The Cultural and
Creative Industries (CCIs) in Africa have the potential to contribute
significantly to GDP and boost socio-economic development by providing diverse
employment opportunities for Africans if the adequate amount of resources are
allocated to the sector. In countries and regions where investments have been
made in CCI’s, economies have witnessed significant earnings. For example, in
the USA, the creative sector contributes US$ 800 billion per annum and globally
the CCIs generate annual global revenues of up to US$ 2,250 billion.
The potential for
employment and growth in CCI’s is further supported by the low barriers to
entry in traditional creative sectors due to the use of local materials,
knowledge, skills, and technologies; hence there is a positive bearing on
inter-sectoral growth in its provision for market opportunities for a wide
variety of goods and services available at the local level. Furthermore,
cultural products are expressed not only in terms of material goods and
services but they also embody values, sentiments, beliefs, world views and
individual as well as collective memories which can be packaged and marketed
commercially to various audiences.
Through the
declaration of 2021 as the Year of the Arts, Culture and Heritage, the African
Union (AU) recognises the potential for the CCIs to promote unity in society,
as well as hasten the process of restructuring and growing economies through
the creative sector. The Theme also calls to the fore the need for commitment
by policy makers to create an enabling environment for investment in the
development of cultural industries including allocating the necessary and
adequate resources, legislative action, and implementing policies and
programmes aimed at establishing a more robust and sustainable creative
industries sector.
The growth and
development of the Creative Economy on the continent has not only been hampered
by inadequate investment, the sector has also been stifled by graft and other
corrupt practices. From the colonial era, corruption in the creative industry
has been witnessed as African artworks and artefacts were taken out of Africa
before, during and after colonisation, to modern day graft where artists
continually lose their earnings through misappropriation of royalties,
diversion of funds earmarked for the sector, copyright fraud, piracy of
intellectual work, and bribery and exploitation of cultures such as gift-giving
to advance corruption. Corruption has also led to the flooding of the African
market with harmful alien cultural products that have a destructive effect on
national cultural identities. Cases of graft have also been registered where
African cultural products have been fraudulently shipped to developed countries
from where the products are re-exported to Africa and traded as foreign goods.
The existence of corruption in the arts, culture and heritage sector, in either
small or large scale trends, calls for refocused efforts, adoption of legal,
institutional and practical measures to sustainably stem graft in the industry.
The existence of legislation must be fully supported with strong enforcement.
The African Union Convention
on Preventing and Combating Corruption, offers practical
recommendations and credible response to stem the culture of impunity and
corruption for a political, social, economic and cultural stability. The
Convention acts as a guiding framework for the work of the African Union
Advisory Board on Corruption (AUABC) which is at the forefront of working with
key stakeholders and CCIs players to address issues of graft in the creative
sector both within and outside the continent.
The Common African Position on Asset Recovery.
Cultural
industries produce commercial value, have artistic value, bear aesthetic
content and have educational principles. These benefits have always been
exploited internally within the continent and outside the continent. For that
reason, many African countries continue to face numerous internal and external
obstacles in recovering stolen assets. Internal challenges have been cited as
the absence of comprehensive policies, lack of technical capacity and
ineffective inter-agency cooperation. Externally, the absence of uniform asset
recovery frameworks between jurisdictions, presence of tax havens and secrecy
jurisdictions, the skewed nature of international financial system, the use of
anonymous companies and the insistence on unduly laborious technicalities and
conditionalities in the recovery process continue to hamper asset recovery
efforts.
Asset recovery is the
process by which the proceeds of corruption and related offences and/or crimes
are identified, recovered and returned to the country of origin. It is an
important aspect of the anti-corruption chain as it ensures that stolen assets are
seized and return to their legitimate owners. Despite the presence of numerous
asset recovery frameworks and tools, progress on asset recovery especially
within Africa has been unsatisfactory.
In response to the
existing and emerging challenges, African states have taken a number of
measures to enhance asset recovery. At the normative level, the African Union
Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption requires States Parties to
provide each other with the greatest possible technical cooperation and
assistance in dealing with requests for cooperation. States parties are also
encouraged to take legislative measures to prevent corrupt public officials
from enjoying ill-acquired assets by freezing their foreign accounts and
facilitating the repatriation of stolen or illegally acquired monies to the
countries of origin. Advocating for destination countries to remove barriers to
asset recovery and return, including by simplifying their legal procedures and
preventing abuse of those procedures. The Common African Position
on Asset Recovery (CAPAR), sets out the recommended measures
and actions required to effectively address the continuous loss of African
assets and to effectively identify, recover and manage African assets that are
in, or recovered from, foreign jurisdictions, in a manner that respects the
development priorities and sovereignty of Member States.
The CAPAR is a
well-placed instrument in the continuation of the pursuit of African artworks
and artefacts that were taken out of Africa before, during and after
colonisation, to prioritise their return in a manner that ensures the
preservation and use of the artefacts for the maximum benefit of source
countries.
The policies, together
with other existing Treaties promoting good
governance, will be relevant to address issues of “Proceeds of
Crime” as defined in Article 1 of the African Union Convention on Preventing
and Combating Corruption; and assets as referred to in the High Level Panel on
Illicit Financial Flows Report, as resources from abusive transfer pricing,
trade mis-invoicing, tax evasion, aggressive tax avoidance and double taxation,
money laundering, smuggling, trafficking, and abuse of entrusted power.
Using the creative sector to
fight graft.
Africa’s population
provides a ready market and unexploited market as both the creators and
consumers of cultural and recreational products. For African youth in
particular, the creative economy has the power to influence and inspire present
and future generations to fight graft and therefore contribute to a more
sustainable development path. The growing influence of youth in the CCIs is
witnessed by the liberalisation and widespread adoption of democracy and good
governance trends that allow for freedom of expression, respect of human and
people’s rights, the formation of social and economic groupings, the breaking
down of the ideological barriers, as well as the expansion of new technologies
which ease the flow of ideas, opinions, information and movement of cultural
goods and services.
Over the years, the
trend of creativity in preventing and combatting corruption has risen. Across
the continent, renowned musicians, poets, comedians, cartoonists, writers,
performing artists and film makers, have undertaken sensitisation campaigns on
good governance across all spheres of the society to advance the narrative and
cause of action against corruption. The AUABC will continue to strengthen
collaboration with stakeholders in the CCIs and policy makers to build on
existing frameworks and develop strategies to encourage Africans on the
continent and in the diaspora to support the fight against corruption. Relatedly,
this will be relevant in rallying for the implementation of policies that allow
for witness protection for whistle-blowers. Through these efforts, best
practices, experiences and progress in the fight against graft will also be
prioritised.
With adequate
investment, functional and efficient institutional as well as human resource
capacity, the AUABC is certain that preventing and combatting corruption in the
creative industries can be realised to support the endless opportunities for
creative content generation and production, increased capacity for distribution
and promotion and, more importantly the fact that every consumer or artist can
become a creator of cultural values and products. New information technologies
potentially can increase dialogue and communication between cultures and
enhance respect for cultural diversity hence allowing for its expression thus
the Creative Economy and industries can support sustainable economic growth.
Source: Directorate of Information
and Communication, African Union Commission
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