* Received grant of P4 million against Artist’s request * Challenges include poor staffing, no offices
The National Arts Council of Botswana (NACB) has since its inception encountered numerous challenges and obstacles, including insufficient funding, receiving only P4 million instead of the P187.5 million grant requested by artists.
Additionally, the council operates with a limited staff, is hit by resignation of key personnel, and the lack of proper office infrastructure, which currently hampers its effectiveness.
Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport, and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare, communicated these challenges in response to a query posed by Member of Parliament for Gaborone Central, Tumisang Mangwegape-Healy, during a parliamentary session.
Rakgare said the Council struggles with funding, particularly regarding grants for arts and culture. Despite requesting P187.5 million, the NACB only received P4 million for arts and culture grants.
Consequently, deserving projects faced funding shortages.
"The allocated P4 million for arts and culture covers the entire country. To illustrate, with Botswana comprising 57 constituencies, the NACB has an average allocation of P70, 000 per constituency through the Arts and Culture Grant”.
Rakgare said to achieve the desired creative and socio-economic impact and ensure equitable representation in funding, the NACB requires at least P1 million per parliamentary constituency.
Rakgare said currently, the Council has 12 full-time staff members, a technical advisor, and three interns. The number needs to be increased for the Council to undertake its mandate, especially the National Arts Festival. More employees are expected to be employed in the new financial year.
He said that two Executive Directors, Board Secretary and Director Strategy resigned in September 2023 and November 2023, respectively, which negatively affected the mandate's delivery. The Council also experienced some employee relations challenges that affected the mandate's delivery.
Rakgare said the lack of regional offices across the country has led to minimal presence of NACB services, especially in remote areas. NACB is working around the clock to establish functional District offices to decentralise services from Gaborone Headquarters.
To help local creatives monetise their social media content, in 2023, the NACB engaged the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority regarding local artists benefiting from the social media platform.
Unfortunately, it turned out that Botswana is not included in the list of countries where the monetisation partner programme is available due to low volumes of content in Botswana.
NACB will continue to engage artists, content aggregates and social media platforms to solve the issue. It will also work with artists to increase their content so that Botswana can be listed.
Since NACB became operational in June 2022, the Council has achieved the following; Developed Board Charters for each of the four Board committees and one for the Board. In total, five Charters have been developed and approved.
NACB developed its strategy and was approved in August 2023, along with the annual plan. He said NAC started developing Organisational policies to govern the Council, and the policy development is continuing.
NACB organised a Pitso for the associations and artists to get their views and challenges before NACB developed its strategy. The dialogue was held in March 2023. The dialogue assisted the Council in gaining insights into the challenge’s artists face.
Rakgare said NACB continues to engage possible companies and other strategic partners for assistance. In November 2023, NACB facilitated one artist to go for a two-week exchange programme in China.
The Chinese Embassy fully paid for the programme. NACB has also secured funding in February 2024 from the French Embassy to undertake a study on the industry. NACB also signed an MoU with the National Arts Council of South Africa on February 20, 2024.
On regional Strategic Partnership Rakgare said NACB is working with the Arts Councils of Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe to collaborate and partner with each other for the socioeconomic well-being of artists in these countries.
As per the resolution of their meeting in Zambia on 21st June 2023, these four Arts Councils are currently working on a concept to host a four-nation festival on a rotational basis.
The Arts festival will be held at the confluence of the Zambezi River, where the countries of Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia share a waterbody/border. The initial proposal to hold a four-nation festival had been conceived during a visit by the National Arts Council Botswana to Zambia.
This festival would celebrate and preserve the four nations' shared Arts and Cultural heritage. It would also be an opportunity to exhibit the potential that the creative economies of the four countries had and promote tourism due to proximity and the various synergies.
Furthermore, that they have had online engagements with South Africa's, Singapore's, and Canada's arts councils in the last quarter of 2023. "We plan to engage more with them to explore positive outcomes for our artists in the coming financial year."
Rakgare said NACB had an official engagement with the Botswana Post Stamp Advisory Committee, Gambling Authority, Department of Broadcasting Services and Companies and Intellectual Property (CIPA), Gaborone City Council and National Museum and Monuments to create rapport, synergies and streamline collective efforts in service of the culture and creative sector.
NACB is working on possibly having a Memorandum of Understanding with all the above-mentioned in place. NACB is further exploring similar engagements with relevant local partners who can assist, partner, and collaborate with as they seek to discharge their mandate.
In total, NACB received 960 requests for funding amounting to P187,517,058.41 against P4,000,000. received for grants.
The Council managed to fund a total of 58 projects. P3, 131, 967.25 has already been disbursed to 49 projects. Forty-three of the funded projects have already been implemented and positively impacted the industry economically and creatively throughout the country.
Additionally, the council operates with a limited staff, is hit by resignation of key personnel, and the lack of proper office infrastructure, which currently hampers its effectiveness.
Minister of Youth, Gender, Sport, and Culture, Tumiso Rakgare, communicated these challenges in response to a query posed by Member of Parliament for Gaborone Central, Tumisang Mangwegape-Healy, during a parliamentary session.
Rakgare said the Council struggles with funding, particularly regarding grants for arts and culture. Despite requesting P187.5 million, the NACB only received P4 million for arts and culture grants.
Consequently, deserving projects faced funding shortages.
"The allocated P4 million for arts and culture covers the entire country. To illustrate, with Botswana comprising 57 constituencies, the NACB has an average allocation of P70, 000 per constituency through the Arts and Culture Grant”.
Rakgare said to achieve the desired creative and socio-economic impact and ensure equitable representation in funding, the NACB requires at least P1 million per parliamentary constituency.
Rakgare said currently, the Council has 12 full-time staff members, a technical advisor, and three interns. The number needs to be increased for the Council to undertake its mandate, especially the National Arts Festival. More employees are expected to be employed in the new financial year.
He said that two Executive Directors, Board Secretary and Director Strategy resigned in September 2023 and November 2023, respectively, which negatively affected the mandate's delivery. The Council also experienced some employee relations challenges that affected the mandate's delivery.
Rakgare said the lack of regional offices across the country has led to minimal presence of NACB services, especially in remote areas. NACB is working around the clock to establish functional District offices to decentralise services from Gaborone Headquarters.
To help local creatives monetise their social media content, in 2023, the NACB engaged the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority regarding local artists benefiting from the social media platform.
Unfortunately, it turned out that Botswana is not included in the list of countries where the monetisation partner programme is available due to low volumes of content in Botswana.
NACB will continue to engage artists, content aggregates and social media platforms to solve the issue. It will also work with artists to increase their content so that Botswana can be listed.
Since NACB became operational in June 2022, the Council has achieved the following; Developed Board Charters for each of the four Board committees and one for the Board. In total, five Charters have been developed and approved.
NACB developed its strategy and was approved in August 2023, along with the annual plan. He said NAC started developing Organisational policies to govern the Council, and the policy development is continuing.
NACB organised a Pitso for the associations and artists to get their views and challenges before NACB developed its strategy. The dialogue was held in March 2023. The dialogue assisted the Council in gaining insights into the challenge’s artists face.
Rakgare said NACB continues to engage possible companies and other strategic partners for assistance. In November 2023, NACB facilitated one artist to go for a two-week exchange programme in China.
The Chinese Embassy fully paid for the programme. NACB has also secured funding in February 2024 from the French Embassy to undertake a study on the industry. NACB also signed an MoU with the National Arts Council of South Africa on February 20, 2024.
On regional Strategic Partnership Rakgare said NACB is working with the Arts Councils of Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe to collaborate and partner with each other for the socioeconomic well-being of artists in these countries.
As per the resolution of their meeting in Zambia on 21st June 2023, these four Arts Councils are currently working on a concept to host a four-nation festival on a rotational basis.
The Arts festival will be held at the confluence of the Zambezi River, where the countries of Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia share a waterbody/border. The initial proposal to hold a four-nation festival had been conceived during a visit by the National Arts Council Botswana to Zambia.
This festival would celebrate and preserve the four nations' shared Arts and Cultural heritage. It would also be an opportunity to exhibit the potential that the creative economies of the four countries had and promote tourism due to proximity and the various synergies.
Furthermore, that they have had online engagements with South Africa's, Singapore's, and Canada's arts councils in the last quarter of 2023. "We plan to engage more with them to explore positive outcomes for our artists in the coming financial year."
Rakgare said NACB had an official engagement with the Botswana Post Stamp Advisory Committee, Gambling Authority, Department of Broadcasting Services and Companies and Intellectual Property (CIPA), Gaborone City Council and National Museum and Monuments to create rapport, synergies and streamline collective efforts in service of the culture and creative sector.
NACB is working on possibly having a Memorandum of Understanding with all the above-mentioned in place. NACB is further exploring similar engagements with relevant local partners who can assist, partner, and collaborate with as they seek to discharge their mandate.
In total, NACB received 960 requests for funding amounting to P187,517,058.41 against P4,000,000. received for grants.
The Council managed to fund a total of 58 projects. P3, 131, 967.25 has already been disbursed to 49 projects. Forty-three of the funded projects have already been implemented and positively impacted the industry economically and creatively throughout the country.
