One question that has often been asked in certain Ugandan circles is why the creative arts have been overlooked by the government for so long, its potential largely untapped. For years, there’s been little progress on policies that could help lift the industry and turn it into an economic powerhouse for the Ugandan people.
It’s a question that Rachael Magoola, a musician, artist and politician in Uganda, has asked of herself. She became frustrated that more wasn’t being done to address inequities and gaps in the country’s cultural and creative industries (CCIs). And she knows this from first-hand experience.
Magoola is a member of the Afrigo Band, the oldest musical band in Uganda. This year, it celebrates its fiftieth year in existence, a milestone that few bands can claim to have reached. Yet very few people outside of Uganda have heard of it. “People enjoy the music but [the band] could have been a lot bigger,” Magoola says. One of the reasons for this, she adds, is because there is little support for artists in the country and a limited understanding of how to capitalise on their commercial potential.
This prompted Magoola to become the founder and chairperson of UGAPAFOCI, the Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Creative Industries, a nonprofit advocacy group that invites members of parliament to mainstream policies that would benefit the cultural and creative industries. To that effect, members have an interest in advancing the Ugandan National Cultural Policy, first introduced in 2006 to promote the rich cultural heritage of the country.
Unfortunately, there was little progress on its implementation until a draft policy was reintroduced in 2022, but Magoola felt the updated version lacked sufficient scope and didn’t look to the future enough. “When I looked at the draft culture policy that was to be presented to the president for approval,” she says, “I saw that a lot of aspects of the creative economy were missing. It was focusing on traditional values, customs and rights, but it did not speak to me as a musician.”
External expertise: ICR Facility
As head of the Forum, Magoola felt that the group could help address some obvious gaps in the policy with some support. It was then that the founder learned of the ICR Facility, a project that helps African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to improve the business climate, with a focus to remove barriers for women and youth. The Facility has access to a range of experts who can offer fully funded services including training, analysis, research, technical reviews, and advisory.
The ICR Facility’s role in this project – beginning in September 2024 – was to address the need for strategic revisions to Uganda’s cultural policy, especially with regards to inclusivity. Kobina Bosomtwe, who works for the ICR Facility, led the project. It included research into the current state, sector mapping, site visits, and interviews with roughly 74 key stakeholders across the private and public sector, as well as focus group discussions. On reflection, Bosomtwe says, “In terms of leading the project and also engaging with key stakeholders, I realised that the policy draft was not something that was going to work in the interest of the culture and creative sector.”
In context: Uganda’s creative industries
Uganda is a diverse and youthful country in East Africa – approximately three-quarters of its citizens are under 35 – with a rich cultural heritage. Exact figures are hard to come by, but a study of those working in the creative industries found that most are self-employed (38.5%), 29.5% are fully employed, while 90% of those surveyed said there’s no minimum wage. A separate report stated that most working in creative industries are women (55.8%), and 48.7% of people working in the sector are between 14-30 years old.
Some of the bigger challenges to the creative industries are: insufficient government funding, a lack of training and education, inadequate infrastructure, limited commercial opportunities, dilution of cultural heritage, too many informal SMEs, inadequate protection of intellectual property rights, and limited awareness of how the creative industries could create economic prosperity and spur innovation. In addition, women face more obstacles, including discrimination and sexism.
“The speed at which attention is given to the creative economy does not match the growth of the industry, and it has no structures,” says Magoola. She points out that there isn’t a dedicated ministry for CCIs, so the responsibility falls to six different ministries, which creates fragmentation and dysfunction. There’s currently a push to create a separate arts council as part of the reforms to the country’s cultural policy.
Addressing gaps in current policy
The ICR Facility’s desk research highlighted some of the previously mentioned challenges but also built support for new policies with a five-day mission trip with stakeholders. The objective of the trip was to build awareness, trust and buy-in for the project and to gather their views on specific recommendations.
A local consultant – procured through CDEA a creative think tank putting youth and women at the centre of conversations – also helped to lead discussions that canvassed a wide range of opinions about the creative sectors, from visual arts and music through to crafts.
One visual artist said, “There’s limited or no infrastructure like art museums, libraries, standard galleries. Therefore, artists are not producing in a conducive environment that would uplift their statuses.” Another from the performing arts put it more starkly: “Artists are venturing into other forms of work for economic reasons due to irregular income from the arts. Artists face extinction.”
A total of 11 policy gaps were identified as part of the project, which just exceeded six months, and there were recommendations created to address these. “The real outcome for us at the time that we finished the project was the adoption of the recommendations,” says Magoola, head of the Forum.” If they had finished everything and the ministry [Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development] said, ‘Oh no, these recommendations aren’t going to be beneficial’, that would have been a setback. “So for us, for the ministry to adopt these recommendations and say that, ‘Okay, these things also align with their vision for the sector’, that for us was very key.”
Implementation
Magoola accepts, however, that implementation may be some way off because government work in Uganda is like a “slow train” and cabinet approval can take some time. Instead of waiting for action, Magoola is pushing ahead with some of the recommendations that she calls “low-hanging fruit”.
She explains that the work of the ICR Facility impressed her. “I was so gratified because finally someone was saying what I’ve been thinking. The policy is very forward looking … it’s going to be innovative, and it captures the industry as a whole.”
There’s also more money in the budget for the creative industries — an increase of 18 billion to 66 billion shillings in 2026 — as a result of the Forum’s advocacy and its collaboration with the ICR Facility.
Reasons for success
Others wishing to emulate the successful outcome of this project should consider bringing together “a broad and diverse coalition”, says Bosomtwe. “This rich mix of voices and expertise elevated the quality of research and recommendations produced, ensuring they were both grounded and forward-thinking,” he adds.
The project lead also explains that the project benefited from engaging core players at the outset – the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and the Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Creative Industries – in co-shaping the scope of work. Bosomtwe believes the “collaborative approach ensured that the intervention remained responsive to the needs and priorities of the very institutions it aimed to support”.
The publication of this ICR Story were led by British Council. This was produced with the financial support of the European Union (EU), the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the British Council.
The ICR Facility is implemented GIZ, the British Council, Expertise France, and SNV. The contents of the publication are the sole responsibility of the British Council and do not necessarily reflect the views of the EU, OACPS, BMZ or the other implementing partners.
