ResiliArt Accelerator kicks off in Zimbabwe

Five women from different sectors of Zimbabwe's culture and creative industries stand the chance to benefit from customized online mentorship and coaching from international and local women creative professionals, to boost business visibility and open access to international markets for their products or services.

The ResiliArt Accelerator is a practical response to the recommendations from the series of #ResiliArt debates, hosted globally by government and civil society organizations.

Zimbabwe participated in these debates and culture and creative professionals expressed concerns on the limited access to global markets and the need for marketing and entrepreneurial skills specific to the various sectors in the industry such as music, fashion, arts and crafts, dance and film, for example.

This pilot project, funded by the Government of Japan, therefore seeks to respond to the existing knowledge and capacity gaps in industry, with a focus on women entrepreneurship due to the persisting challenges they face of marginalized access and gender imbalance, which were further worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNESCO has partnered with local civil society organization, MotoRepublik to spearhead this pilot project, due to their experience in providing spaces and opportunities to young creative professionals in Zimbabwe and the region.

The call for applicants has been launched and interested applicants are welcome to apply using this link.

Criteria for the applicants is below:

• Applicants must be females aged between 25 and 40 years.
• Applicants must have been running a creative business for at least three years.
• Applicants must be Zimbabwean citizens.
• Female creatives from any of the following arts disciplines can apply: Music; Performing arts; Film and audio-visual arts; Publishing; Crafts; Design; Digital and visual arts; Fashion.

Deadline for applications

The deadline for application is 16 May 2022.