Aruba needs a national policy for its Cultural and Creative Industries. I welcome its development.
But I am concerned that, once again, we are repeating an old mistake: moving from political ambition into policy before sufficiently understanding the sector the policy is supposed to serve.
Go Cultura Foundation initiated Aruba's CCI Mapping in 2022 for exactly this reason. Before deciding where the sector should go, we first need to understand where it actually stands. Who makes up the sector? What is its economic reality? What are its barriers, opportunities, needs and potential?
Policy should follow evidence, not substitute for it.
Consultation alone is also not co-creation. A national CCI policy should not simply be developed after consulting parts of the sector. The sector itself should have a meaningful role in defining the problems, setting priorities and shaping the solutions.
The credibility and professional responsibility of those writing such policies should also be part of this discussion. Independent experts and consultants are not hired simply to deliver what a minister wants to hear. Their responsibility is to challenge assumptions, protect the integrity of the process and identify when the evidence base is insufficient, even when doing so may be inconvenient to the client.
A consultancy fee pays for expertise, not agreement.
This is bigger than CCIs. Aruba needs to move away from policies built around individual ministers and political terms. Ministers change. Governments change. Good policy should survive both.
The sequence matters:
Evidence → Understanding → Co-creation → Priorities → Policy → Implementation
Not:
Ministerial ambition → Consultation → Policy
We have an opportunity to do this differently. Yet once again, we appear to be repeating the same mistake.
The difference this time is that the sector is no longer waiting. It is organizing, finding its collective voice and taking ownership of its own development.
That may ultimately be what changes the outcome.