Observatory News

Meeting on Cooperation Possibilities with the French Ministry of Culture and Communication

October 2006

On 10 October, Lupwishi Mbuyamba and Máté Kovács were received by M. Patrick Olivier, Inspector General of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication to discuss possibilities of research and training cooperation between the Ministry and OCPA on joint projects concerning the development of cultural policies in Africa.

Contact: director@ocpanet.org

Memorandum of Understanding with EPA

September 2006

A cooperation agreement was signed on 15 September between OCPA and EPA (Ecole du patrimoine africain, Porto Novo, Benin). The two organizations agreed to join their efforts in pursuing their common objectives in their specific field of activities for promoting African heritage and developing cultural policies namely to:

  • reinforce the network of African professionals capable of ensuring the conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage,
  • suggest programmes to African audiences enabling them to rediscover their cultural heritage,
  • promote socio-economic development projects, which include the safeguarding and enhancement of cultural heritage,
  • produce and disseminate publications specialised in African cultural heritage,
  • promote research on heritage and cultural policy, and
  • reinforce the network of African professionals and researchers.

Contact: secretariat@ocpanet.org and epa@epa-prema.net

Cooperation Between OIF and OCPA

September 2006

OCPA and the International Organisation of the Francophony (OIF) have initiated a process of substantial partnership. A first agreement, a "protocole d'accord" was approved last week by both parties to start with the joint implementation of research projects in the area of cultural policies for development and with a joint programming of the publication of reference books for scientific research in cultural policies.

The document was signed by Mr. Clément Duhaime, OIF Administrator and by Mr. Lupwishi Mbuyamba, OCPA Executive Director. The next step will be the establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding expected to define a common strategy for the OIF forthcoming Medium Term Programme starting in the year 2007.

Contact: director@ocpanet.org

New OCPA Newsletter Mailing List Developments

August 2006

Continuing the recent advances to its information services, OCPA has implemented a new newsletter mailing system, allowing the readers to subscribe to and unsubscribe from the OCPA News Mailing List via an online form available from http://www.ocpanet.org/activities/newsletter/index-en.html.

For an enhanced access to and better presentation of OCPA News, the full text of our newsletter will be distributed on an experimental basis, as of issue 163, in the form of a PDF attachment, accompanied by an overview of the contents of each issue in HTML format. The new format will also allow for a reduced size of the message.
(N.B. To view and print files of the Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf), the freely available Adobe Acrobat Reader needs to be installed, available at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.)

Memorandum of Understanding with ARPAC

July 2006

A cooperation agreement was signed between OCPA and the Institute of Socio-Cultural Research of Mozambique (ARPAC, Maputo). The two organizations agreed to join their efforts in pursuing their common objectives in their specific fields of activity, with a view to promote research, reinforce the network of African professionals and researchers, preserve and promote traditional cultural heritage, promote cultural industries, develop publications specialized in African culture, and enhance reflection on the conception, the implementation and the evaluation of cultural policies.

For details, please contact: director@ocpanet.org or arpac@tvcabo.co.mz

OIF-OCPA Cooperation Possibilities

June 2006

Mr. Lupwishi Mbuyamba, Executive Director of OCPA, and Mr. Clément Duhaime, OIF Administrator, explored possibilities for a comprehensive and sustainable cooperation between OIF (Organisation internationale de la francophonie) and OCPA, based on the convergence of the programmes of the two Organisations, in particular as to cultural policies, cultural diversity, cultural indicators, creativity and cultural industries. Agreement was reached to initiate a procedure for a mutual agreement with the identification of concrete projects to be implemented jointly during the 3 years to come.

For details, please contact: director@ocpanet.org

Memorandum of Understanding with Mont des Arts

May 2006

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed on the principles and priorities of co-operation between OCPA and the Mont des Arts information centre for arts and culture established in Kinshasa. According to the overall objective of this memorandum, OCPA and the Monts des arts will co-ordinate their efforts with a view to enhancing the overall goal of promoting cultural policies for development and their integration in regional and national human development strategies.

Contact: Centre d'Informations Artistiques et Culturelles "Le Mont des Arts", tel.: (00 243) 98 220 330, e-mail: mondesarts@hotmail.com and secretariat@ocpanet.org

OCPA Web Development Report 2005

May 2006

The latest edition of OCPA's regular Web Development Report has been published, lining out the progress made so far. Updated on a regular basis, the site currently consists of some 120 Web pages (HTML format) and 200 documents (Adobe PDF format), including the 88 issues of the OCPA Newsletter.

Redesigned OCPA Website Launched

April 2006

Marking the fifth anniversary of its Internet presence, OCPA has graphically and technically refreshed its World Wide Web Resource Centre, while keeping a simple structure and "light" design for users with slower connection speeds.

The advanced new design now incorporates the official OCPA logo. Important progress has also been made in making the web accessible in both English and French.

Memorandum of Understanding with IFACCA

March 2006

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed on the principles and priorities of cooperation between the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA) and OCPA.

According to the overall goal of this memorandum, OCPA and IFACCA will coordinate their efforts with a view to enhancing the overall goal of promoting cultural policies for development and their integration in regional and national human development strategies. The parties will also cooperate on extending ConnectCP, the data base of cultural policy specialist to Africa.

Contact: secretariat@ocpanet.org and info@ifacca.org

Pierre Dandjinou: Lure and Sham of Cyberespace

March 2006

Pierre Dandjinou, President of OCPA and UNDP Regional Coordinator, recently published an article under this title, dealing with today's issues concerning the role of ICT in the development of the African continent. While appearing to be bearing hope, globalization, largely supported by the rise of the Internet, the spread of mobile telephony and the emergence of satellite television, in fact also increased the technological differences between continents and regions.

http://www.africultures.com/index.asp?menu=revue_login&no=4297&gauche=1

Lupwishi Mbuyamba Elected General Rapporteur of the World Conference on Arts Education

March 2006

Lupwishi Mbuyamba, Executive Director of OCPA and Chair of the International Federation of Choral Music, was elected general rapporteur of the World Conference on Arts Education, organized by UNESCO and the Portuguese government in Lisbon from 6 to 9 March 2006 on the theme of Building Creative Capacities for the 21st Century.

The Conference was attended by some 1200 participants from 150 countries, who discussed four main topics: advocacy for arts education, impact of arts education, strategies for promoting arts education policies, and teacher training policies.

portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=31993&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC
&URL_SECTION=201.html

Contribution to the UNESCO World Report on Cultural Diversity

January 2006

In terms of a contract proposed by UNESCO, OCPA will launch a broad consultation among its network of researchers and institutional partners for identifying regional specificities and innovative approaches to the notion of cultural diversity. As a result of these consultations OCPA is going to produce a regional report submitted to UNESCO.

Contact: director@ocpanet.org