Econcult’s contribution

The text is based on the idea that cooperation actions should strengthen the economic capacity of the actors that make up the cultural ecosystem so that culture can become a driving force for territorial development. It recalls that the 2005–2008 Master Plan for Spanish Cooperation was the first to incorporate the economic dimension as a relevant component of this field of action, moving beyond a discourse that tended to disregard economic dynamics. Two decades later, scientific evidence confirms that the weight of the cultural and creative sectors within a territory has a causal effect on its per capita income and the productivity of its economic system, and that cultural capital acts as a multiplier of human capital.

The document nevertheless stresses that genuine processes of change cannot be reduced to economic impact alone: market indicators —companies, employment and turnover— operate as proxy variables signalling the strength of a cultural ecosystem whose effects also extend to well-being, social cohesion, health and civic engagement, in line with frameworks such as the Ibero-American Cultural Charter, the UNESCO Hangzhou Declaration, and the work of the OECD and the European Commission on culture and development.

Based on this diagnosis, Econcult’s contribution proposed four objectives for this strategic line: facilitating a financial, regulatory and knowledge-transfer environment that fosters business creation, the professionalisation of cultural actors and institutional consolidation throughout the entire value chain; broadening the active participation of society —through patronage, public-private collaboration, adapted bank financing, crowdfunding and volunteering— in financing cultural experiences, in order to reduce their endemic fragility in both market and non-market contexts; protecting and improving the working conditions of professionals in the sector, taking inspiration from the principles of the Statute of the Artist, given that human capital and creative talent are the main factors generating value; and promoting indicator and impact-assessment systems that facilitate technological, organisational and artistic innovation in order to ensure the resilience of the ecosystem.

The proposed actions include calls for proposals with a lower administrative burden, training programmes in cultural management and new technologies, collaboration networks with universities and research centres, multiannual funding models, and innovation laboratories exploring the use of artificial intelligence in cultural projects.