Development of Clusters in Cultural and Creative Industries in the Southern Mediterranean

The regional project “Development of Clusters in Cultural and Creative Industries in the Southern Mediterranean” aims to contribute to inclusive growth by fostering entrepreneurial cooperation in cultural and creative industries through the promotion of promising cluster initiatives. The project includes 7 participating countries: Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine.

Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected businesses, suppliers, and associated institutions in a particular field. By gathering into clusters, companies increase their productivity and competitiveness. Based on extensive field experience, the UNIDO cluster development approach is based on the following steps:

Cluster selection — identifying the clusters to be assisted

Diagnostic study — performing an action-oriented analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the clusters

Vision building and action planning — formulating a vision and a corresponding development strategy to be shared by the entire cluster

Implementation — managing and coordinating the activities outlined in the action plan, including the establishment of horizontal and vertical networks

Monitoring and evaluation — namely of the qualitative and quantitative outcomes of the project