Nairobi, 12th June 2024
Nairobi City County in partnership with UNESCO and The Go Down arts Centre held a consultative meeting with Sub County administrators to discuss the UNESCO-ASCHBERG Program aimed at strengthening the cultural sector through strong regulatory framework, mapping and capacity building.
The program which is funded by the Kingdom of Norway through UNESCO was initiated after the county government submitted a proposal to the call for project by the organization in 2022. It seeks to gather consistent data on the Status of the artist, cultural and tourism sites within the county and enhance policy and legislation in that regard.
County Chief Officer for City culture, arts and tourism Mr. Clement Rapudo Sijenyi speaking at the event highlighted on the importance of mapping cultural places in the county as it will create more job opportunities for the youth. He also urged the sub county administrators present to assist the culture officers with logistics such as vehicles and security personnel as they partake their duty of data collection at the ward level.
Said Mr. Rapudo, “The job descriptions have changed. We can’t be talking about unemployment yet we dismiss other creative opportunities. Let’s change the perception and embrace other career paths. Today we hope that with the understanding of this project we will be able to support the people on the ground to continue with this fact finding process of data collection and thereafter analyzing it for the purposes of improving our cultural heritage and making our city more vibrant.”
The Deputy Director for culture Ms. Stella Kemunto reiterated the Chief Officer’s remarks stating that carrying out a focused and detailed mapping will strengthen the cultural sector. She said, “We are working to ensure that all creative talents and our culture is preserved. In other cities outside Kenya and Africa, culture holds the economy of the country. Let’s invest in our culture to use it as a bargaining chip for our economy and gain financial boost as a sector.”
The Executive Director of GoDown arts Centre Ms. Joy Mboya who took the administrators through a presentation explained that the project will be conducted in two phases; data collection and policy development. In the data collection stage, the culture officers will partner with the sub county administrators in collecting data on areas identified and finding ways they can improve tourism and culture in the city. In the Policy development stage, they will come up with policies and review existing policies that guides the framework of the cultural sector.
The culture Officers with the assistance of Sub county and ward administrators will be required to identify types of assets and attractions in the city including cinemas, cultural and arts centers, heritage Sites, monuments and public spaces.
Ends/…..