (MEAC) of Tanzania that would have enhanced the implementation the IIDEA project
Policy recommendations • The new Tanzania National Arts Policy that is being drafted should provide a clause for cultural development within the East African Community • The EAC member states should involve arts and culture civil society organizations and creative entrepreneurs in discussions before the commencement of negotiations for the liberalization of the next five sub-sectors, which include the Recreational, Cultural and Sporting Services subsector under the Common Market Protocol (CMP) • EAC Partner states should assent the EAC Creative and Culture Industries Bill into an Act of Parliament • BASATA’s new strategic plan could consider including the East African Common Market as an opportunity of sourcing creative professionals that can provide services to improve the quality the art works and crafts of Tanzania
• For Tanzania, in the absence of EAC Creative and Culture Industries Act, BASATA could consider offering preferential treatment for East African artists and creative service providers entering Tanzania to provide educational services in the spirit of regional integration • Need for the IIDEA projects to be well anchored within the ministries responsible for East African cooperation in member states The primary audiences for this policy brief are: 1. EAC Secretariat 2. Regional Dialogue Committee 3. Partner States ministries of East Africa Cooperation 4. Ministries responsible for arts and culture in East Africa 5. National Arts Council Tanzania/BASATA 6. GIZ/IIDEA project
1.0 BACKGROUND 1.1 International Context In October 2005, UNESCO adopted the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. Besides promoting diversity in the cultural industries, the Convention reaffirms links between culture, development and dialogue and emphasizes the need for international cooperation and capacity building which is highly relevant in the cultural mobility discourse. (Wiesand/ERICarts,2008) On October 19, 2011, the United Republic of Tanzania ratified the UNESCO 2005 Convention and it came into force in January 2012. In addition, Tanzania has been a beneficiary of development cooperation through the EU and other bilateral agreements. For example, the 10th EDF Support to Culture in Tanzania – Support to Non-State-Actors in the Cultural and Creative Industries supported projects that were designed to contribute to a structural change, enhanced capacity and have long-term impact. The funded projects included a mobility component such as establishing cross-country networks of professional cooperation in the sector (EUC, 2012) While the government of Tanzania has the sovereign rights to maintain, adopt and implement policies and measures that they deem appropriate for the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions in Tanzania, there is need to frame arts and cultural policies that take into account regional and international cultural exchange and capacity development activities (UNESCO, 2005). 1.2 Regional Context The East African regional integration process is in full swing as reflected by the encouraging progress of the East African Customs Union and the establishment of the Common Market Protocol (CMP) in 2010. Despite being one of the fastest growing regional economic blocs in the world and shaping the economic, political, societal and cultural development of East Africa, many citizens are unaware of how the EAC affects their daily lives. To address this problem, the EAC Secretariat, the Regional Dialogue Committee and GIZ developed a joint initiative called the Incubator for Integration and Development in East Africa (IIDEA) as a tool for engaging citizens of the EAC Partners in the implementation of the EAC Common Market Protocol and showcase their real integration experiences. To date, IIDEA has provided support to 15 pioneering projects from across East Africa. Each project conducts activities involving two or more partner states and focuses on issues that range from trade facilitation, technological innovation, cultural exchange, gender equality, youth empowerment and cross-border mobility. (EAC website)
The EAC has embraced culture as both an enabler and driver of a people-centered integration agenda through the promotion and preservation of East Africa’s culture is of paramount importance and that is why out of the 15 IIDEA projects, four are cultural organizations. For the creative economy, the cultural/creative industries also create goods, services, and intellectual property. With reference to the mobility of artists and creative services within the EAC common market, they should be guided by Mode IV: Movement of natural persons of the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). This mode provides guidelines for the temporary movement of natural persons across borders to provide a service like a training workshop or a band on tour. Under the CMP, EAC partner states committed to progressively liberalize trade in services in accordance with the negotiated commitments made under Annex V of the Protocol. To date, partner states have made liberalization commitments in seven services sectors, namely: business services; distribution services; educational services; financial services; communication services; tourism and travel related services; and transport services (EAC, 2009). There are five sub-sectors which include the Recreational, Cultural and Sporting Services that need to be negotiated for liberalization CMP. It is only Rwanda that has liberalized Recreational, Cultural and Sporting Services under the GATS (Gastorn, 2015) as illustrated in Table 1 below. Table 1: EAC Partner States Commitments to CMP and GATS by Sectors
Source: Annex V to the CMP on Schedule of Commitments on the Progressive Liberalization of Services Key : = liberalized X = not liberalized
In August 2015, the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) passed the EAC Creative and Culture Industries Bill. Within this Bill, Part II provides for the ‘Establishment of an East African Creative and Cultural Industries Council’. This Council will provide direction for setting an environment for sustainable growth of creative industries through the utilization of the skills, talents and capabilities of the region's human resources and assist the creative industries achieve their full economic potential. However, the Bill is yet to be assented by member states to become an Act of Parliament. 1.3 National Context The National Arts Council Tanzania, commonly referred to by its Kiswahili acronym as BASATA is a corporate public institution established under the National Arts Act, No 23 of 1984. The Act repealed the National Arts Council and the National Music Council Act, both of 1974, to pave the way for the establishment of one Council responsible for all the arts. The Council’s vision is to ‘become the guiding and facilitating organization for artistic excellence, profitability and vibrancy in Tanzania.’ According to BASATA’s strategic plan 2014 -2017, one of its roles in relation to regional integration is to advise the Ministry of Industry, Trade of Investment (MITI) on trade policies, laws, regulations and the East African Common Market in relation to the arts. The East African Common Market is seen as opportunity for the sales of artist works work. BASATA’s strategic plan also points out that the quality of production of art works and crafts may not improve if artists are not enabled to acquire requisite skills which could further weaken their competitiveness in the East African Common Market. However, BASATA does not recognize the East African Common Market as an opportunity of sourcing creative professionals that can provide services to improve the quality the art works and crafts of Tanzania in order to become regionally competitive. Nevertheless, the government of Tanzania has shown commitment in the spirit of East African regional integration and will host the 4th edition of JAMAFEST in 2019. 2.0 CDEA’s Creative Economy Incubator CDEA’s Creative Economy Incubator is a platform that empowers artists, artisans and creative entrepreneurs to implement their artistic and business ideas based on an open call to join the incubator for incubatees from East Africa. With support from GIZ-EAC’s Incubator for Integration and Development in East Africa (IIDEA), CDEA’s Creative Economy Incubator focuses on mobility of creatives and creative service providers in the fashion and accessories design, film and music industries from Uganda to participate in incubator activities in Tanzania. The goal of the project is: East African creative entrepreneurs in fashion and design accessories, film and music industries have acquired technical and business knowledge that will make them regionally competitive. The goal will be achieved through training, coaching and mentoring and exposure visits, showcasing and marketing creative products, networking and learning between incubatees and connecting investors and to potential incubatees. Vision Artists, artisans and creative enterprises in the fashion and accessories design, film and music industries contributing significantly to the GDP of the East African states
Mission To provide artists, artisans and creative enterprises in the fashion and accessories design, film and music industries, with technical and business development skills to enable them become successful in the marketplace CDEA’s Creative Economy Incubator Services 1. Proving technical and business skills development for selected incubatees from Uganda and Tanzania 2. Providing platforms to market creative enterprises and services 3. Mobilizing stakeholders for the annual Mashariki Creative Economy Impact Investment Conference 4. Documentation of the activities of CDEA’s Creative Economy Incubator However, a key obstacle of implementing this project was the license fee of TZS 1,500,000 paid to BASATA each time a group of Ugandan artists and cultural service providers entered Tanzania for the incubator capacity building activities in Dar es Salaam. This Non-tariff Barrier to trade (NTB) , is unique mechanism for Tanzania since other EAC partner states do not require East African artists or creative service providers to pay for an entry permit. In addition, the project had no collaboration agreement with Ministry of East African Cooperation (MEAC) of Tanzania that would have enhanced the implementation the IIDEA project. 3.0 Challenges • The current cultural policy of Tanzania (1997) has a national focus and does not provide a clause for mobility of artists and creative professionals to engage in cultural exchange and capacity building activities within the East African Community • The EAC members states have not yet scheduled the Recreational, Cultural and Sporting Services for liberalization under the Common Market Protocol (CMP) where the project would have been situated • The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) passed the EAC Creative and Culture Industries Bill; however it has not yet been assented into an Act of Parliament. • BASATA’s strategic plan 2014-2017, does not recognize the East African Common Market as an opportunity of sourcing creative professionals that can provide services to improve the quality of art works and crafts of Tanzania • There is no preferential treatment by BASATA for East African artists and creative service providers when it comes to crossing borders for cultural exchange and capacity development activities • CDEA did not have a collaboration agreement with the Ministry of East African Cooperation (MEAC) of Tanzania that would have enhanced the implementation the IIDEA project 4.0 Policy recommendations • The new Tanzania National Arts Policy that is being drafted should provide a clause for cultural development within the East African Community • The EAC member states should involve arts and culture civil society organizations and creative entrepreneurs in discussions before the commencement negotiations for the liberalization of the next five sub-sectors, which include the Recreational, Cultural and Sporting Services subsector under the Common Market Protocol (CMP) • EAC Partner states should assent the EAC Creative and Culture Industries Bill; into an Act of Parliament
• BASATA’s new Strategic plan could consider including the East African Common Market as an opportunity of sourcing creative professionals that can provide services to improve the quality the art works and crafts of Tanzania • For Tanzania, in the absence of EAC Creative and Culture Industries Act, BASATA could consider offering preferential treatment for East African artists and creative service providers entering Tanzania to provide educational services in the spirit of regional integration • Need for the IIDEA projects to be well anchored within the ministries responsible for East African cooperation in member states
5.0 References EAC website, http://www.eac.int/sectors/culture-and-sports EAC. The East African Community Common Market Schedule of Commitments on the Progressive Liberalization of Services (Annex V). EAC Secretariat, November 2009, p. 13 European Commission, (2012). 10th EDF Support to Culture in Tanzania – Support to Non-State-Actors in the Cultural and Creative Industries, Guidelines for grant applicants
Gastorn, K, https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/2363-6270-2015-2-199 , January 18, 2015 KEPSA (2017), ‘Policy Brief: Enhancing Kenya’s Trade in Services’ UNESCO (2005) Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions: Paris TPSF/ITC: ‘The East African Common Market: Services Chapter’, Training programming on Free Movement of Workers, 5-6 November, 2016 Wiesand, Andreas / ERICarts Institute (2008) : Mobility Matters – Programmes and Schemes to Support the Mobility of Artists and Cultural Professionals. A Study for the European Commission, Directorate-General for Education and Culture. Bonn: ERICarts Institute.
For more information : Ayeta Anne Wangusa Executive Director CDEA-Culture and Development East Africa, Plot No. 421, Nyumba Na.1001, Mikocheni B, P.O.Box 13355,Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Phone +255 22 2780087; Tel : +255 784856866 Email : Ayeta.Wangusa@cdea.or.tz Ayeta_Wangusa@yahoo.com Cdea.Tanzania@yahoo.com