On 18 May 2023, a new regulation to operationalize a National Endowment Fund for Arts and Culture was signed by Hon. Hamat N.K. Bah, Minister of Culture and Tourism of The Gambia. The regulation will serve to enhance funding of artistic and cultural programmes in the country. The initiative was supported by the UNESCO-Aschberg programme, which aims to protect and promote artistic freedom, the status of artists and cultural professionals, and to facilitate a balanced flow of cultural goods and services.
The regulation was drafted through a participatory process coordinated by the National Centre for Arts and Culture as part of a UNESCO project for the improvement of the status of Gambian artists and cultural professionals, with a particular focus on gender equality. On the occasion of the signing ceremony, which also served as the closing of the project, Hon Hamat N.K. Bah said “The regulation which I have signed is a great milestone in the annals of arts and culture funding in The Gambia. We have finally delivered our long-suffering artists a window of funding for artistic programmes to support them for the sake of jobs, and economic upliftment”. The project benefitted from the technical assistance of Ms Ojoma Ochai, member of the EU/UNESCO Expert Facility, and Mr Abdoulie Colley, national expert from The Gambia.
During the ceremony, Minister Hamat N.K. Bah presented certificates to women artists who participated in capacity-building activities. Throughout 2023, one hundred women cultural professionals acquired knowledge about economic and labour rights of artists, fair contracts, intellectual property, resources mobilization, and protection from gender-based violence.
The event also launched a new report entitled “The Status of Women Artists and Cultural Professionals in The Gambia” featuring key data gathered from a sample of 487 women artists and cultural professionals. The participants reported on their employment status, income, internet use and education, as well as elaborated on their income-related capabilities, access to opportunities, recognition and networking, state of gender equality including pay gaps, and work-related harassment and censorship. The report, produced by Mr Abdoulie Colley and Ms Yarri Kamara, member of the EU/UNESCO Expert Facility, contributes to evidence-based policymaking towards an enhanced social and economic status of cultural professionals.
The report has found that:
- 70% of women cultural professionals use the internet for their work, nearly twice the internet usage reported by the general public (37%) in 2020. Nearly 40% of these women use the internet for publicity and advertising and 17% for online sales and content monetisation.
- Grants or loans are a crucial enabler of artistic projects, particularly in the early stages of cultural entities. However, only 14% of women cultural professionals report having accessed such funding for themselves or the organizations they lead.
- Knowledge concerning copyright and trademark protection, contracts, and export can help artists identify and harness income-generating opportunities. Today, the majority of Gambian women cultural professionals have little experience in these realms.
The National Centre for Arts and Culture is leading The Gambia’s efforts to address these gaps. The National Endowment Fund for Arts and Culture will complement the ongoing process by prioritizing women’s access to funding.
The Gambia is one of 12 Member States supported by the UNESCO-Aschberg programme in 2022-2023, alongside Cabo Verde, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Palestine, Peru, Romania, Seychelles, Tunisia and Uganda. The UNESCO-Aschberg programme aims to support the design of new regulatory frameworks to protect and promote artistic freedom and the status of artists and cultural professionals. UNESCO would like to thank the Kingdom of Norway for its generous support to the UNESCO-Aschberg programme which makes this technical assistance possible.
