The French Embassy in Dar es Salaam has launched 510,000 euros (1.2bn/-) project aimed at supporting the local creative industry.
Nabil Hajlaoui Ambassador of France to Tanzania during the launching ceremony yesterday that the Solidarity Fund for Innovative Projects (FSPI) will finance ‘Sanaa Projects’ or in short ‘Sanaapro’ over the next two years.
Various activities were undertaken with the beneficiaries, with eight cultural organizations collaborating with five French organizations, with the envoy noting that the creative industry has become an interesting strategic sector to boost competitiveness, productivity, employment, and sustainable economic growth.
The creative industry is a key factor in the social integration of social values, cultural promotion, and a ladder to useful information and product knowledge.
The ‘FSPI-Sanaapro initiative’ is an embassy priority in response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s seeking a higher role for the creative industry sector.
There were frank exchanges between highly engaged youth and President Macron at the New Africa-France summit in the Southern French city of Montpellier last October.
Tanzania was represented by 16 people, featuring cultural entrepreneurs, human rights activists, and others from civil society and sporting notables, he said.
Lined up beneficiaries include Asadeva (art for social and economic development in Africa), Mudafrica, the cultural art center in Arusha, ‘We-Present Tanzania’, while others are ‘Ajabu-Ajabu’, Dhow Countries Music Academy (DCMA-Zanzibar), Alliance Francaise Dar es Salaam and the Foundation for Civil Society (FCS).
The project aims to support artistic creation and dissemination throughout Tanzania, in order to contribute to social cohesion, influencing the Tanzania authorities to create a legal framework to protect the status of Tanzanian artists and to help the emergence of a new generation of cultural professionals, and encourage their empowerment.
On the French side, the beneficiaries are Dance choreographers Moise Toure/Francis Viet Ibomma of the Indian Ocean music market in La Reunion, Offcourts Trouville festival of the Normandie, ‘ We Present ’ at Marseille, and Africolor of Paris.
The Sanaapro’s objective is to achieve milestones like 15 grant programmes for life events in the 2022/2023 period a series of nine debates on the creative industry.
Other landmarks are shared equipment investment for cultural organizations, public contemporary dance events, and the training of 70 technicians in sound, light and management.
Also envisaged is the training of 72 hip hop artists from all over Tanzania plus the production of international quality level short films.
It similarly aims to support artistic creation and dissemination all over the country to contribute to social cohesion, as well as collaborating with stakeholders to create a legal framework to protect the status of Tanzanian artists, the envoy added.
#FCS
#SanaaPro