|
|
Transcultura strengthens capacities to boost the creative ventures of 17 young women entrepreneurs in the Caribbean |
|
|
|
|
| |
7 July 2023/ UNESCO Havana
Women entrepreneurs from Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago participated in a 14-day intensive entrepreneurial training and mentoring programme, promoted by the UNESCO programme Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity, funded by the European Union.
The initiative was launched in May 2023 seeking to provide young women aged between 18 and 35 with the skills and knowledge required to build stronger and sustainable businesses in the cultural and creative industries sector in the Caribbean.
The participants were selected from over 100 applications in view of their innovative ideas and growth potential in sectors representing a wide range of creative fields, such as visual arts, crafts, fashion design, cultural services, cinema and literature.
The training was articulated in interactive workshops and individual tutorials with experienced professionals and sector specialists from the region. Among the topics covered were business value creation, costing and pricing, marketing and branding through the social media, intellectual property protection and digital strategies for testing and validating entrepreneurial ideas.
Lovely Bienvil, entrepreneur from Haiti, highlighted the usefulness of the training in promoting her crafts cooperative.
"This programme has been very instructive. I will share the knowledge I have gained with other members of my team. In so doing, I will be able to inspire other women and make a positive impact in my community."
Lovely Bienvil (Haiti)
Not only did participants acquire knowledge on entrepreneurial development, they also had the opportunity to share this training space with other creative women entrepreneurs. The programme stressed the importance of creating a strong support network and encouraged women to collaborate towards overcoming challenges and leveraging synergies in their respective sectors.
In this regard, Gabriela Chapman, a young professional from Guyana with a project to create a digital creative content platform, stated:
"These new relationships can bring new resources, knowledge and distribution channels into my business, thereby enabling me to reach a larger target audience."
Gabriela Chapman (Guyana)
By supporting young women entrepreneurs in the region, Transcultura not only strengthens their individual projects, but also contributes to create a more prosperous and egalitarian cultural and creative ecosystem for the region. Gender equality is one of the programme's cross-cutting lines of action, ensuring gender parity in all its activities and through the development of specific initiatives such as this acceleration programme. To date, out of the more than 1,000 young beneficiaries of the programme, 53% are women.
|
| |
Related Link(s): Cultural Industries, Cultural Diversity, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
, Cultural Policies, Culture and Development |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Top
