Africa Creatives Alliance launched to harness Africa's creative and cultural sectors

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This alliance will empower cultural and creative entrepreneurs to fully contribute to Africa’s development and integration goals.

The ACA, in collaboration with a diverse consortium of partners, including the African Union, UN-Habitat, MoTIV Africa, Inuka Ongoza Africa, Artisans of Innovation, British Council, AfriLabs, Save the Children, Innovation Village and others, officially launched at the inaugural Africa Urban Forum.

This landmark event represents a stride in leveraging the power of Africa's creative industries to achieve socio-economic growth and enhance continental unity.

The Africa Urban Forum (AUF), was established by the African Union Commission and its member states during the Fourth Ordinary Session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Public Service, Local Government, Urban Development, and Decentralization (AU-STC No.8) held in Cairo, Egypt in August 2022, addressed the challenges and opportunities presented by rapid urbanisation in Africa.

The AUF serves as a continental platform aimed at fostering an inclusive and holistic approach to unlocking the potential of urbanisation across Africa. The urban context is important to view as a tool in the context of the Culture and Creative Industry development because of the catalytic function of the Culture and Creative Industry density if it is leveraged through supportive clusters, incubators and hubs, optimising costs, knowledge and expertise. The wider ecosystem in terms of policy and other sectors is also present and at arm's length.

Africa's creative economy is under tapped

The creative economy in Africa is a dynamic but under-tapped engine of GDP growth and employment, with enormous potential to drive the continent's socio-economic transformation.

The global impact of cultural and creative industries generates annual revenues of almost $2.3bn and creates nearly 30 million jobs worldwide, with a significant portion of these jobs held by youth aged 15-29. The broader culture and creative sectors account for 3.1% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 6.2% of all employment (Unesco).

ILO estimates show that overall culture and creative industries accounted for 1.4% of global employment or 46.2 million jobs in 2019. The same report indicates that in 2019 Asia and the Pacific accounted for the largest share of global media and culture employment, 52%, while Africa accounts for 9%.

Global data and research underscore the transformative potential of the creative economy in boosting export earnings and creating job opportunities. The same opportunities apply to Africa's youth and accelerating socio-economic development. However, an orchestrated focus must be applied to arrive at activating creative economies across the continent.

Rita Ngenzi, founding director of the Africa Creatives Alliance, emphasised the critical need for a coordinated effort to build robust Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) ecosystems across Africa.

"While we have vibrant pockets of CCI networks and events across the continent, a unified, continent-wide ecosystem remains elusive.

The ACA will bridge this gap by drawing on best practices from across Africa, facilitating knowledge transfer, and fostering the collaboration needed to advance Africa’s cultural and creative renaissance," said Ngenzi.

The launch of the ACA marks a significant step in harnessing the power of Africa's creative and cultural sectors for development and integration goals.

In the process of harnessing the power of Africa’s creative and cultural industry for development and integration goals, it is important to understand what it means and to raise awareness of how cultural and creative industries can best be streamlined into various programmes and policies.

It must be done in a manner that ensures intrinsic development of the cultural and creative sectors while also obtaining results in other sectors and development areas.