Nurturing Human Capital

The cultural and creative industries are among the most rapidly growing economic sectors. They generate almost 50 million jobs worldwide and offer employment for women and youth. Apart from their economic value, CCIs create identity, bring people into dialogue, and contribute to democracy. To nurture this potential, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) launched a supra-regional project that focuses on cultural and creative work as a vehicle for sustainable development.

Since 2018, the German Federal Ministry for  Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has been promoting the sector cultural and creative industries (CCI) through its implementing organisations Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale  Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Goethe-Institut. This future oriented sector offers important levers for the implementation of a feminist development policy, which is a priority of the BMZ. Almost half of employees in the CCI sector are women but they often work under precarious conditions.

In October 2018, the South African government held a high-profile Jobs Summit. In addition to acknowledging the challenges of the high South African unemployment rates overall, President Ramaphosa mentioned the importance of job creation for youth (15 – 34 years old) and women specifically. Statistics South Africa Quarterly Labour Force Survey (2018) showed that unemployment rates amongst young people have reached 39.3%. The figure is even higher for young black African women who are attempting to enter the labour market (45.9%).