NGOs and Civil Society

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.

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.

The orange economy contributes to creating approximately 30 million jobs in the world. During the COVID-19 crisis, arts and creative activities have helped support people in isolation and confinement. This thematic note brings in several concrete examples of projects that have used the creative sectors to support job creation. It discusses five main types of interventions: nurturing human capital, providing access to finance, expanding access to markets, building networks and clusters, and harnessing digital technology to support the sector.