The aim of this topic is to strengthen pro-poor cultural industries, including - community-based tourism
- artisanal development
- music
- ethno-botanicals, and
- intellectual property protections for poor producers.
| The focus is on agency of poor producers in the market ("trickle up and out" not "trickle down"). This includes action learning on applying business approaches to help poor holders of intellectual assets and skills to associate into groups, and to develop services for them and an enabling environment to empower them in the market. | 
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 | Interventions are market driven, and develop direct linkages backwards from markets to producers' associations. These innovations are being embedded and scaled up through private sector development lending, CDD lending, indigenous peoples projects, and are contemplated under GEF projects. |
Artisanal/Hand-crafted Products The growth of niche market and “fair trade” associations in the international market, the evolution of international trade shows focusing more explicitly on crafts products, and the advent of e-commerce are all offering opportunities for associations of artisans to deal directly with external and domestic market associations interested in fair trade in quality artisanal products. Technical assistance to local producers’ groups can advise on quality, serve as an agent for producers’ groups to contact relevant trade associations and showcase products at their wholesale trade shows, and help the producers to retain and expand those contacts. Crafts Workshop The Crafts Workshop was jointly sponsored by the Cultural Assets for Poverty Reduction Program of The World Bank and The Policy Sciences Center, Inc. The Policy Sciences Center (PSC) is an NGO that manages the Bank's Development Grant Facility for Culture. This is a research and development unit, experimenting with new types of projects that explore ways in which culture can alleviate poverty. The current study and workshop were motivated by the need for analysis of crafts as a sector. It was felt that this would be of more use to the Bank than micro studies of individual artisan groups or individual NGOs. The project was commissioned by the Policy Sciences Center to conduct a study that would provide a picture of this important sector in India. The resulting figures are indeed significant: $5.6 billion in GDP, $1.6 billion in exports, and 9 to 10 million people fully or partially employed. Music Industry In countries with a strong oral tradition (including all of Africa), music plays a critical role in community life and is an important way for people to tell stories that raise issues and social problems. In addition to the domestic market in live performance and cassettes, electronic commerce of digital recordings and new forms of encryption are presenting new opportunities for poor musicians to sell directly over the internet to a global market, without having to contract with large companies for production and all distribution. Particularly in small economies, pro-poor music industry development can have a major impact on growth and poverty reduction. Community Based Tourism Unlike mass tourism with its large hotels and golf courses built by outsiders, community based tourism involves local residents in the design and development of tourism activities and keeps a far greater share of the income generated by visitors in the community. The benefits of community based tourism are seen to be: job creation; poverty reduction; less impact on an area's culture and environment than that exerted by mass tourism; community capacity building and pride; and revenue for maintaining or upgrading the community's cultural assets. On May 23, 2000, the World Bank's Cultural Assets for Poverty Reduction Unit sponsored a two-day workshop entitled, "Community based Tourism and Development: Consultative Meetings with Industry Practitioners." The event was organized by The Policy Sciences Center, Inc. (PSC), which is currently managing pilot projects in community based tourism funded through the World Bank's Development Grant Facility for Culture and Sustainable Development. The purpose of the consultation was to raise awareness on how World Bank projects can support this type of low-impact tourism as a means of alleviating poverty. Community based tourism involves local residents in the decision making and development of tourism activities and supports community efforts to create related income generating opportunities. Ethnobotanicals and Copyright Royalties for Indigenous Peoples Protection of the industrial property rights of indigenous peoples to their traditional knowledge should involve two aspects: protection against industrial property rights acquired by outsiders as a result of an appropriation of traditional knowledge, and protection of the industrial property rights of indigenous peoples for their benefit, based on their indigenous knowledge. B-Span, the World Bank's webcasting station, has produced a video coverage of 2003 workshop of Income & Intellectual Property from the Traditional Knowledge.To see it, click on the link below: For more information see also: |
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