The Ministry of Tourism has launched a project to assess the contribution of cultural employment to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The UNESCO Culture 2030 Indicators Project would, among other objectives, allow the Tourism Ministry and its agencies to advocate stronger investment in the arts, crafts, heritage and creative sectors.

The project is a framework of thematic indicators aimed at measuring and monitoring the progress of how culture contributes to the national and local implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Integration

Minister of Tourism,  Culture and Creative Arts, Abla Dzifa Gomashie, who launched the project in Accra yesterday, said the project was a strategic step towards integrating culture into the national development plan.

She said that the indicators aligned with the country’s collective aspiration to achieve the SDGs through the lens of culture while providing a methodology to track every progress made.

Ms Gomashie, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ketu South, said the framework would enable the ministry and its agencies to promote cultural entrepreneurship and support policy reforms that encouraged innovation and inclusive growth.

“This is a remarkable feat. We will be able to tell our story by embracing evidence-based tools that measure culture's true impact on sustainable development,” she said.

The minister added that the indicators would help the ministry to monitor the integration of culture in educational curricula, assess cultural literacy levels, and strengthen its commitment to indigenous knowledge systems and languages.

Ms Gomashie said it would also enable the country to integrate cultural heritage management into local planning and climate action strategies.

“These indicators will help us analyse the representation of women and marginalised groups in cultural life, as well as guide interventions that promote equity, access and cultural rights for all, including persons with disabilities and the youth,” she added.

Ms Gomashie thanked the UNESCO team and all stakeholders for the initiative.

Data collection

The UNESCO Country Director, Edmond Moukala, called for the active participation of the Ghana Statistical Service to ensure that the data collected was robust, aggregated and of high quality.

The Deputy Director of the National Commission on Culture (NCC), Dr Fio Commey Richardson, said that the project would look at collecting data and retrieving data from secondary sources on how culture had contributed to national development.

He said some work had already been done with the support of UNESCO in establishing a baseline survey about the potential of culture in the country’s development.