Advancing Creative Industries for Development in Ghana

Project summary

Creative and cultural industries (CCIs) are being lauded for their potential to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Supported by a range of UN Agencies, many African governments have bought into the promise of CCIs to deliver economic growth, decent jobs and sustainable development. Policies to support the CCI sector are being introduced despite a lack of knowledge regarding the practices and experiences of creative labour, the opportunities and challenges faced in running viable creative businesses, and the impact of such policies in an African context. To fill this knowledge gap and further advance the capacity of CCIs to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs, the research project Advancing Creative Industries for Development in Ghana (ACIG) will use innovative qualitative methods to investigate the policies, labour conditions and entrepreneurship dynamics of CCIs in three regions of Ghana. Ghana represents an ideal case given the recent intense flourishing of the creative sector and strong vocal governmental support. Focusing on the music, film, fashion design and visual arts industries, an international, interdisciplinary team of researchers will work closely with private sector businesses and policy stakeholders to co-produce original empirical and theoretical knowledge on CCIs in an African context. A range of workshops with stakeholders will ensure that participants not only engage in but also benefit from the research, while innovative, participatory dissemination will render ACIG’s findings accessible to a wide range of stakeholders. The original knowledge generated by ACIG willshape understandings and theorisation of CCIs and inform policies to support the sector locally and globally, thus contributing to improved sustainable economic growth and development. Capacity building is central to the project, with research capacity being strengthened through the close collaboration of junior and senior researchers and the training of four Ghanaian PhD students.

Outputs

Midterm report
ACIG has made significant progress despite Covid-19 disrupting some of the work. Fieldwork has been conducted in all target regions and on all target sectors. We held workshops and interviews online to continue our work during the pandemic and resumed in-person field research in May 2022. In total, approx. 250 interviews, 2 artistic workshops, and 14 focus groups have been held. We have published 3 papers in international journals, have 7 papers in review, and have 5 in advanced draft stage. We have presented at 8 international academic conferences and shared our findings with the public through our website (15 blog posts, 4 videos), Facebook page (38 posts), and through artistic methods (1 art exhibition and 1 theatre performance). Stakeholders have been involved throughout the project including 2 Advisory Board meetings and 4 policy/stakeholder workshops. Annual reports have also been disseminated to stakeholders. All internal training has been held. The PhD students have been somewhat delayed in their studies due to the impact of Covid-19. Despite this delay, they are at the midway point with their projects; they have successfully completed their course work requirements, conducted literature reviews and developed research instruments for fieldwork. The PhD students had a successful 3-month visit to Copenhagen during 2021, where they continued the drafting of their research proposals, conducted literature reviews and gave presentations to several CBS research groups.