At the request of the Rwandan Minister for Youth, Sports and Culture, UNESCO provided expertise and technical assistance for preparing a fund-raising application for the Pan-African Dance Festival (FESPAD) in Rwanda. Under the participation programme the Rwandan National Commission for UNESCO received financial assistance from the Organization (US $20,000) for the second Dance Festival for Peace, held in Kigali on 9 September 2000 under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity. In addition, a feasibility study for the establishment of a pan-African museum of musical instruments was carried out as part of the support provided for the Pan-African Music Festival (FESPAM), drawing on US $5,000 of funds decentralized to the UNESCO Office in Luanda.

A framework agreement comprising the following activities was signed with the International Music Council:

(i) Organization of an African Music Rostrum as part of the Pan-African Music Festival (US $5,000) in the Congo.

(ii) Organization of the First Congress of the Pan-African Society for Music Education (US $3,000) in Zimbabwe.

(iii) Organization of polyphonic encounters and choral music workshops (US $5,000) in Benin.

(iv) Organization of a subregional workshop on pre-school music education (US $5,000) in Senegal.

(v) Organization of a training workshop on traditional African music and dance for Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking teachers ($5,000) in Angola.

The Seventh International Theatre and Puppet Festival of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) was held from 28 October to 4 November 2000 as part of cooperation between UNESCO and the International Theatre Institute. The festival was a great success, especially its various workshops attended by some thousand people. US $6,000 were decentralized for the publication in Dakar (Senegal) of two collections of stories and a new anthology of young authors in order to promote creative writing. Furthermore, UNESCO gave its patronage to the 2001 African Performing Arts Market (MASA 2001) in Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire), providing financial assistance of US $10,000 for a drama and composition workshop.

Financial assistance in the region of US $7,000 was given to Burundi to organize a Choir and Orchestra Festival, which included a three-day workshop on copyright.

Other activities are summarized below:

(i) In cooperation with the UNESCO Office in Luanda, to which the work had been decentralized, a regional meeting was organized in South Africa on art education in Africa, bringing together high-level experts to develop primary- and secondary-school curricula and teaching aids for an education reflecting national forms of cultural expression and open to universal culture (US $40,000).

(ii) In collaboration with the Cape Verde Permanent Delegation to UNESCO, a musical gala was organized in honour of the "Music and Peace" programme.

(iii) Four African poets attended the celebration of World Poetry Day held in Delphi (Greece) from 18 to 21 March 2001.

Crafts

At the Seventh Ouagadougou International Arts and Crafts Fair (in Burkina Faso) from 27 October to 5 November 2000, three creative craftworkers from Mali, Uganda and Burkina Faso were honoured for their high-class work in metal, ceramic and textiles. The special "Iron Roads in Africa" prize (US $500) was awarded to a young Burkina Faso craftsman. UNESCO also provided US $20,000 of financial assistance for technical and intellectual preparation of the second International Festival of African Fashion, which took place in Niamey (Niger) from 10 to 13 November 2000.

On the fringe of the Ouagadougou Arts and Crafts Fair, crafts officials from sixteen African countries attended a consultation meeting in the Burkina Faso Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 31 October 2000 to evaluate the Ten-Year Plan for the Development of Crafts in the World (1990-1999). The meeting was also used for an exchange of ideas on African countries' priority needs in the field of crafts.

A subregional advanced training workshop for craftswomen working in textiles was held in Dakar (Senegal) from 20 to 30 November 2000. A total of US $32,000 was spent on organizing this workshop, which brought together ten craftswomen from six West African countries (Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal). The preparations were made in close cooperation with the Dakar Office. The training was provided by the Leydi Centre - run by a Senegalese woman fashion designer - in collaboration with two specialist women crafts consultants. The participants agreed that they had gained by the breadth of knowledge acquired (ranging from the study of colours to practical work on textile decoration, and taking in workshop visits). The trainers, for their part, confirmed the craftswomen's active and enthusiastic participation in the entire programme and the friendly and relaxed atmosphere in which the practical work had taken place - which was all the more notable in that the ten women present came from a variety of countries with different official languages (English, French and Portuguese).

Books and cultural industries

In order to discuss further the future of the regional plan for the cultural industries in the context of globalization, a regional consultation meeting for Africa took place in Cotonou (Benin) from 5 to 8 September 2000. This was originally to have been a "forum", jointly supported by the OAU, that would have been held in Abomey. However, at the request of the Beninese authorities, the meeting was turned into a consultation, which brought together some fifteen experts from all over the region. This event, planned jointly by the Division of Arts and Cultural Enterprise and the regional advisors for culture in West Africa, East and South Africa, was funded by the regular programme decentralized partly to Dakar and partly to Luanda. Its report was included in the documents submitted to the Culture Ministers' Round Table.

The Beninese Minister for Industry and SMEs, Mr John P.O. Igue, was elected vice-chairman of the Experts Committee on the Strengthening of UNESCO's Role in Promoting Cultural Diversity (21-22 September 2000).

Various activities relating to books and reading have been, or are being, implemented during this biennium:

(i) Cooperation with the African Publishers' Network (APNET) in Harare on national book policies, continuation of the SAP KAWI project (development of popular science books for young Africans by African authors and illustrators: the complete collection in English is in the process of being translated into African languages) and support for the Book Fair.

(ii) Measures to promote books and reading coordinated by the Luanda Office.

(iii) A workshop in Abuja (Nigeria) to develop a national book policy.

(iv) Activities to promote books and reading in Addis Ababa.

(v) A working party in Accra on book policy development.

(vi) "Reading for All" programme in three LDCs, coordinated in Bangui.

(vii) Pilot project on producing children's reading material, coordinated in Abuja, and pilot project on developing children's reading material in Accra.

(viii) Cooperation with cultural and reading centres in Gabon.

(ix) Coverage of African countries' many initiatives in relating to World Book and Copyright Day.

(x) In the field of cinema, support was given to African cinema festivals, including the Zanzibar Cinema Festival, the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) and the African Film Festival in New York.