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After two and a half days (May 13-15, 2012) of strategizing, discussions and networking, 170 participants from around the Arab world united on the importance of investing in the creative industry, a promising sector that is rather under developed in the region.

Gathered under the flagship of the European Union National Institutes of Culture (EUNIC), the “Euromed forum for creative industries and society, 2012” is a pioneering initiative funded by the European Union and organized by the EUNIC cluster in Jordan.

A new interactive technique called the “open space” was put to the test: participants chose the topics of discussions, time and place – it is a genuine open invitation for participants to freely choose to enroll in the session that compels them the most and can leave whenever they want to. Moreover, during this Forum the participants were asked to define the outlines of a future EUNIC MENA long-term project dedicated to support the arts and the creative industries.

Lebanon was represented by a delegation led by the President of EUNIC in Lebanon Dr. Dan Stoenescu, First Secretary of the Romanian Embassy and Representative of the Romanian Cultural Institute, included delegates of the British Council and the Institut Français du Liban, as well as representatives of civil society and cultural actors such as Maqamat Dance Theatre, Dar Onboz Publishing House, The Visual and Performing Arts Association (VAPA), Youth & Culture Center (YCC) Zouk Mikaël, Safadi Cultural Centre/German Dialogpunkt in Tripoli, Zoukak Theatre Company and Cultural Association, Lebanon Development Union (LDU), Berytech, Agenda Culturel magazine and Metropolis.

The participants issued a series of recommendations aiming to regulate and promote creative industries such as pushing for clearer and more transparent cultural governmental policies. They noted that there is a great need for management skills in all sectors of cultural art, as well as for human and material resources. They highlighted the role of cultural entrepreneurs in re-defining cultural policies and engaging the private sector and decision-makers in the Arab world. Furthermore, the participants called on culture ministries in the MENA region to give more attention to this sector and for relevant authorities to support creative producers based on the quality of their work.

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Lebanese civil society and cultural actors will participate, between the 13 and 15 of May 2012, in the Euro-Mediterranean Forum on Creative Industries and Society, organised at the Dead Sea, in Jordan, by the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC). The event is the launch pad of a long-term EUNIC Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Project which will address Democratic Empowerment, Cultural Policy and Creative Economy. The aim is to support the creative sector in the MENA region to redefine cultural policies that respond to the changing socio-political context in the region, to demonstrate the potential of the creative industries, to increase and reshape the scope of cultural exchanges and to strengthen of competitiveness of the sector.

One of the main objectives of the Forum is offering the actors of cultural and civil societies in the region a possibility to meet in order to create a cross-border network. The Forum also aims at gathering the expectations of cultural and civil society partners in order to conceptualise the structure of the long-term EUNIC MENA Project. The Forum is organised, logistically, by EUNIC in collaboration with Al-Rai Center for Studies. The EU Delegation to Jordan is financially supporting the project while the EU Delegation to Lebanon supports some of the representatives of the Lebanese NGOs, additional funds are provided by EUNIC Members.

The event will be attended for the first time by more than 250 representatives of the Creative Industries – cultural operators, artists, NGOs, cultural organisations and institutions, public authorities, EU institutions as well as EUNIC members from the MENA region (Algeria, Egypt,Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia) and the EU. The participants’ fields of expertise include the whole creative sector: Advertising; Architecture; Crafts; Cultural Heritage; Design; Educational and Leisure Software; Fashion; Film, Video and Audiovisual Production; Literature, Libraries and Publishing; Music; Performing Arts and Entertainment; Television, Radio and Internet Broadcasting; Visual Arts. Creative industries not only contribute significantly to the GDP but also they are growing faster than most sectors of the economy and also generating new jobs twice as fast. The forum aims to help policymakers and creative practitioners understand the creative industries better, to identify the needs and suggest ways in which they might be addressed. It should also encourage politicians in the Arab World to take the sector seriously and to develop policies to push the creative industries agenda forward.

The Lebanese delegation, which is led by the President of EUNIC in Lebanon Dr. Dan Stoenescu, First Secretary of the Romanian Embassy and Representative of the Romanian Cultural Institute, will include delegates of the British Council and of the Institut Français du Liban, as well as representatives of civil society and cultural actors such as Maqamat Dance Theatre, Dar Onboz Publishing House, The Visual and Performing Arts Association (VAPA), Youth & Culture Center (YCC) Zouk Mikaël, Safadi Cultural Centre/German Dialogpunkt in Tripoli, Zoukak Theatre Company and Cultural Association, Lebanon Development Union (LDU), Agenda Culturel magazine and Metropolis. The participation of Lebanese NGOs in this event will offer them the opportunity to network and share their know-how and cultural expertise to the emerging civil societies in the region, especially following the ”Arab Spring”.

Background:
EUNIC, the European Union National Institutes for Culture, aims at establishing partnerships and networks amongst the European cultural institutes in any one country. In Lebanon, the formation of such a network seeks to better coordinate the activities between the European Cultural centres, organise joint initiatives, and respond collectively to European open calls for proposals in order to benefit from additional cultural funding. The members of the Lebanese cluster of EUNIC are – The British Council, the Goethe Institut, the Romanian Cultural Institute, the Instituto Italiano di Cultura, Instituto Cervantes, the Danish Cultural Institute and the Institut Français du Liban.

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LDU is dedicated to invest in the Lebanese civil society development by creating a dynamic platform that unites efforts to bolster women and youth empowerment, foster economic and social entrepreneurship, promote migrants’ empowerment and support education and cultural initiatives.

LDU’s point of strength has been sustainable development through cultural initiatives whether by supporting young artists, building their capacity and offering them venues of interaction with audiences and producing their events, or by promoting the dialogue of cultures and conflict resolution through cultural exchanges.

Another area of intervention is spreading awareness on intellectual property rights and helping young artists benefit from existing laws and mechanisms. Furthermore, we have been working with at-risk-youth groups and delinquents to extract them from the streets and channel their energy and potential towards civic engagement and self-development.

On women’s empowerment, we have conducted so far 3 training courses on Microsoft and Internet use for disadvantaged women. The trainings were turning points in those women’s lives as it opened professional opportunities for those who were unemployed and empowered those who already have a job. So far, 55 women benefited from these trainings and we look forward to take this program to different areas of Lebanon. In addition to this, we are currently working on launching a social media training designed to promote women home businesses.

Youth wise, in addition to our work on empowering and supporting young talents, we are about to launch a citizen journalism program which promotes the mobilization and empowerment of civil society activists for inclusion and citizenship by training a cross-confessional group of university students (undergraduates) from throughout Lebanon on citizen-journalism designed to increase their awareness and involvement in public issues related to local governments and governance, gender and women issues, and sustainable development with a focus on environmental issues.

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Thursday, April 12, 2012. LDU, in collaboration with YCC – Zouk Mikael and Microsoft graduated a third class of students through the program “Women and Technology”. The intensive training course on Microsoft Office basic programs lasted 12 weeks and aims to help these women to develop their skills to use information technology both at work and in their daily lives.

During the ceremony held at the Youth and Culture Center of the Municipality of Zouk Mikael, the secretary general of LDU, Ms. Crystel el Chayeb affirmed the importance of “the role of civil society which is perhaps the only initiator investing a part of its potential in Kesserwan”, noting the “role of promoter of the local community and municipalities, including that of Zouk Mikael, a pioneer in this field in its quest to ensure the well-being of its inhabitants”. Ms. Chayeb stressed that LDU launched the first training session of this program in 2010 in view of promoting sustainable development which, contrary to what is circulating among donor and development agencies in Lebanon, does not touch the region of Kesserwan, which still suffers from deprivation at many levels.

Ms. Chayeb explained that “the main objective of these sessions is to create job opportunities and empower women in the companies where they work, and this, because we believe in the importance of individual initiative in the absence of the role of the state “. She stressed also on the value of the program that has “benefited over 2000 women in the Arab world”. Ms. Chayeb also thanked Microsoft for its “moral and material support that enabled the establishment of these learning sessions and allowed new opportunities for adopters of new technologies which facilitate the work of the individual both professionally and personally”. The certificates were then distributed to the women who participated in the sessions.

The participants presented their testimonies and highlighted the changes this program has brought into their professional life. French language teacher, Claire Maatouk, noted that she has benefited from the use of computers which facilitated her communication with the school administration and her students; “now I spend less time in researching for new materials on the Internet and preparing for lessons and exams”. Rita Ofeich also thanked LDU and Microsoft for helping her to restore her self-confidence by obtaining her first degree: “I feel I can continue my studies and the program “Women in Technology” has helped me to receive a promotion at work”.