Culture Resource founded the Cultural Policies program in 2009 as a means to contribute to the development of the knowhow related to the production of cultural policies in the Arab region. The program aims to enable cultural actors and independent organizations in the cultural sector to participate in the process of proposing local cultural policies for their countries and to network for the purposes of the research needed to develop policies conducive to improving the working environment in this sector.

Culture resource, through this program, has pursued diverse means and activities towards these ends. It has conducted studies on the state of cultural policies in the Arab region, fostered and supported National Cultural Policy Groups, and organized regional and international conferences and seminars for experts in this field. The Cultural Policies program has also worked on updating its publications on cultural policies through partnerships and it has sponsored further research and applied projects in this field.

Currently, the program is working to respond to the new and pressing needs in the Arab region through questioning  the concept of cultural policies in light of the changing circumstances in the region. It is also inviting experts and researchers in this field to take part in this process and join discussions and exchanges on this subject.

It is in this context that the Cultural Policies program organized a workshop for cultural policy researchers and cultural actors in the Arab region. The Cultural Policies workshop is dedicated to the exchange of knowledge and expertise on cultural policies in the region and to the role that researchers and cultural actors play in formulating and/or proposing reforms to cultural policies at the local, national, regional and international levels by carrying out and producing the necessary research, analyses, studies and reports on the state of culture in the Arab region.

The Cultural Policies workshop covered the following topical areas:

1- The existing definitions of cultural policies, the different types of cultural policies and their components, the stakeholders  involved in policy design and development, and ways to develop local definitions of cultural policy for the Arab region.

2- The levels of action within cultural policies from the regional and the national to the local municipal level, and an examination of some previous experiences in these frameworks.

3- A critical reading of the UNESCO Convention of 2005 on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

4- A discussion of the content of the Report on Cultural Policies in the Arab Region which is produced every four years.

Workshop outlook

  • Exchange of expertise and peer learning among a group of researchers, experts and cultural actors from the Arab region on the concept of cultural policy and analyses of different types of cultural policies. Participants will also have acquired familiarity with different cultural policy models and a deeper understanding of the mechanisms for producing cultural policies at the national and local levels and how different contexts and environments impact on the formulation of these policies.
  • An in-depth understanding of the UNESCO Convention of 2005 and related issues, especially the International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD), its evaluative framework and the report it produces every four years.
  • A wider circle of researchers who can contribute to studies, reports and research on cultural policies.