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 A STUDY ON SOCIAL PROTECTION CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN  THE CULTURAL AND CREATIVE SECTOR IN MENA REGION POST COVID-19 

BACKGROUND: 

The Open Society Foundations’ Middle East and North Africa Program has served as partner and donor of  the independent cultural and creative industries across the MENA region for the past two decades. Its  work has focused on field building, supporting an ecosystem for production, and incubating and  strengthening core cultural institutions at the national and regional levels.  

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on the cultural and creative industries. Around the  world, the livelihoods of artists and cultural professionals have been profoundly affected by lockdown and  physical distancing measures. The precarious nature of their work has made them particularly vulnerable  to the economic shocks caused by the crisis, which have, in turn, exacerbated the creative sector’s  preexisting volatility and inequalities. Artists and cultural professionals have lost their jobs in record  numbers and around the world, the sector is fighting to survive. 

The COVID-19 crisis has also revealed a persistent need for improved mechanisms to protect the social,  economic and working conditions of artists and cultural professionals. Now, more than ever, the status of  the artist must be upheld, strengthened and reinforced. The question around social protection in the  creative industries has emerged strongly post-COVID19 and continues to raise questions on how different  actors within the ecosystem plan to adjust to a new reality where artists and cultural practitioners are not  left unprotected. 

RESEARCH SCOPE & GUIDING QUESTIONS: 

The Open Society Foundations’ MENA Program is interested in better understanding the nature of  precariousness and fragility of the creative and cultural sector, as made evident by the COVID19 crisis,  across the MENA region. We seek to better articulate the needs of the sector’s labor by identifying the  unique employment characteristics, the policies that are designed to protect the sector (or lack thereof)  and emerging models regionally and globally that can be promoted across MENA countries. In specific,  this research is meant to answer the below questions: 

– Understanding the Arts and Culture labor sector: sub-sectors(performing arts, visual arts,  music, film, curation, literature and publishing, etc.), diverse forms of employment (artist,  technician, curator, producer, distributor, etc.) , cultural economies, and cultural policies. 

– COVID19 and its impact on the sector; how did governments respond? What emerging  needs are becoming more evident post COVID19? 

– The MENA Region and Employment Policy Trends: Where does the Artist fit? Inequalities  within the arts and culture sector?  

– Non-governmental stakeholders: the role of civil society and the private sector in securing  and protecting the sector’s workers. 

– What are the prospects for promoting social protection within the cultural sector? (Social  Security Systems, unions, cooperatives, for-profit models, informal solidarity networks)

To implement the above, the Open Society Foundation’s MENA Program seeks to hire a researcher and/or  team of researchers to conduct a quantitative and qualitative study on the impact of COVID19 on the  cultural sector in MENA. The study will be published and used to inform a larger civil society community  that operates within the sector.  

The research should seek to:  

1. Identify trends and emerging issues in the sector through a bottom-up data analysis (focusing  on the hundreds of applications received by emergency assistance programs launched in  2020, as well as select interviews with a representative sample of the sector from each  country); 
2. Map social protection policy and alternative models in MENA countries by assessing existing  capacities of institutions, programs and schemes. This will include reaching out to key  stakeholders such as Ministries of Culture, Social Security Institutions, Artist Unions (if  applicable), Cooperatives and Civil Society Organizations, and, international and multilateral  organizations leading work within this domain such as International Labor Organization,  UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF, UNCTAD and others; and finally, 

iii. Based on the mapping, the consultancy should identify capacity constraints and bottlenecks  in the sector, and present recommendations to OSF and the Arts and Culture Donors’ Group  in MENA on how to identify opportunity for either advocating for policy-reform or incubating  potential viable alternative models. 

GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE: 

The mapping should focus on Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Iran1. Nevertheless, for  comparative and general reference, a look into modalities present in the larger region (Gulf region, Iran,  and Turkey) would be welcomed.  

METHODOLOY AND DELIVERABLES: 

Data sources should vary to ensure triangulation of findings. Methods to collect quantitative and  qualitative data for the assignment include: (i) preliminary data decoding of applications received by  anchor organizations leading emergency assistance programs, (ii) online and desk research for context  analysis, policy development process and history, and a general literature review; and (iii) online and face  to face interviews with artists, cultural practitioners, staff of partner cultural organizations, experts and  representatives of different international and national organizations, and government officials. The  assignment allows for some travel to the selected countries in order to conduct more in-depth research  and interviews. Whenever possible, the qualitative analysis should be enriched with publicly available  statistics.  

The research team should produce: 

– A brief inception report / study design (max 4 pages) within one week after the beginning of the  assignment. This will define the scope of work as understood by the consultant(s) and include a work  plan. The inception report will be approved by OSF before the consultant(s) can pursue the  assignment. 

– A comprehensive assessment draft report clearly detailing responses to the study objectives listed  above. 

– A minimum of two roundtable discussions to inform OSF and its partners on findings and  recommendations. 

– A final report that will incorporate the comments provided by OSF to be published.