What we value
Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust envisions a world in which Culture and the Arts, imbued with Africaness, thrive and are sustainable; contributing to wealth creation for African societies and where we harness the power of the creative arts to help positively change lives.
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We appreciate that sustainable development projects must be rooted in local culture and creativity dimensions and must continue promoting inclusivity and diversity. In this regard and within our current strategic focus, our work complies with the following commitments:
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Deliver support and funding, to the Zimbabwe and African creative sector; focusing on youth-driven work accessible through digital environments
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Promote and support focused conversations on Culture for Development and Cultural and Creative Industries; ensuring this dialogue contributes to sustainable development
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Value adaptability, agility and innovative approaches that provide solutions to societal challenges and deliver sustainable social impacts through tested approaches such as Culture Fund’s Creative Knowledge Toolkit (CKT).
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Seek partnerships with professionally-run organisations and entities that are held accountable and are transparent in presenting their programming and business models to the public
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Value deepened diversity and inclusion as important and enriching ingredients to mutually beneficial aspirations within societies
In offering our value proposition;
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We seek to work within society to re-imagine our world, profit from focused conversations, join hands in innovating and co-creating within collaborative spaces while exploring and profiting from the dimensions and nexus of arts, culture, commerce and development.
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We seek to continue positioning ourselves as a leading enabler and provider of technical and financial support for the arts and cultural sectors in Zimbabwe and the region, implementing Culture for Development and sub-granting projects that are pivotal to local cultures and creativity dimensions.
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We leverage our robust fund management capabilities and deploy our home-grown approaches such as the Creative Knowledge Toolkit (CKT).
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We seek to remain relevant in the society we serve; by designing and implementing initiatives that respond to local and global shifts in demographics, technology, politics and the economy.
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Most of all, we believe that our efforts must meaningfully impact communities and societies, arts, cultural and creative sectors in Zimbabwe and beyond.
We help strengthen Community Based Organisations (CBOs) capacities, empower girls, support women communities and promote peace, dialogue and social cohesion.
Resultant of the renewed development partnership between the Culture Fund and the Embassy of Sweden in Harare, CultureACTIONs was launched in 2017 with the aim to reduce Gender-based violence, child marriages and foster environmental sustainability in the face of climate change. It especially targets girls and young women. Culture-based arguments and societal norms that disempower girls and young women are being debunked through a Creative Knowledge Toolkit and used in advocacy and awareness campaigns to mitigate the social ills in the three districts of Mazowe, Makoni, Chipinge and Chimanimani.
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Women Can | Our Planet
CultureACTIONs
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A consortium of eight African, European and international partners joins forces with the European Union to create new opportunities and mobilise stakeholders to promote intercultural dialogue and cultural diversity in urban and peri-urban areas in Africa as drivers for social inclusion and sustainable human development.
DREAMS
Innovation Challenge
The Culture Fund’s Creative Arts Debunk Cultural Taboos in Zimbabwe | GIRLS CAN KNOW DECODE and ACT project was funded by a grant from the United States Department of State as part of the DREAMS Innovation Challenge, managed by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (JSI). This project was successfully implemented and ended on the 31st of March 2019. It drove demand creation targeting 6,000 AGYW aged between 15 -24 years in the 6 DREAMS Zimbabwe districts of Mazowe, Gweru, Bulawayo, Mutare, Chipinge and Makoni over the 2 year period. The target beneficiaries were situated in communities with high HIV AIDS prevalence according to the DREAMS assessment and confirmed by the Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey 2015 (ZDHS) and the 2012 Zimbabwe Population Census results. The intervention used creative arts to debunk cultural taboos inhibiting AGYW access to sexual reproductive health services (SRH). The Culture Fund programme created new imaginaries among the AGYW so they were motivated to seek services unfettered by the cultural barriers. The programme provided evidence that creative arts and platforms unlock greater engagement and participation of AGYW in HIV interventions as Girls can Know, Decode and Act. Ultimately the Culture Fund made a contribution to the overall target of reducing HIV prevalence among Adolescent Girls and Young Women. The Culture Fund DREAMS IC programme received support from United States President’s Emergency Plan on AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through John Snow Inc. (JSI); under the broader 10 African Country programme, DREAMS Innovation Challenge. Culture Fund’s solution,
GIRLS CAN KNOW, DECODE, AND ACT.
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CULTURE IMPACTS
Advocating Change
This programme successfully ended in July 2017 having sought to improve social cohesion through provision of interaction platforms benefiting the diversity of Zimbabweans, especially the disenfranchised; and to encourage dialogue on pertinent national social issues.
Culture Impacts two year programme activities were successfully completed in July 2017. Trust auditors, Grant Thornton, carried an expenditure verification audit in September/October, delivering a favourable report that was dully submitted to the EU together with all other final reporting deliverables. Additionally, a set of films covering programme change stories were produced by Tagteam films serving as useful tools to market the Trust programmes locally and internationally.
DEEPENING THE FOUNDATIONS FOR PEACE, DIALOGUE AND SOCIAL COHESION IN ZIMBABWE
In partnership with UNDP and GOZ (Government of Zimbabwe)
Running under a 3 year programme (2016-2018) seeking to enhance national and community dispute resolution capacities and providing dialogue platforms for consensus and confidence building around potentially divisive national issues (and processes), fostering tolerance and encouraging inclusiveness and collaboration in the delivery of development dividends to Zimbabweans.
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A Youthfull O' Peace campaign engaged and mobilised young Zimbabweans around the idea of peace and constitutionalism through various platforms;
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Peace Mascot Official Launch
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Our Peace My Peace
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Talk to the Mascot
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International Day of Peace
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Intra Community Conversations
CULTURE BASED SOCIAL NORMS RESEARCH ON WOMEN’S BODILY INTEGRITY AND THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS OF YOUNG WOMEN
C4D Public Seminar: Culture Fund in partnership with UNICEF
Running under a 3 year programme (2016-2018) seeking to enhance national and community dispute resolution capacities and providing dialogue platforms for consensus and confidence building around potentially divisive national issues (and processes), fostering tolerance and encouraging inclusiveness and collaboration in the delivery of development dividends to Zimbabweans.
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IMPLEMENTING PARTNER RESULTS
Here are the results of our Culture Impacts partnerships over the whole year.
MORDPPNCH
Ministry of Rural Development, Preservation and Promotion of National Culture and Heritage (MoRDPPNCH): Culture and Heritage sectors, government departments and structures in 73 districts of Zimbabwe as well as the wider Zimbabwean society on full dissemination
CULTURE IMPACTS OVERALL RESULTS
Estimated 287,000 audience under free expression activities; 200,000 respondents to ICT social dialogues, 10 community groups under arts training; 20,000 reached under GBV awareness activities; 60 youth trained in various art forms; 1 culture policy impacting the whole of Zimbabwe.
EVENTS @ CULTURE FUND OFFICES
EU ARTS CAPSULES - FOOTPRINTS BOOK LAUNCH
SWEDEN AND CULTURE FUND - GENDER BOOK LAUNCH
“A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.”
Our deepest gratitude to our partners whose generous support helps us to change the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.