These cultural expressions are described as cultural goods, products or services linked to different productive and tradable sectors, such as the publishing industry, film industry, TV industry, radio industry, recording industry, content for digital devices industry, independent music production, independent audio-visual production, Web contents, electronic games industry, and contents produced for cross media.
The cultural or content industries, as this sector is generally known, are transforming the global map thanks to the impact of the national economies of underdeveloped and developing countries. They are equally valuable given their value as an essential vehicle for the transmission of contents favouring dialogue and social cohesion. The value of creativity, innovation and culture as a means for the transmission of knowledge are key to understanding the Convention. This is the most recent convention in the field of culture and until now has been ratified by 135 countries. Aside from its concretion in promoting the diversity of cultural expressions, the Convention encourages governments to establish cultural policies at the international level with a spirit of commitment. In this respect, technological convergence, access to information technologies, freedom of expression, gender equality, opening and balance with respect to other cultures as well as their goods, products and cultural services, and in general, sustainable development, are the core elements on which the actions and programmes promoted by the Convention are based.
UNESCO and SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) signed in November 2014 a Programme Cooperation Agreement for 2014-2017. The agreement includes a project at the international and local levels aimed at implementing actions that will contribute to a more effective implementation of the 2005 Convention. Specifically, the project establishes a series of capacity-building actions for States Parties on the elaboration of Quadrennial Periodic Reports. Cuba is one of the countries selected to implement the project, scheduled to begin in September of the present year. The project, entitled
Capacity-building on periodic reporting for the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, foresees the capacity building of public institution representatives, cultural managers and artists in the elaboration of the Quadrennial Periodic Report of the 2005 Convention that Cuba should submit to the Intergovernmental Committee of the Convention in April 2016. The project is being jointly implemented by the UNESCO Office in Havana, the Ministry of Culture and the Cuban National Commission for UNESCO.
The UNESCO Office in Havana also develops other actions for the promotion and protection of cultural expressions. Worthy of note is the
Cameras of Diversity project, implemented since 2004, which is centred on the promotion, creation, production, distribution and access to audio-visuals with a local content. This project presently focuses on the promotion of the film industry and the audio-visual in the Caribbean.
Likewise, the Office has been developing for two years a national programme in Cuba and in the Dominican Republic on the
Use of cultural tools for job generation. This programme includes the development of capacity-building actions on the management of cultural resources based on all pertinent UNESCO conventions, in particular, the 2005 Convention, through the creation of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (PYME) linked to the sector, especially designed for young people and women. In the case of Cuba, an initial action has been designed aimed at elaborating a
Capacity-building handbook on the creation and development of cultural entrepreneurial initiatives. In the Dominican Republic, the Office is working together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in developing a programme with several phased actions in order to improve the capacity of local governments to promote creative industries with a human rights approach and to generate jobs, especially among young people and women.
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