C2D Culture – Developing cultural and creative industries in Côte d’Ivoire

CCIs represent a key sector for the socio-economic development of Côte d’Ivoire. They are a significant source of job creation, particularly for young people, as CCIs offer them the opportunity to express their creativity and stimulate innovative ideas. They are also powerful means of promoting intercultural and intergenerational dialogue and of contributing to social cohesion.

The 3^rd Debt Reduction-Development Agreement (C2D) between France and Côte d’Ivoire includes culture for the first time, in line with the government’s priorities to position Côte d’Ivoire as a hub for CCIs.

It’s against this backdrop that the C2D Culture project was designed with the two main objectives of:

• refurbishing the Jacques Aka Cultural Centre in Bouaké; and
• developing three promising sectors: fashion and design, film and the audiovisual sector, and music.

As key players in CCIs, cultural entrepreneurs play an important role within the C2D Culture project. That’s why three support programmes, brought together under the “Créative.ci” brand, will target 300 entrepreneurs, particularly those in the fashion and design, film and audiovisual, and music sectors.

1. Bootcamps and incubation programmes are being developed for young people – be they students about to start their own business or already in business – to raise their awareness of the opportunities offered by CCIs and to help them structure their entrepreneurial activity. Some of these programmes will target entrepreneurs and students in Bouaké specifically, given the project’s strong ties to the city through the Jacques Aka Cultural Centre.
2. Next, the “Creative Labs” (training programmes designed for each of the three sectors) will help professionals strengthen their entrepreneurial skills and technical expertise. These training programmes will focus on jobs suffering from a shortage of skilled workers, including music managers, directors of photography (in the cinema and audiovisual fields) and branding and marketing specialists (in fashion and design).
3. Finally, an accelerated pathway will be dedicated to 12 already established SMEs in creative fields, to help them raise their development to the next level.

The private sector and public partners are involved in the consultation process to ensure that the skills developed are in line with the needs of the job market. 

To round out its support for CCI development, Expertise France is helping to implement public-service programmes of the Ivorian Ministry of Culture and Francophonie in the music and film sectors by providing support to two of its agencies: the Ivorian Copyright Office (BURIDA) and Côte d’Ivoire Cinéma.

Support for BURIDA will focus on digitising 26,000 musical works from its catalogue, and on promoting digitisation amongst artists and their rights holders.

Meanwhile, our work with Côte d’Ivoire Cinéma will focus on communication activities and the collection of data from box-office sales and video-on-demand providers.

Gender issues are systematically mainstreamed into the C2D Culture project to empower women so that they are not merely beneficiaries, but also key actors in cultural development. This cross-cutting approach to gender strengthens social cohesion and enriches cultural diversity.

This approach will involve:

• promoting gender equality and inclusion;
• building women’s capacity and empowering them;
• raising awareness and changing perceptions; and
• strengthening cultural policies relating to gender.