Creative Culture Investments (CCI), in partnership with UNESCO and the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Sports, Youth, Arts and Culture, has begun drafting a Cultural and Creative Industries Strategy for 2026-2030.
The aim is to commercialise the arts sector, strengthen legal protection for creatives and align the industry with the National Development Plan 6, positioning the creative economy as a competitive commercial sector.
Artists, film producers, actors, animators, visual artists, music producers, graphic designers, fashion designers, cultural workers and policymakers turn out in numbers to shape a practical, measurable and attainable blueprint for the sector's future.
Officials said the strategy will cover the full creative value chain, participation, creation, production, consumption and exhibition of artistic expressions, goods and services.
It will also map out the legal instruments governing Namibia's creative industry, with growing calls for clearer rules on issues such as artist exploitation and workplace protections, including what happens when an artist becomes pregnant, speaking on legal instruments.
Patrick Sam, Founding Managing Director of Creative Culture Investments, says, "Legal instruments are very important, because they give the citizen the instrument to hold government accountable. And so a lot of what we have to do is look at the obligations that the government has set up for itself, to say we will honour these and these other provisions under both international law and national legal instruments, which apply to the creative industry."
The draft framework covers six sub-sectors: heritage, performing arts, visual arts and crafts, books and press, audio-visual and interactive media, and design, with animation and gaming added to the list.
"This is the reason why the council was established, number one, the Creative Industry Council. And the council has moved the key public institutions along with representatives from various sub-sectors but also people from the media, from the private sector, and people from the Student Services Standard Bank; they're on the council."
A key element under discussion was regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), with creatives warning that if unregulated it could threaten the livelihoods of Namibian artists.
Additional sub-sectors such as animation and gaming have now been added to the framework.
The strategy's vision is to nurture and celebrate Namibia's creative talent, and it will feed into the National Development Plan (NDP).
Creatives also submitted a wish list of practical priorities to guide the final strategy.