ONLINE EVENT | Popular culture, creative economy and local development

Within the framework of the CLXXX CAF Directory of 2023, CAF - development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean - and the Prefecture of Rio de Janeiro invite you to participate in the discussion "Popular culture, creative economy and local development".

We recognize in the Rio de Janeiro Carnival a significant case of creative economy and successful model for exporting. “Popular culture, creative economy and local development” is the enhancement of popular festivals within creative economies, regenerative tourism and the social cohesion of cities. Likewise, CAF will present its “CAF Strategy for Creative and Cultural Economies 2023/2026”, as part of our commitment to recognize the complementarity of economic and cultural aspects in sustainable development.

In recent years, relevant forums of the international system such as the G20, OECD, UNCTAD and UNESCO, Mondiacult, among others, have highlighted the need to revalue the cultural variable and its influence on multiple areas of life in a heterogeneous, hyperconnected world, en crisis and increasingly digitized.

In this sense, the “CAF Strategy for Creative and Cultural Economies 2023/2026” seeks to boost and strengthen cultural and creative economies, contributing to the achievement of more resilient, inclusive, sustainable, productive and competitive territories. Furthermore, the objective is to increase the value of creative economies and reaffirm the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions, as stated in the 2005 UNESCO Convention. However, the challenges for the Creative and Cultural Economies in the region still manifest high levels of informality, low investment in innovation and precarious employment.

This event, which will take place in parallel to the last CAF Directory of 2023, will bring together public and private institutions linked to cultural and creative economies, as well as artists and civil society organizations in Río de Janeiro and Brazil. The event was also attended by delegates from the Carnivals of Montevideo (the widest in the world) and Barranquilla, which in 2003 also received from UNESCO the nomination of “Obra Maestra del Patrimonio Oral e Intangible de la Humanidad”, in addition to members of other popular festivals in the region.

The presentation of these popular festivals has a central message: culture generates economy. These highly symbolic cultural practices, based on the intellectual, creative and emotional capacities of their populations, have an economic impact on cities. Ultimately, culture has strategic importance for the social context, public policies and sustainable development.

Rio's carnival is more than a city brand, it is a world reference where the cultural and creative act produces externalities every year: more than 120 samba schools, 600 registered street carnival blocks, 20,000 workers at the sambódromo and providers of tourist services, 18,000 municipal employees, 45,000 workers during the event, press and digital media coverage, 864 hours of artistic and physical preparation, as well as several neighborhoods that work throughout the year around Carnival. In this sense, the activity “Popular culture, creative economy and local development” is an invitation from CAF to generate better associations and a positive South-South political dialogue between national, local governments, artists and managers that promotes Creative and Cultural Economies in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Date: December 7, 2023

Time:

3:30 pm Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras time
4:30 pm Colombia time, Ecuador, Panama
5:30 pm Bolivia time, Dominican Republic, Venezuela
6:30 pm Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay time

The event will be broadcasted through this microsite