The creative economy matters in Namibia: recent data from UNESCO’s Culture and Development Indicators (CDIS) highlight Namibia’s potential for social and economic development, while underlining certain obstacles in place that inhibit it from reaching its full potential.

Since independence in 1990, Namibian authorities have recognized culture’s role in development in key documents such as the 2001 Policy on Arts and Culture and the National Development Plan. However, the inability to empirically demonstrate this connection has resulted in marginalizing cultural industries in recent years and in their omission from the most recent National Development Plan. The new wealth of data on culture and development, which resulted from implementing the CDIS, made it possible to include the creative industries in future national and international plans.

The CDIS is the first research and advocacy tool of its kind, aiming to quantitatively assess the multidimensional relationship between culture and development thanks to an innovative methodology. The indicators consist of 7 key dimensions of culture with 22 core indicators that respond to the needs and circumstances of middle and low-middle income countries. Through these facts and figures, the indicators encourage better-informed cultural and creative industry policies and strategies.

The results from Namibia suggest that the CDIS methodology works. Although there is a high level of demand for the consumption of foreign and domestic cultural goods, services and activities (9% of total household consumption expenditures); there is a low level of domestic production, particularly in the formal sector, illustrated by a low percentage of cultural employment (0.65% of the total employed population).

Furthermore, low levels of supply of domestic fiction productions on public TV [21] (15% of broadcasting time of fiction programmes), indirectly reflect insufficient opportunities for diffusion and exposure of cultural contents provided by local creators and cultural industries. These figures underline the unexploited demand-driven market potential for the culture sector in Namibia.

Regarding the links between education and culture in Namibia, though professional training opportunities in select fields are not yet available, public institutions provide a fairly diverse offering of programs related to culture at the TVET and tertiary levels, reflecting Namibian authorities’ interest and willingness to invest in cultural education at the professional level. However, other data illustrates gaps in arts education in key formative years that may hinder individuals’ interest, skills and opportunities to pursue a professional career in the culture sector despite the range of specialized programs available.  

Although positive results for indicators on the normative, policy and institutional frameworks suggest that the foundation for good cultural governance is in place, obstacles persist regarding the participation of civil society in policy-making processes and the unequal distribution of cultural infrastructure across the 13 regions of Namibia, which not only prevents opportunities to access cultural life, but also disfavors outlets for cultural production, diffusion and enjoyment.