Implications for sustainable development and linkages to specific SDGs.

 

The creative economy contributes to the achievement of the broader objectives of the 2030 Agenda, with emphasis on the quality of life and wellbeing as a key outcome of a targeted economic process. It aligns with a variety of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDGs 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17. A universal characteristic of creative industries is that it is disproportionally provided by women and young people; 23% of people employed in creative industries are between 15 and 29 (more than in any other sectors), while women hold 45% of creative occupations worldwide. These facts make a case for support to and investments in the creative economy as a means towards more inclusive economic development and the empowerment of women and youth. However, this would require innovative and targeted policies and measures, such as the ones proposed in UNESCO’s report “Gender and Creativity: Progress on thePrecipice”. According to the report, the digital divide remains a pressing concern in the context of COVID-19, with women disproportionately facing obstacles to access digital tools for artistic creation and distribution, including digital music platforms, online tutorials, and sound-mixing software. For example, it is estimated that worldwide, 250 million fewer women than men use the Internet, and women still represent only 21% of performers in electronic music festivals in Europe and North America. 

Gender equality is fundamental to ensuring a genuine diversity of cultural expressions, and equal opportunities in artistic work and cultural employment. However, qualitative and quantitative data reveals that women and gender diverse artists and creators continue to face numerous barriers, including unequal access to decent work, fair remuneration, and leadership positions. In Uruguay, for example, it is estimated that women occupy 25% of managerial positions in public and private cultural organizations, 24% in Montenegro and only 3% in Mali. In Indonesia, a recent study shows that while female professionals are advancing in the film industry, they are still largely underrepresented in creative decision-making roles, representing only 20% of scriptwriters, 19% of producers and 7% of directors. In France only 9% of directors of the 100 largest cultural enterprises are women, while women direct 34%of visual and performing arts organizations, which are subsidized by the Ministry of Culture, and 43%, of museums.  

The overwhelmingly negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender equality is well-documented, from the disproportionate leave from the labor market, decrease in wealth, rise in gender-based violence, disproportionate absence of girls from online classes to female professionals’ limited eligibility for social and economic assistance. Although women have played a key role in responding to the crisis, gender inequalities have widened across the board. Contributions to the creative economy are multi-faceted. For instance, by linking local (traditional) producers of crafts to the global market (sustainable tourism, e-commerce), creative industries promote inclusive local economic development in remote areas and remove barriers to entry for a variety of producers with untapped value-added potential. Therefore, many projects aimed at developing local clusters focused on traditional crafts contribute to institutional capacity building and community management of natural resources, empower the most vulnerable part of the population, while encouraging them to participate in decision-making processes. The creative economy is not only the most rapidly growing sector of the world economy, it is also a highly transformative one in terms of income generation, job creation and export earnings. Trade in creative goods and services generates increasing revenues for countries, but creative services exports vastly exceed those of creative goods. UNCTAD estimates that in 2020, creative goods and services represented 3 and 21 per cent of total merchandise and services exports, respectively.

 The global exports of creative goods increased from US$ 419 million in 2010 to US$ 524 million in 2020, while world exports of creative services increased from US$ 487 billion to almost US$ 1.1 trillion during the same period. Creative services represent an increasing share of global services exports and generate substantial export revenues. UNCTAD data shows that creative services were more resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic than other services sectors. Exports of creative services were down by only 1.8% in 2020, while exports of all services fell by 20 per cent However, developing countries are vastly underrepresented in the exports of creative services, especially in the export of those related to research and development. South-South trade in creative goods has almost doubled in the past two decades. On the other hand, developed economies mainly tend to exchange cultural goods among themselves. In 2020, South- South trade in creative goods represented 40.5 per cent of creative exports by developing economies. It primarily involves exports of jewellery, interior design products, recorded media, fashion, and toys. South-South trade can be important for developing economies to create new trading opportunities and diversify exports. These data show that creative industries can help to enhance developing countries’ participation in and benefit from new and dynamic growth opportunities in world trade and emphasize the importance of trade in creative goods and services