_The Creative Wealth of Nations_

# **5) On Data for Arts Policy**

As we saw earlier, there is a need to forge strategic partnerships in the quest for data on the creative economy. After all, it is not hard to see that the interactions of the performing arts range from multibillion-dollar global agencies to minute village cooperatives.<sup>199</sup> Here are some possible considerations:

# i. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)

As we speak, a pilot survey on cultural employment statistics is underway at UIS. “[This] survey marks a first step towards the creation of new indicators to measure the contribution of culture to economic and social development, and the conditions of those employed in the cultural sector.”<sup>200</sup> Moreover, after analyzing the results, UIS plans to undertake a global survey in 2015. A partnership between the WGB and UIS may help answer questions the latter highlights: “What is the size of the cultural labour force in the economy? What is the social status of women in cultural employment? How many artists are employed as performers?”<sup>201</sup> These questions relate to the WBG’s ambition to meet the twin goals by 2030; they connect to areas like economic diversification, gender equality and job creation. The framework for such a partnership could be similar to one the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO) inaugurated in 2013: the two institutions agreed to develop and maintain a database on trade in services, (as we shall see shortly). And it could even extend to include the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD).

- ii. Collect rigorous data on trade in services related to the performing arts under the new WBG/WTO partnership

In 2013 the WBG and the WTO “agreed to jointly develop and maintain a database on trade in services, an area that is becoming increasingly important and yet for which little information is publicly available.”<sup>202</sup> This is a step forward. Nonetheless, data on trade in services on the performing arts is limited, as we have observed.

- iii Regional Banks such as the African Development Bank (AfDB); the Asian Development Bank (ADB); and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Essentially, the WBG could team up with regional banks to collect (or mine) and share data on the creative economy — other organizations are already doing something about this, but the need is so great.

Updating the System of National Accounts (SNA) to fully reflect the creative economy as well as developing and maintaining satellite accounts (see box 11) provides a compelling reason for regional and global partnerships. To borrow from the European Commission’s manual on tourism, provisions for cultural satellite accounts could commence as follows,

> 199 The World Bank Group. 2014. _The World Bank Group Strategy._

> 200 Cultural Employment, “Measuring How Culture Contributes to Economic Development,” UNESCO, - accessed May 7, 2014, http://www.uis.unesco.org/culture/Pages/cultural <u>employment.aspx.</u> 201 Ibid.

> 202 “WTO, World Bank to Develop Services Trade Database,” The World Bank, August 6, 2013, accessed July 25, 2014, http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/08/06/wto-world-bank-to-develop-services- <u>trade-database.</u>

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