BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) says inadequacies in data collection have been identified by experts as a significant deterrent to measuring the true importance and impact of the cultural and creative industries (CCI) on Caribbean economies, a sector valued at more than US$1 trillion annually.

The bank on Tuesday said the issue of CCI as drivers of sustainable development and resilience in the region was highlighted during a seminar titled “Imagineering: Using Creative Industry Research to Devise Development Strategies”.

Chief of the Geneva-based Creative Economy Programme at United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Dr Marisa Henderson, noted that recent research showed that total exports of creative services worldwide reached record levels of US$1.4 trillion in 2022, almost double that of exports of creative goods at estimated at US$713 billion.

Despite these impressive figures, Dr Henderson acknowledged that the existing data likely “does not fully reflect the importance of these industries, because we have not been collecting [enough of] the data to date”.

Cultural economy consultant, lecturer, and coordinator of the Bachelor in Cultural and Creative Industries at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Dr Deborah Hickling-Gordon, said the scarcity of data as one of the two greatest threats to the development of Caribbean cultural economies.

“The truth of the matter is, if we can’t — and if we won’t — measure, map, or define the Caribbean cultural economy, we will be unable to adequately plan for its development. It’s really as simple and as complicated as that,” said Dr Hickling-Gordon.

She also noted the scarcity of political will as the other big threat, advocating for educating Caribbean populations about the importance of their cultural economies.

“Many of them still see it as just singing and dancing, but a festival is a source of economic growth because of the gaiety and excitement that it brings. So there needs to be a clearer understanding that there is value in gaiety and excitement.”

The CDB says that its Cultural and Creative Industries Innovation Fund (CIIF) project attempts to address data infrastructure gaps by training statisticians in data collection and analysis.

Chief Executive Officer of international development policy consultancy, Canaan Bridges Consulting Incorporation and CIIF team member, Dr Marsha Simone Cadogan, pointed out that protecting the intellectual property rights of creators is also essential.

“If we’re going to incentivise creators to create and to produce content that’s valued in society, it needs to be adequately protected.”