A two-day multistakeholder workshop in Gaborone has laid the groundwork for Botswana’s first comprehensive mapping of the digital environment for its Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs), opening new opportunities to strengthen skills, market access, investment and evidence-informed cultural policy.
UNESCO, in partnership with the Ministry of Sport and Arts and the Botswana National Commission for UNESCO, convened the Multistakeholder Consultation Workshop on 25 and 26 August 2026 under the UNESCO-KFIT Digital Creativity Lab III Project, supported by the Republic of Korea.
The workshop brought together representatives from government, academia, cultural and creative industries, development partners and creative practitioners to develop a shared understanding of the opportunities and challenges shaping Botswana’s creative economy.
Despite the country’s rich creative talent, innovation and entrepreneurial potential, stakeholders highlighted persistent challenges, including limited market access, digital skills gaps, inadequate sector data, barriers to financing and policy frameworks that need to keep pace with rapid technological change.
Botswana creatives performing to the public
UNESCO
At the heart of the initiative is the recognition that effectively supporting Botswana’s Cultural and Creative Industries requires a clearer understanding of the sector, its actors, opportunities and constraints.
Artists, cultural practitioners and creative entrepreneurs generate cultural, social and economic value across Botswana, yet significant parts of the sector remain insufficiently documented. This can limit their visibility in policy, investment and development planning.
As one participant observed, “If culture is for everyone, then the evidence that informs cultural policies must also come from everyone.”
Workshop participants
UNESCO
The national mapping exercise will therefore go beyond collecting statistics. It will seek to capture the experiences of artists building livelihoods from their talent, entrepreneurs looking for new markets, communities safeguarding living heritage and institutions working to create an enabling environment for creativity.
The evidence generated will help inform targeted investments, market-access interventions and skills-development programmes. It will also contribute to the development of an accredited capacity-building curriculum in partnership with the University of Botswana.
Speaking during the workshop, UNESCO Regional Advisor for Culture, Elena Constantinou, emphasized the importance of keeping creatives at the centre of the process.
Behind every response is an artist, a creative entrepreneur, a cultural practitioner or an organisation. The purpose of this mapping is not simply to collect data, but to better understand the people and realities behind it, so that the evidence generated can inform practical action, strengthen market access, guide skills development and contribute to a more enabling environment for Botswana’s cultural and creative industries.
Elena Constantinou, UNESCO Regional Advisor for Culture.
UNESCO
Beyond the mapping exercise, the workshop created a platform for broader dialogue on the future of Botswana’s cultural policy and the development of a more inclusive, innovative and digitally empowered creative ecosystem.
Participants explored how stronger collaboration between government, creatives, academia, industry and development partners could help address fragmentation, improve the visibility of the sector and create new opportunities for creative practitioners and entrepreneurs.
Tefo Paya, National Expert for the UNESCO 2005 Convention, highlighted collaboration as essential to achieving lasting change.
One of the biggest challenges we face is working in silos. We will not achieve meaningful change unless we come together, connect, and work collectively to ensure that Botswana’s cultural and creative industries are visible, valued and able to realise their true potential.
Tefo Paya, National Expert for the UNESCO 2005 Convention
The consultation marks an important first step in a wider process to generate evidence that can translate into practical action. Through the UNESCO-KFIT Digital Creativity Lab III Project, Botswana will build on the findings of the mapping exercise to strengthen capacities, improve the enabling environment for cultural and creative industries and expand opportunities for creatives to participate in an increasingly digital economy.
By bringing evidence, policy and the voices of creatives together, the initiative aims to ensure that Botswana’s digital transformation creates opportunities not only for the creative industries as a sector, but also for the people and communities whose creativity drives it.