Creative Industries Support Programme

Purpose of Programme

The Creative Industries Support Programme (CISP) aims to preserve and promote Cambodia’s cultural heritage, resulting in better livelihoods among the poor in the most remote parts of four provinces: Mondulkiri, Rattankiri, Preah Vihear and Kampong Thom. CISP aims to improve the capacity of national institutions to develop Cambodia’s living arts and to improve employment opportunities and incomes, with a special focus on women and indigenous peoples. It will encourage producers to retain their traditions and will fight poverty by commercializing cultural products and services. It focuses on the collection of resin for varnish, paint and by-products including flaming torches, as well as handicrafts, especially textile weaving, bamboo and rattan-based products, plus indigenous pottery, including wine jars. CISP is a joint programme involving four UN agencies: the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Main Activities

UNESCO

• Support national institutions to safeguard cultural heritage and promote cultural diversity and the establishment of a Living Human Treasures system.
• Promote the establishment of provincial Cultural Centres, a Seal of Excellence and mentorship programmes in handicrafts and performing arts.

UNDP

• Identify commercially promising products and services that are produced with high participation of women.
• Develop and support implementation of sales and marketing strategies of selected cultural products.
• Build capacity of local NGO partners in sales and marketing, and strengthen market linkages.
• Identify challenges in the implementation of trade-related law and help coordinate market responses to facilitate sales and promotion at grassroots level.
• Support training in trade-related law.
• Promote sub-national public-private consultations.

FAO

• Identify potential products in ethnic minority areas.
• Facilitate the formation of producer groups and provide support in organization and management, and training on production skills, management and networks.
• Support product development using natural resources.

ILO

• Address key bottlenecks in value chains.
• Identify groups of artists and producers and develop and deliver training in financial literacy and basic business skills, and support providers to identify and develop business development services that are appropriate to the target indigenous groups.
• Train trainers to facilitate basic business development services for member-based producer organizations.

Key Results

UNESCO

• Trained officials and civil society organizations on the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
• Ensured the translation of Basic Texts of the 2003 Convention and the Information Kit on the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
• Co-organized a seminar for staff in charge of the Documentation and Inventory of Cambodian Museums.
• Ensured the translation from French into Khmer of Jean-Michiel Filippi’s book Recherches preliminaires sur les langues des minorités du Cambodge (Preliminary Research on the Languages of Cambodia’s Minorities).
• Organized a national consultation on a draft Royal Decree establishing a national Living Human Treasures system which was subsequently adopted by the Council of Ministers and signed by His Majesty the King.
• Supported field trips by MoCFA to identify Living Human Treasures.
• Established mentorship programmes in handicraft among indigenous communities in Kompong Thom, and in jars and pottery among indigenous communities in Rattanakiri.
• Advised the Royal Government of Cambodia on the conceptualization of a museum to be established in Preah Vihear.
• Conceptualised a Cultural Centre to be established in the Provincial Department of Culture and Fine Arts in Rattanakiri.
• Consulted with local NGOs on the establishment of a Resource Centre in Mondulkiri.

UNDP

• Identified commercially viable cultural products/services, focusing on those involving indigenous minorities and women.
• Promoted engagement between the public and private sectors and civil society.
• Supported promotion of selected products to target producer groups, with gender balance a priority, at Cambodia’s 4th Import-Export and One Province One Product Exhibition in Phnom Penh in December 2009, and at the Buy Cambodian Products trade fair in Siem Reap in January 2010.

FAO

• Selected 46 target villages in four provinces through consultations with local authorities, provincial departments, community members and NGOs (with ILO).
• Supported formation of 16 indigenous producer groups in target areas, comprising 251 people (65 percent women), and supported training in micro-business development (with ILO).
• Identified potential local NGO partners in the target provinces (with ILO).
• Contracted baseline surveys of socio-economic conditions in target provinces (with ILO).
• Consulted with the FAO project Off-farm Income Generation within the National Program for Household Food Security and Poverty Reduction for collaboration and linkages on skills training on natural resource product (rattan and weaving) and sharing marketing information and natural resource management.

ILO

• Developed and adapted tools for artisans on financial literacy, group formation and business skills.
• Facilitated the delivery of a variety of business development services to handicraft producers in the four target provinces.
• Initiated the development of a structure to provide for the delivery of basic entrepreneurial skills development for the target group and the development of mechanisms to address value-chain bottlenecks in the creative industries.
• Supported the Buy Cambodian Products trade fair organised by Artisans Association of Cambodia in April 2009 and the Buy Cambodian Products - Angkor Handicrafts Fair in January 2010.
• Continued support for institutional strengthening of providers of business development services and their NGO collaborators in the field.
• Continued the development of local capacities to improve product design, quality and marketability.

Background

Cambodia’s traditional arts were nearly destroyed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, and their revival is constrained by a number of factors, including challenges in the legal protection of ideas, challenges in the implementation of trade legislation and support services, shortages of knowledge and skills for commercializing cultural products, distorted value chains, marketing difficulties, high-cost communications, and competition from foreign entertainment in electronic formats.