IPLC Namibia project launched

Justicia Shipena Last week Thursday the ministry of education, arts and culture, in partnership with the Namibian government, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and the European Union, launched the Intellectual Property and Local Content Namibia Project (IPLC). The project is a forward thinking and interactive project aimed at benefiting cultural and creative industries and it falls under the global EU/Unesco initiative, “Supporting new regulatory frameworks to strengthen the cultural and creative industries and promote South-South cooperation.” According to Djaffar Moussa-Elkadhum, Unesco representative to Namibia, in a recent report by Unesco titled ‘Culture, a Transformative for the Sustainable Development Agenda,’ the cultural and creative industries were identified among the fastest growing sectors in the world contributing an annual revenue of US$2.250 billion to the global economy and account for nearly 29.5 million jobs worldwide, employing more people aged 15 to 29 than any other sector. Moussa-Elkadhum said Namibia needs to foster an enabling environment in which local content is protected and featured on the national broadcaster and made accessible to all. Ester Nghipondoka, minister of education, arts and culture, said Unesco’s culture and development indicators show that Namibian households spend about 9% of their household budgets on cultural goods, services and activities. “The demand is therefore quite high, but we are faced with low levels of domestic content production, illustrated by the low level of cultural employment, which is about 0.65% of the total employed population in the country,” she said. Nghipondoka added that the project has already started making headway with peer-to-peer learning exchanges within the region and setting the groundwork for the rest of the project implementation. “Progress in the digital economy, globally, has been moving at a tremendous speed and Namibia does not want to lag too far behind. We want to provide the governance frameworks that will assist our creators to thrive in the digital environment.”Ambassador Sinikka Antila of the European Union delegation to Namibia said the project team for the peer-to-peer meetings that were already held with Zimbabwe has about 75% of local content broadcast. She added that the EU is actively engaged in this sector in Namibia through for instance the project, ‘Museum Development as a Tool for Strengthening Cultural Rights in Namibia’, the establishment of a Museum of Namibian Music in Omuthiya and establishment of the Katima Mulilo Museum. “We all need to keep in step with the new digital era and create a conducive environment for our young people to fully access and exploit these opportunities.”

IPLC Namibia project launched

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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IPLC Namibia project launched

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-18

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