WCC- World Crafts Council, African Region

REPORT

This is a brief report from the WCC, African Region, which trends to bring the
realizations for the present year of 2009.

During this year the focus of our activities as defined during the General Assembly
realized in 2008, in Hangzhou, Peoples Republic of China, was to be the organization of
the General Assembly of the WCC- African Region and networking in order to enlarge
and engage the participation of the African national crafts council or organizations.

In relation with the General Assembly, although the various efforts in order to guaranty
funds and support to its realization, we could not manage to organize it, essentially
because of lack of resources. Initially we had a certain expectation from the Nigerian
Crafts Council, that showed interest to host the assembly but in reality it showed to be
not feasible as there was a need of a long bureaucracy with Federal Government of
Nigeria. The other step was the fundraising through a partnership within WCC- Africa,
EGNATIA EPIRUS Foundation, CEDARTE (Mozambique), Evolutic International (Benin)
and German Crafts Association, Germany. Through this partnership, a proposal to UE
was submitted and positively selected for the final award process, that still not realized.
The project called CraftsNet Africa, which the overall aim is to support the creation and
expansion of existing African-European networks of crafts intermediary organizations,
and, through them of crafts communities and professionals in the sector and capacity
building of the African Region of WCC, was expected to be awarded by the first semester
of the year, which could allowed us to organize the general assembly.

On the side of networking there were various efforts in order to divulge the organization
in African countries. Through the networking of CEDARTE and Evolutic International, in
Southern Africa and West Africa, respectively, Evaristo Madime and Martin Tonoukon,
participated in various forums where WCC was spread as a platform of networking in
Africa and in the world, in general. Some of this event can be briefly mentioned:

In April 2009, Arterial Network Seminar, with the subject of development of a

marketing tool kit for the Southern Africa arts and culture industries. The meeting
was held in Harare- Zimbabwe, with a participation of various Southern African
countries, including Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and
Zimbabwe;
 In July 2009, II Pan-African Festival of Culture in Alger, Algeria, where Evaristo
Madime represented Mozambique and using his new role of WCC- Africa
Representative, highlighted the organization in various forums and seminars;

In July-August 2009, African Exhibition in Austria. WCC International Secretariat in

a joint work with WCC- Africa organized an event of 10 days of crafts exhibition in
Vienna, with the participation of craft exhibitors from Benin, Mozambique,
Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Although the bad weather in Vienna during that period
the exhibition had a great appreciation by the public and resulted business
relationships between the exhibitors and local buyers.

In September 2009, the 4th World Summit on Arts and Culture realized in
Johannesburg, South Africa, that generated a range of international networking
initiatives to support arts practice in Africa and internationally. Abel Dabula,
CEDARTEs representative in this summit, mandated by Evaristo Madime invited
the crafts councils and national craft organizations to become members and
distributed membership forms.

Martin Tonoukon in his visit to Togo and Ghana managed to sensitize crafts
people about WCC. So far, no results can be appointed.

As challenges and perspectives for the next period, we would like to emphasize the
following:

The need of realization of the general assembly of WCC- Africa, which will define
the strategic approach for the next 3 years, the structure of the management
(dividing the African Region in sub-regions). This will need to be realized even
without the CraftsNet Project by 2010, definitely;
The need of raise the members of WCC in Africa. In the various events where the
Africa representatives tried to get inboard new members, there was a sign of a
certain reluctance, apparently because of the visibility of WCC activities. This fact
shows the need of field activities in favor of the craft sector, so people can be
more aware of the importance of become member of WCC;
Establishment of a Regional Secretariat;