The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) today announced the launch of a new fund to provide financial support and stability for the Region’s cultural and creative industries.

The Cultural and Creative Industries Innovation Fund (CIIF) will provide grants for innovative projects within the creative industries sector. It was established with an initial USD2.6 million contribution from CDB and is intended to become a multi-donor fund.

Director of Projects at CDB, Daniel Best said the Bank established the Fund to respond to the pressing need for a clear financing regime dedicated to supporting creative entrepreneurs in the Region.

“The cultural and creative industries sector is a major economic driver globally and has the potential to do the same here in the Caribbean. We are confident that support of the kind being provided through CIIF can help bring more stability to the sector, creating the platform for greater and sustainable growth,” said Best.

CIIF is focused on supporting projects within five priority sub-sectors: Fashion and contemporary design, visual arts, audio-visual design (including film, animation and gaming), festivals and carnivals and music.

The objectives of CIIF are to:

• support the enabling environment for the development of the cultural industries sector in CDB Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) with a focus on legislative reforms and incentive policies;
• improve the quality, depth and dissemination of research on the sector, and to strengthen the existing knowledge infrastructure related to cultural industries;
• enhance the technical capacity and knowledge of MSMEs in the cultural industries sector to improve their competitiveness to participate in local, regional and international markets; and
• strengthen business support organisations that support the cultural industries to deliver capacity building at national and regional levels in CDB’s BMCs.

CIIF is launching with a call for proposals under its Enabling Environment grant category which provides funding of up to USD150,000 per approved project. This category is for projects focused on creating platforms for the sector, executing significant business climate reforms or policy innovations or creating initiatives, which help reduce the constraints faced by micro, small and medium enterprises in the cultural and creative industries. Applications are available at caribank.org/ciif