UNESCO announces that it plans to develop in 2016-17 a new capacity-building programme on mobility and preferential treatment. It will emerge from a re-design of the UNESCO-Aschberg residency bursary programme for artists and focus on North-South and South-South cooperation, particularly through developing training modules for artists and cultural professionals.

As reported by UNESCO: 

Preferential treatment measures, implemented to achieve a balanced flow of cultural goods and services and increase the mobility of artists and cultural professionals, stand at the heart of the Convention objectives (See Global Report 2015).

In November 2015, at its 197^th session , UNESCO’s Executive Board approved the proposal made by the Director General in Document 197 EX/11 to re-design the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries Programme for Artists.

The Aschberg Programme had been established in 1994 to promote the training of artists by awarding scholarships for the travel and studies of artists-in residence. To enhance its impact, a newly designed programme of activities will be developed in 2016 and 2017. It will be based on promoting mobility and preferential treatment for artists and cultural professionals from the global South, and supporting creativity and cultural development in the cities of the South through support for exchanges between artists of creative cities, particularly via the Creative Cities Network.

So as to give artists better socio-economic conditions and promote their mobility, emphasis will be given to North-South and South-South cooperation.  The programme will also aim at strengthening capacities through the development of training modules relating to Article 16 of the 2005 Convention, targeting in particular artists, cultural professionals as well as trade negotiators.

This new programme comes in support of Resolution 5CP/11 taken by the Conference of Parties at its fifth Ordinary session (10-12 June 2015) and Decision 9.IGC 8, taken by the Intergovernmental Committee at its 9th Ordinary session (14-16 December 2015), which request the Secretariat to “develop a training module for the implementation of Articles 16 and 21 as part of its global capacity-building strategy”.