The Ministry of Culture and National Bureau of Statistics, DANE, have developed a methodology for measuring the economic impact in the cultural field.
This measurement permits to know, discuss and analyze how cultural products and activities are funded and who funds them, as well as to know who are the main beneficiaries.
Since 2006, Colombia began implementing economic information system called Culture Satellite Account (CSC) in the framework System of National Accounts of the United Nations (1993). This system aims to generate information of the sector for sectorial analysis regarding cultural activities within the country, in order to enable appropriate and efficient public and private decision making for the sector.
The Ministry of Culture and DANE have signed an interadministrate agreements in order to build a first approach to the measurement of the cultural field, through the Culture Satellite Account identifying the activities that have produced cultural goods and services for the period of 2000-2007.
Within this measurement are included the following activities: publishing books and periodicals, radio broadcast, television and cable, advertising, photography, research and cultural development, cultural and recreational services (which includes the production and exhibition of film, radio and television, theater, artistic services, private culture organizations, etc.), museums, art education and government services in producing goods and services considered to be cultural.
The measurement has been an important reference in the cultural sector as it accounts for the aggregate behavior of the sector and the sectors referenced. After this first version it was considered necessary to implement a methodology with a higher level of disaggregation in terms of cultural activities measured. To this end the Ministry of Culture and DANE are using as a basis for the remeasurement of the Satellite Account of Culture, the Sourcebook of the Convenio Andrés Bello, 2009 which specifies the requirements and characteristics of a Culture Satellite Account for implementation in Latin America to allow comparability of results with those countries that implement it.
This methodology provides for the measurement of the cultural field restricted to the following areas: creative writing, music, theater, performing arts, visual arts, books and publications, audiovisual art and new media, music, design, games, tangible heritage, natural heritage, intangible heritage and cultural training. Each of these sectors is associated with a number of sub-sectors, activities and products that have a more specific view of the cultural activity, compared to the methodology used in the first measurement of the Satellite Account of Culture.
Click here to see the results of this measurement exercise of the account of production, market balances and expense accounts in the activities and products of books and publications, performing arts, audiovisual sector and music, these being the pilot sectors for the implementation of this new measurement methodology for the period 2005-2010.
Thus, it is intended that in the next two years the research will have covered the twelve sectors identified in this new methodology and give information on the production, intermediate consumption and added value; balances of supply vs consumption, expense accounts and total cultural sector employment as regards activities and products of the cultural field.