CULTURAL STATISTICS SURVEY REPORT UNVEILED

It is here.  HIFA? NOOOO.  Winter?  Well almost, we can feel the bite but still NOOOO. On Tuesday, 16 April 2013 over a hundred cultural practitioners gathered for the presentation of the Cultural Statistics Survey Report at the Rainbow Towers.  The survey which was conducted in October 2012 covered the areas of Harare, Chitungwiza, Norton, Ruwa and Epworth, so if you filled in one of those long winding questionnaires your efforts did not go in vain.

 A first of it’s kind in Zimbabwe, the exercise was the brainchild of Culture Fund in partnership with ZIMSTAT and supported by the UNESCO International Fund for Cultural Diversity.  A follow up to the Culture Fund Baseline Study on the Culture Sector in Zimbabwe of March 2009, the main objective of the project was to sensitize policy makers and investors to the results of the findings on the contributions of the cultural industries to the economy.  The size of the sample is however inadequate to determine the national economic contribution of cultural industries to the national GDP but serves as an indicator and starting point towards a national survey in the future.

 Director of Culture Fund Zimbabwe, Farai Mpfunya addresses delegates, Rainbow Towers

Guest of Honour, Prof Luc Rukingama who is the UNESCO Harare Cluster Office Director, spoke of the importance of having in depth knowledge of the cultural industries in Zimbabwe so as to understand how they operate and how much they are contributing to the national economy.  He echoed what the Director General of ZIMSTAT, Mr M Dzinotizei had said earlier in his opening speech that “to be informed is to be empowered.”  The information contained in this report is not only relevant to the policy makers but also to artists, cultural houses and investors as an indication of how they can fully tap into the development of the arts in Zimbabwe.

 Nyanduri Tinashe Muchuri performing his poem, “Zvokwedu”

The report which was hailed by many as a starting point and a step in the right direction was not without shortfalls as the project had followed UNESCO Framework for Cultural Statistics (FCS) template of 2009. It was noted that the template had “various limitations at implementation level and there was need to domesticate the template in order to embrace a more inclusive regime of downstream economic activities,” according to the observations and recommendation of the survey’s technical team presented by Ms Roseline Chirume of ZIMURA .  A number of issues were highlighted which will hopefully be improved by the time the national cultural statistic survey is conducted.

 Director of the National Arts Council, Mr Elvas Mare makes a contribution during the general discussion

 Farai Mpfunya , Director of the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe indicated that there is a possibility of further meetings to discuss the findings of the report in the course of the year and interested stakeholders should be on the look-out for those meetings.

Batsirai E Chigama