THE Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has launched the Cultural and Creative Industries Innovation Fund (CIIF) to support the development of the creative industries and socio-economic growth in the Region.

The fund, aimed at awakening cultural consciousness, was launched on Thursday evening at the Champers Restaurant in Barbados, supported by an initial US$2.6M contribution from the bank.

Projects seeking to qualify for CIIF funding must demonstrate a high level of innovative merit, commercial viability, benefits to women, additionality, coherence and contribution to the business climate.

Groupings which can apply include governments, business support organisations, universities, non-governmental organisations and legally registered creative enterprises from the CDB’s 19 Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs).

Sectors which will receive priority include fashion and contemporary design, visual arts, music, festivals and carnivals and audio-visual design, such as film, animation and gaming.

CDB Project Director Daniel Best, said the Caribbean is a Region of undisputed talent, which, if nurtured, can drive regional economic growth. From 2008 to 2014, he noted that the contribution of copyright-based activities in the CDBs BMCs was as high as 80 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Meanwhile, Best noted that festival tourism has grown significantly over the last three decades. This comes as CARICOM’s regional strategic plan for the cultural industry has identified the creative sector as able to contribute largely to employment and foreign exchange rates.
“We are now realising how viable and critical this sector is to the Caribbean economy,” Best said. He added: “To fully realise this potential, high priority will need to be given to addressing some critical concerns. These include weak industrial trade and intellectual property policies and inadequate business support and investment capital.”

Recognising these challenges, the project director said that in 2017, the CDB agreed to set up the fund and has worked assiduously since then towards its launching. CIIF was being hailed as a step forward towards a more deliberate and targeted strategy to vitalising the Caribbean’s creative and cultural industries.

As opposed to ad-hoc funding, the CDB has designed CIIF to be a multi-donor fund.

There are three grant streams available, notably: enabling environment (up to US$150,000 each); data intelligence (up to US$150,000 each) and improved competitiveness of creative Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) (up to US$50,000 each). Those applying for the enabling environment grant stream must be change agents in the creative industry sector. They must aim to create platforms to access and integrate into the global creative economy, among other criteria.

Meanwhile, projects within the data intelligence stream must have a regional, sub-regional or national focus; focus on improving data-collection frameworks; and financing research, knowledge products and strengthening activities.

Those within the final stream must be focused on creating and deepening creative clusters, creative spaces and co-working spaces and be non-profit, tertiary institutions and business support organisations, among other criteria.

“We are convinced that the culture and creative industry offers just as much potential for growth as the traditional and other non-traditional sectors that we are already involved in,” Best further noted. Brief remarks were also given by Barbados Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Creative Economy, Culture and Sports, Coordinator for MSME Lisa Harding and CIIF Coordinator, Dr. Marielle Barrow Maignan. The latter gave an overview of the fund and those who have been instrumental in its success. Thus far, some 70 applications have been received for funding from CIIF.