06 Nov 2013

The principal assistant district officer in Kanye,  Kabelo Tshekiso has said that in 2005, the UNESCO conference adopted the convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions.

Speaking at a sensitisation workshop in Kanye recently, Tshekiso stated that the main objective of the convention was to create an enabling environment where artists, cultural professionals, practitioners and citizens worldwide can create, produce, distribute, disseminate and enjoy a broad range of cultural goods, services and activities.

Tshekiso said the convention calls for cultural policies to nurture creativity, to provide access to creators to participate in domestic and international market places and ensure that artistic works are accessible to the wide public.

“According to the 2005 convention, cultural expressions are those expressions that result from the creativity of individuals, groups and societies, and that have the cultural content”, he said.

He said the rationale statement for the National Policy on culture recommended an enabling cultural environment that provided scope for stimulating and harnessing the creative energies of people, and youth of the nation through the provision of facilities and services for cultural self-expressions and fulfillment of their leisure time and to earn a living. 

Tshekiso said Botswana was working on the economic diversification drive, poverty eradication and others, adding that if they ratify and implement this convention, it would be instrumental in creating new industries and hence reduce unemployment and poverty. He further said the Department of Arts and Culture has a number of projects and programmes that already enable the development of cultural expressions. ENDS