Source: https://en.unesco.org/creativity/news/interview-mauricio-delfin-entering-new-paradigm
Mauricio Delfín is director of Asociación Civil Solar, a cultural organization that builds bridges between Peruvian civil society and policymakers. Solar has fostered the creation of digital and social platforms aimed at fostering the democratization of the cultural and creative sectors. He attends the 7th Conference of Parties to extend the bridges from Peru across the globe.
Why did you decide to pursue a career in the creative sector?
I started working on promoting media arts and witnessed the impact of lacking cultural policies first-hand. This also led me to recognize the value and power of civil society to work around obstacles and absences, which made me interested in how to transform cultural governance from the bottom-up.
© La Ciudad Imaginada
What is an example of civil society mobilization resulting in a positive outcome?
At Solar, we have mapped hundreds of initiatives in Peru and several others in Latin America. Results show that citizens have historically mobilized and organized to create civic-led networks to sustain arts initiatives, engage public policy design, and advocate for public spaces as a civic resource.
One of the greatest problems we have as researchers and policy makers is that we are still unable to learn from and account for these initiatives. This means we are also ill-prepared to strengthen them, providing the kind of resources through specific public-private alliances that could lead to greater transformations.
What is a recent positive trend you have seen in Peruvian Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs)?
The government recently developed a competitive funds program, which required the establishment of new accountability systems and selection processes. This meant that Peruvian cultural and creative industries had to begin a greater dialogue, exchange and contact with the State, a relationship that was simply not the same a decade ago. With a law of cinema and audiovisual on its way to be approved by Congress, we are entering a new stage in the relationship between civil society and the State, a context in which public funds are actually available for cultural production.
We are entering a new stage in the relationship between civil society and the State.
What is particularly challenging for civil society actors working to promote CCIs in Peru?
One of the greatest challenges comes from how the State works and relates to the civil society. Historically, the State has remained distant from citizen input and collaboration; we can describe public institutions in the sector as centralized, vertical and opaque. The States have yet to design specific mechanisms to manage decentralized civic participation. The current context severely reduces the potential for innovation in our sector.
What particular issue are Peruvian CSOs currently focusing on?
The Peruvian Alliance of Cultural Organizations (APOC) recognized that there are hundreds of civic-led agendas aimed at transforming the cultural sectors. Perhaps the first general is a heavily centralized bureaucracy and the absence of cultural policies at the sub-national levels. Many CSO address this by creating local networks that advocate for cultural policy change. The other key issue is advancing a more current paradigm of cultural development. Today, culture is still considered as something be “brought” to people or related to traditional fine arts. Many CSOs are creating the relationship between culture and memory, culture and artistic freedom, culture and environmental awareness, among others.
© Canada Council for the Arts
What is the impact of the 2005 Convention for CCIs in Peru?/significance that Peru is a signatory country?
While we were one of the first countries to sign and ratify it, the significance of the Convention is quite limited. There is a great need to reconnect civil society to the spirit of the Convention and to empower the hundreds of organizations. In my opinion this means going beyond a strictly CCI agenda and focusing on the idea of the “Diversity of Expressions”, and in particular on the other goals of the Convention that have great transversal impact, like creating sustainable systems for cultural governance and strengthening capacities for mobility, for example.
There is a great need to reconnect civil society to the spirit of the Convention and to empower the hundreds of organizations.
What are you hoping to achieve at the 7th Conference of Parties?
I think the Conference of Parties is a great networking platform, providing an opportunity to sustain conversations on global issues, which is a very difficult thing to do while working from our countries of origin.
I would like to learn about what CSO in other regions are working on to promote the Convention. It will be my first time at the Conference of Parties and Civil Society Forum and I look forward to the exchanges with my peers and other organizations.