2021
World Bank Group

Through their contribution to urban regeneration and sustainable urban development, cultural and creative industries make cities more attractive places for people to live in and for economic activity to develop. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had a deep impact on the cultural sector, yet it has also revealed the power of cultural and creative industries as a resource for city recovery and resilience. ‘Cities, Culture, and Creativity’ (CCC) provides guiding principles and a CCC Framework, developed by UNESCO and the World Bank, to support cities in unlocking the power of cultural and creative industries for sustainable urban development, city competitiveness, and social inclusion. Drawing from global studies and the experiences of nine diverse cities from across the world, the CCC Framework offers concrete guidance for the range of actors  to harness culture and creativity with a view to boosting their local creative economies and building resilient, inclusive, and dynamic cities.

Global
Report
2021
ILO

Workers in the cultural and creative sector (CCS) are involved in a wide range of jobs and activities including advertising, gaming, newspapers and magazines, motion picture production, sound recording and music production, as well as live performance and radio/TV broadcasting. In 2015, UNESCO estimated that the cultural and creative sector worldwide generated US$2,250 billion in revenues. According to 2019 ILO estimates, there were nearly 180 million people employed in the arts, recreation and entertainment, representing 5.4 per cent share of global employment. Among these, over 28 million were young people.

Global
Knowledge Brief
2021
OECD

This report explores how a well-being approach can help build back better and identifies common well-being priorities for recovery. The proposed solutions include the need to: increase job and financial security of households, particularly of those most affected by the crisis; promote equality of opportunity and mitigate the scarring effects of the crisis on the most vulnerable individuals and workers, with a focus on youth, women and the low-skilled; lift the burden of poor physical and mental health; take decisive action on climate change and environmental degradation, and reinforce trust in others and public institutions as the basis for greater social cohesion in the future.

Global
Report
2021
G20

Before the pandemic, the creative economy was growing rapidly and generating new jobs in every region of the world, predicted to account up to 10 per cent of global GDP by 2030. The crisis has brought this exceptional growth to a standstill, exposing the fragility of a sector dominated by micro-businesses, informal work practices and few tangible assets. Lockdowns have also highlighted the importance of cultural and creative activity in maintaining individual well-being and community resilience. Our contention is not that the creative economy needs public subsidies to resume its previous growth. It does however require governments and multilateral organisations to recognise and address constraints and regulatory structures that have failed to keep pace with the rapid evolution of the sector. Another priority is to rebalance the glaring asymmetry between the growing power of transnational digital platforms and those who have created much of the content on which their prosperity rests.

Global
Report
2021
UNESCO

This report aims to capture the scale of the global disruption caused by the pandemic of COVID-19. It examines the economic impact and consequences of the pandemic on the cultural and creative industries, and explores digital innovations that have emerged in response to this unprecedented crisis.

Global
Report
2021
European Parliament

Cultural and creative sectors (CCS) have been hit hard by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study analyses the so far effects of the crisis on the CCS, as well as the policy responses that are formulated to support the sectors. Based on the analysis, policy recommendations are formulated to further improve the resilience of the CCS in Europe in the medium and longer term. 

Europe and Central Asia
Report
2021
Voices of Culture

This ‘Culture and the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges and Opportunities’ report results from brainstorming sessions organised as a Voices of Culture Structured Dialogue.  The Structured Dialogue framework enables communication between the European Commission and the cultural sector. Its main objective is to provide a channel for the voice of the cultural sector to be heard by EU policymakers, a voice represented by a group of expert practitioners in Europe selected through an open call. These dialogues are also intended to strengthen the advocacy capacity of the cultural sector in policy debates on culture at a European level, whilst encouraging the sector and the Commission to work in as collaborative a way as possible. It is important to stress at the very outset, that the use of ‘culture’ throughout this report is intended to be inclusive, its use embracing, at the very least, the arts, participation, creative and heritage sectors.

Global
Report
2021
UNDP

This report assesses the needs for future skills development and demand creation in Bhutan in the context of the changing nature of work, The report aims to contribute to Bhutan's future skilling strategy and share research insights on three globally implemented innovation labs: Standford’s d.school, the Harvard iLab, and the MIT Media Lab The report concludes that many of the core ingredients for future skilling and demand creation already exist in Bhutan. However, existing efforts, lack the momentum and coordination they need to thrive in the digital economy.

Global
Report
2021
World Bank Group

Building on the success of the Resilience Academy and Open Cities programs, the objective of this pilot study is to explore the feasibility of establishing a Digital Works for Urban Resilience Program, targeting local populations who have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions.

Africa
Knowledge Brief
2021
DOT

This DOT report provides an overview of DOT’s achievements and learnings in Lebanon during 2021. The report also provides a visual presentation of DOT’s achievements: more than 5,672 beneficiaries, more than 456 people with disabilities became digitally abled and more than 3,500 young girls and women entered productive employment. It concludes that while digitalization poses some challenges, it also creates opportunities to promote more inclusive and sustainable solutions to empower vulnerable youth.

Middle East and North Africa
Report
2021
OECD

Cultural and creative sectors are a significant source of jobs and income, and also generate important spillovers to the wider economy. However, the absence of internationally comparable statistics that reveal their full economic and social impacts also means that the sectors remain largely undervalued in the policy debate. As governments across the G20 reconsider growth models in the wake of COVID-19, cultural and creative sectors can be a driver in a resilient recovery. There is an opportunity for culture to play an even greater role in driving economic, social and indeed environmental outcomes. For this potential to be realised, efforts are needed not only to ensure the sector survives the COVID-19 crisis but also that these opportunities are exploited and the longer-term challenges facing the sector are addressed, from high rates of precarious employment to the structural fragility of many businesses in the sector

Global
Knowledge Brief
2021
World Bank

This paper assesses the link between human capital, emission and technological change, using OECD data on employed individuals’ cognitive skills as well as industrial emissions. The findings demonstrate that higher levels of cognitive skills are associated with employment in industries that rely less on emissions. In addition, those industries have been able over time to reduce their reliance on emissions for production. The study provides evidence that across OECD countries less emission-intensive industries require more highly skilled workers – thus investments in education are critical to better enable the uptake of green technologies.

Global
Report
2021
GIZ

These guidelines encompass steps and methods for Organisational Development (OD) support for Youth Organizations (YO) in the agribusiness sector with the goal to strengthen their self-sustaining structures, systems and service delivery. A Youth Organization (YO) in this context is defined as an organised, member-driven grouping of young people pursuing particular purposes (e.g. promotion of agribusiness for income generation and employment, public or political representation of youth agripreneurs in a region).

Africa
Knowledge Brief
2021
Youth Business International

This report is an evaluation of the actions and approaches taken over the past two decades to assist young entrepreneurs. The learnings embedded in this report demonstrate how their global approach is underpinned by human-centred design principles that are customised to the local context to optimise impact on young entrepreneurs.

Global
Report
2021
RAND

This research examines a specific aspect of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program, which is the provision of career and technical education (CTE) opportunities for program participants. The report relies on administrative data collected from all programs pertaining to their operations in 2017 and 2018, as well as interviews with select program staff in 2019. In this report, the authors highlight promising practices in CTE provision found in the literature. The report discusses implications and future considerations as more ChalleNGe sites consider introducing CTE into their programming and as more states consider establishing Job ChalleNGe, which provides post-secondary education and training to ChalleNGe graduates.

Global
Report
2021
ILO

The main objective of this guidebook is to provide policymakers, workers’ and employers’ organizations and other stakeholders with a practical tool to help them in developing viable policy options to address the many challenges of extending social protection to workers in the informal economy and facilitating transitions to formality. 

Global
Book/Chapter
2021
UNESCO

The overall economic impact, social role and status of cultural professionals involved in the film industries of the Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) remain relatively understudied. However, the film industry is recognized as one of the oldest and most developed cultural and creative industries of the region since the mid 20th century. In this context, this publication assesses the film industries of Central Asia and concerned legislation. It provides recommendations for its future development, international cooperation prospects and ways to improve the status of local culture professionals and creative entrepreneurs working in the cinema sector. It also considers funding mechanisms of cinema industries.

Europe and Central Asia
Report
2021
AFDB

This report identifies the circular economy baseline, market gaps and opportunities existing in Africa. The research findings highlight five opportunity areas to transition Africa to a circular economy development model based on a set of criteria including circularity potential, economic significance, transformative impact potential and momentum. The thematic areas identified as a result are food systems, packaging, built environment, fashion and textile, and electronics.

Africa
Report
2021
Network of European Museum Organisations

This survey was answered by 600 museums from 48 countries between 30 October and 29 November 2020, the majority coming from Europe. It follows NEMO’s initial survey, report and recommendations about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on museums from May 2020 during the first lockdown and sought to investigate the different themes that emerged in the first survey and which have been discussed in the museum community. The themes are: 1. Consequences of income (and other) losses; 2. The increased importance of digital museum offers; 3. Adapted operations and preparedness during and for crises. This report seeks to inform the community and stakeholders where the sector stands, and looks specifically at those issues, in order to develop arguments to keep museums open during the pandemic, to support them financially so that they may continue their operation and allow pace to adjust and invest in their digital offers. The findings of the survey are translated into recommendations that NEMO addresses to stakeholders at all levels. 

Europe and Central Asia
Report
2021
The World Bank

This report examines the role of the apparel industry in developing countries for women's economic empowerment. While the industry has brought more women into the formal workforce, the report argues it's not enough. It focuses on seven countries and explores how these nations can leverage the garment sector as a springboard for women's career advancement. The report emphasizes the need for additional policies to break down barriers that prevent women from reaching higher-paying jobs and staying in the workforce long-term. The goal is to move women beyond just having jobs to having fulfilling careers.

Global
Report