Fostering Creativity: A Strategic Factor for Sustainable Development | Campaign for Sustainability | truCSR
Written by Rebecca Shibu
Edited by Yamini Peter
Creativity is a key engineer for facilitating social harmony, sustainable development, technological invention, and scientific advancement. It is manifested through human activities at different levels. However, according to a standard definition, ‘creativity’ is often perceived as the ability to produce something new/novel and appropriate. Today, there is unprecedented importance given to creativity due to the implementation of policy-based, innovation-oriented national development strategies and increasingly pressing global issues, such as global warming and terrorism.
It becomes crucial to establish that culture underwrites the creativity and the creative process in places and its people. They contribute significantly to economic diversifications and job creation which goes on to improve the quality of life. It plays a predominant role in sewing the social fabric and sustaining the cultural diversity of a place and its people. Hence, by increasing cultural engagement and revitalizing public spaces, creativity becomes a facilitator of inclusion and well-being.
Through this blog article, we explore the relationship between fostering creativity and sustainable development efforts that have been adopted in the cities of Brazil, Burkina Faso, and the United States of America. With the focus on creative inclusion, the examples also elaborate on their contributions to improving livelihood opportunities, ecological sustainability, bringing community art and culture to the mainstream, and further promoting the cultural nuances within communities across the globe.
Inclusive Creativity and Sustainable Development Agenda 2030
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls on us to imagine more inclusive, more human, and more creative cities which can act as a driving force for progress. Given this, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, launched in 2004, aims to strengthen cooperation with and among cities that have recognized creativity as a strategic factor of sustainable development on a socio-economic, cultural, and ecological level.
The UNESCO Creative Cities Programme and its Network work to encourage, demonstrate and reinforce the role of creativity as a catalyst for building more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive cities, with one of their founding goals being to stimulate collective and creative knowledge. Currently, there are 180 Creative Cities in 72 countries. They are both committed to developing and sharing innovative best practices to encourage creative industries, strengthen engagement in cultural life, and incorporate culture into sustainable urban planning policies, despite their geographical, demographic, and economic differences. The Network also promotes creative exchange, as well as collaborations between its members and the public and private sectors, as well as research.
Promoting Social Inclusion through Creative Ecofactory in Santos, Brazil
Santos invests in creativity to solve problems of social development and inclusion in a city suffering from high unemployment and chronic social disparities, both of which have worsened over the last decade as a result of financial crises. The Creative Ecofactory, among other things, helps people from the most disadvantaged communities build skills and gain access to resources.
The school, which is housed in a historical building provided by the municipality in the Old Quarter, helps to revitalize one of the city's most marginalized neighborhoods while also providing a haven for self-development. Students are taught how to make urban furniture or decorative items out of recycled wood collected by public services in the local area. The School directly promotes youth employability with financial support from Club Design, a private group of 60 designers and architects, the majority of whom are downtown shop owners.
In 2017, the Creative Ecofactory received the ‘iF Social Impact Prize,' improving the project's visibility and allowing for more funds to continue to benefit communities and other beneficiaries.
Source: UNESCO
Incubation of Cultural Industries through ‘The Reemdoogo’ in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital, has a population of 1,500,000 people, 60 percent of whom are under the age of 25. It is a gateway city with a diverse ethnic population that creates a cosmopolitan atmosphere. Visual arts (in general, but especially in bronze), music, theatre, and cinematic creation and distribution are growing at the same pace as popular entertainment and rituals.
The municipality initiated the Reemdoogo initiative to support the development and economic sustainability of the music industry while also strengthening facilities. In the Gounghin neighborhood, the first creative hub known as the music garden was created. It provides musicians with a variety of educational resources, such as instructional materials and workshops. The center invites artists to meet with creative industry stakeholders and gain hands-on experience to promote professional growth.
Source: UNESCO
Recording studios and instruments are accessible, as well as an open-air stage where the community's imagination can be shared. This desire to improve music has brought people together, providing a safe environment for self-improvement and community cohesion. This innovative incubator, which has received support from both public and private organizations, is a positive step toward helping Burkina Faso achieve its Country Strategic Development Plan (SCAD). It also serves as a first step in the city's plan to structure and professionalize the creative sector, which will be extended to other Ouagadougou neighborhoods.
[Re]verse Pitch and Converting Waste to Energy in Austin/ Paducah, United States of America.
In many cities around the world, pushing for more circular economic models is a popular goal, with governments and businesses actively searching for new ways to minimize the human influence on the environment and promote sustainable living. However, there is a large volume of plastic waste and byproducts that cannot be recycled effectively. The [Re]Verse Pitch Competition in Austin and the Engineering Creative Solutions to Global Challenges: Converting Waste to Energy in Paducah were two projects created with this in mind to give waste goods value and turn them into something useful.
The competition's objectives are to raise awareness of the economic value and potential of currently wasted byproduct and surplus resources, to engage the social entrepreneurship and business communities in achieving our zero waste target, to launch and help local companies that build jobs in Austin using local waste items, and to bring Austin's economy one step closer to a circular economy.
The University of Paducah is located in Paducah, Kentucky. The research was carried out at Kentucky College, a project to find new ways to recycle that are more effective low-cost, simple-to-use processes that convert plastic waste into electricity. Both of these programmes encourage imagination at various stages of the ecological transformation process, from finding challenges to imagining solutions and formulating sustainable designs.
Conclusion
The essential takeaway from Santos, Ouagadougou, Austin, and Kentucky can be summed up by acknowledging that :
Where cities face critical problems of social and spatial segregation, culture can help vulnerable communities have their voices heard in the public sphere. The creative sector encourages new ways of intergenerational dialogue and promotes gender equality and inclusion by speaking to society's ideals and future visions.
Creativity also profoundly alters our experiences with the urban environment, especially through design and media arts, resulting in the transformation of urban uses, the facilitation of new modes of social interaction and experience sharing, and the creation of new urban narratives.
The creative sector can promote innovative thinking to foster ownership of climate change problems, help public behavioral change, spark development and consumption pattern adaptation, and facilitate sustainable use of natural resources.
Employment opportunities in the sector are frequently more integrated into local economies, less susceptible to global migration, and more conducive to social inclusion.
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