NIAMEY (IDN | ACP) – Senior Technical Officials of some 50+ ACP countries will meet over the next two days at the Palais de Congrès in Niamey, Niger to prepare for the 5th Meeting of ACP Ministers of Culture and assess the implementation of the 32 commitments made at the 4th ACP Ministerial Meeting in Brussels, Belgium in November 2017.
“Strengthening and Diversifying Partnerships for ACP Cultures” is the main theme of the meeting from October 17-20. The meeting also aims to explore viable financing mechanisms for culture and reach a strong ACP Group position on culture’s contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Senior Technical Officials will exchange views on different models of regional and institutional partnerships. The conclusions of their deliberations will be discussed at the Ministerial Meeting following which they will be documented in the Declaration of Niamey, which will be adopted at the end of the ministerial meeting.
Speaking of the ACP Group’s longstanding engagement with the cultural industries during the Opening Ceremony of the Senior Technical Meeting, ACP Assistant Secretary General (ASG), Léonard-Emile Ognimba highlighted the role of culture in sustainable development, income generation, poverty alleviation and job creation, commenting, “…In Brussels, our ministers recognised the central role of culture as a factor of economic growth and of sustainable human development, thereby inscribing itself in a perspective which advances the intrinsic relationship which exists between culture and development, a factor of peace, of social cohesion and of national solidarity.”
Minister in Charge of Cultural Renaissance, Arts and Social Modernization, Niger, Assoumana Malam Issa, in a recent press conference on the Meeting, underlined the importance of culture to local development, “In Niger, we have made the cultural Renaissance… the first axis of the Renaissance programme for economic and social development. We should therefore give culture its importance, as have practically all developed countries, and make it the pillar by which we will achieve the triple modernisation which is the goal of the cultural Renaissance: social, political and economic modernisation”. In his presentation at the Opening of the Meeting of Senior Officials, the Minister reinforced his statements while thanking the ACP Group for giving Niger the honour of hosting the meeting, “This choice… is an honour and comforts us especially in our quest to make culture a trampoline for social, political and economic modernisation in our country.”
5th Ministerial Meeting of ACP Ministers of Culture
Minister Assoumana Malam Issa and ASG Ognimba will be among the high-level speakers at the Official Opening Ceremony of the 5th Ministerial Meeting which will take place from October 19-20 during which the Ministers will review the report of the Senior Officials. The meeting will also include three interactive panels on the topics of Finance, Climate and South-South Cooperation.
A concert, a fashion show, a free exhibition of Tuareg jewellery at the Boubou Hamma National Museum and the launch of the new EUR40 million ACP-European Union programme, titled: “ACP-EU Culture – towards a sustainable cultural industry” are among the side events scheduled to take place in the margins of the Ministerial meeting. [IDN-InDepthNews, 17 October 2019]
Photo: ACP Group’s ministers of culture. Credit: ACP.
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