Author Archives: cosv

When music bridges not just people, but in a continental kind of way… Singaot (for the) Miusik Kamp!

If you come to Vanuatu you’d likely arrive in the port or airport surrounding the capital Port Vila, on the island of Efate. If you are to be one of the few who doesn’t it’s likely you’d be greeted by the largest island in the archipelago – Espiritu Santo – a place of very little urbanisation despite being no stranger to visitors after becoming one of the United States’ major army bases during World War II.

A 30 minute drive north of here on a dirt road from Santo’s main town, Luganville, a local group of people (headed by Delly Roy) that focus on music, media production, cultural and youth projects in Santo are working with local communities and villages in Mon Exil, Fanafo, Port Orly, Vilvil, Matevulu and Rotar to build a camp for 60 musicians (from Vanuatu and Mozambique) to take place in October this year. The camp – Singaot Miusik Kamp (SMK) is part of a larger project, ‘Music Bridges’, and is a collaboration between communities, countries and continents. The overall objective of the camp is to favour the strengthening of the music industry as a tool of poverty reduction in the two countries by reinforcing the creation and the production of music goods and services in Mozambique and Vanuatu. It’s also a chance for these communities and musicians to gain first hand event management, logistical, and communication skills, while being part of a unique cross cultural music exchange.

The initiative is a partnership between COSV, a Pacific music organisation in Vanuatu (Further Arts), and an association in Southern Africa’s Mozambique (Music Crossroads), and funded by the European Union’s Africa Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Cultures II + ACP Films II Grant. These partners are working towards a shared path involving local, regional and international music stakeholders to reinforce the music industry and create the necessary conditions for young local musicians to generate income from their music production whilst reinforcing traditional cultural or ‘kastom’ values and how these elements can be brought into the global music industry without compromising the traditional culture. In Vanuatu and Mozambique music stakeholders face severe difficulties in affirming the sector as a source of economic gain as it is usually not backed up by a strong local music fabric and the geographical distance of these countries is perceived as an hindrance to enter international networks. Local artists don’t have the chance to move from their own country to attend music festivals and camps where they could improve their techniques and get in contact with international music circuits to promote their music. SMK is aiming to bridge that gap at a community level.

Planning began in October 2012, where traditional land owner and other landholders engaged to undertake works and supply materials for building and clearing the two sites – one strictly for artists and one for staff and administration (HQ).  Such materials included natangora leaves and wood for construction, as well as the planting of taro, banana, island kabis (cabbage) and so on for local food supplies. Not only does this provide income for the villages – through labour and food production – it also empowers these communities to maintain and pass on their own skills. Many villages are losing traditional practices, values and cultural activities (known as ‘kastom’) so the camp gives weight to providing a platform for the younger generation to learn traditional knowledge and wisdom, as well as being able to promote it to an international audience.

In April the first kastom ceremony was performed to clear the road for work to begin and for the site to be used for these purposes. The traditional land owner and all landholders were presented with kava, yam and woven mats as an offering to accept this endeavour on behalf of the villages and subsequent communities. The depth of community engagement is difficult to convey – in the past many of these communities have been disenfranchised by government driven projects that have resulted in exploitation of their kastom practices and their land. At the ceremony the representatives responded with enthusiasm and with their full support – a sign of the great lengths that the local team have gone to in ensuring transparency and trust in the SMK project with the community.

Inspired by the Ethno Music Festival which regularly happens in several countries in Europe –  the camp seeks to emulate the same philosophy of the promotion and the sharing of ethnicity through a music exchange in an ACP context. During the residential camp, specific attention will be given to music events organisation, production and promotion; copyright and distribution; licenses and intellectual property, and will be complimented by workshops following the camp in Port Vila. In the Pacific Islands context, it has been registered that intellectual piracy is destroying the local and regional industries, and in Mozambique there is a lack of knowledge within the musicians of Copyright Law and the different ways to release their products to maintain their rights and promote their music.

All of this will feed in to both this year’s Lukaotem Gud Santo Festival (October 11th and 12th) and Fest’Napuan in Port Vila (October 16-20th) – camp participants will open both festivals with original songs composed during the exchange. Make sure you come.

Words from Further Arts – Further Arts is a charitable association based in Port Vila that works towards empowering ni-Vanuatu to develop sustainable social and commercial enterprises in the industries of creative arts, agriculture and communications for the Pacific Rim.

 

Email: info@furtherarts.org

Website: www.furtherarts.org

Profit and no profit for co-development: a possible union?

(from the interview  with Marco Sergi, president of MEDInaTERRANEA)

You might think that, in order to enforce a co-development project, the intervention of profit entities, and at most of the institutions is more than enough: after all co-development is about economic investment of immigrant and Italian entrepreneurs in the country of origin, in our case Morocco. There is, however, a role that is fundamental in every co-development project, that of non-governmental organizations. NGOs are indeed  bearers of knowledge and relations with countries in the global South and they are the guarantee that trade between the countries involved can go to the direction of a sustainable, responsible and green business. In co-development, therefore, every actor involved has its own specific role: the profit sector has the technical expertise, institutions outline policies and allocate funds, the non-profit aims at building networks and  bringing together human, social and economic resources in compliance with corporate social responsibility.

First, we need to start with a common interest: people who want to return to their country of origin by investing in a business, Italian or other countries entrepreneurs attracted by the possibility of discovering a new market and internationalize their business, and institutions willing to implement certain neighborhood policies. A second key factor is the coordination between non-profit and business, which is often problematic due to mutual distrust, even if in this time of crisis some interesting relationships are taking form. The donor coordination is sometimes lacking, there are in fact projects of development, other of co-development, but rarely policies and funds go in the same direction. It is therefore necessary to work among civil society, institutions, and entrepreneurs in order to understand how to coordinate and allocate funds that go to a specific area and certain categories of people.

The co-development project that we have started between Lombardy and the Moroccan region of Tadla Azilal tries to create this productive coordination between the actors involved. In Milan, we have a favorable situation, not only there are institutions interested in the relations between Lombardy and specific regions of Morocco, but we also have people, within the institutions, who are highly motivated and have the desire to create a unique example in relations of this type. The project is also linked to the themes of Expo 2015, a major stimulus to push the co-development interventions and the launch of enterprises by returning migrants towards an idea of green and sustainable businesses. The two shores of the Mediterranean are almost equal regarding technical skills, ideas and policies related to environment and energy, therefore Expo has the potential to become a laboratory, a moment of exchange of good practices between North and South.

Co-development: a successful idea?

(from the interview to Maurizio Ambrosini, professor of Sociology of migration at the University of Milan)

What does it mean to talk about co-development today?

That migrants can play a positive and active role in the development of their own country and the country of arrival, is a concept that has not a long history. For a long time immigration was seen as a “disease” and returning to homeland was the right “healing”, in this sense, co-development was considered the “therapy”, the facilitator of the return process. Even today, especially in times of crisis, the policies of many receiving countries encourage the return of migrants as a response to poverty.

This approach, however, is doomed, as it collides first with the psychology of migrants who left their country with hope and pride and have no intention of going back failed and with shame. Return is seen well by the immigrant when he or she is successful and can go back with hopes of further improvement, typically when he or she has savings and exists in the country of origin a positive economic environment that allows to enhance investment.

When the weight of remittances in the world economic scenario was discovered, there was a change of direction, and migrants became a resource for development. Indeed, in countries such as El Salvador, Eritrea and Sri Lanka remittances are the first active voice in the balance of payments and, in general, remittances tend to be resilient even in situations of economic crisis: they declined in 2009, but as early as 2010 began to grow again. The stabilization force of remittances in relation to the economic conditions also extends to the social aspects of life in the receiving countries.

However, this does not mean that remittances are the solution to the issue of development, and that there is no need for a commitment in projects, investments and positive actions by governmental and non-governmental organizations of the global North. It is true that remittances far exceed foreign direct investment and the funds of international cooperation, nevertheless, are not enough. They can generate imbalances within communities and receiving countries, distorted effects such as the increase in consumer goods prices and imitative processes which bring more and more people to emigrate.

What are the conditions for migrants to be engine of development?

In many contexts co-development is already a reality: there are experiences in which migrants establish commercial branches, in which they create a channel for fashion or food export, cases in which they generate productive companies that enter in global North markets. It is not a matter of inventing new things, but to improve and accompany the processes that have already and spontaneously developed.

However, co-development can be a successful and meaningful prospect, only if there is a dynamic environment at the place of destination, where it is possible to place at the service of development resources and knowledge that migrants have accumulated due to migration. In this sense, the role of the country of immigration in the global North is crucial in encouraging and promoting network processes and economic growth in the global South. Indeed, it is necessary to intervene with measures aimed at balancing inequalities and enhancing public services, which can generate redistribution and improvement of living conditions for the greatest number of people.