Boosted by its success in South Africa, the International Network for Cultural Diversity (INCD) is ramping up its efforts to create a arts and cultural network for the African continent. The INCD has devoted much of this year to planning, organising and launching the Network for Arts and Culture South Africa (NACSA), the first national network to arise directly out of the INCD's work in Africa. NACSA is said to have boosted the nation's credibility among the global arts community and given a voice to national cultural issues. INCD’s challenge is to replicate this success in other parts of the continent. African countries face unique issues in developing national and continental networks to represent the interests of their arts practitioners. Lack of public support for arts and cultural industries and political volatility have prevented sustainable arts organisation in the past. To this end, an interim African Coordinating Committee was established at the INCD Conference in Croatia to coordinate activities on the continent. A year plan of activities has been drafted and the INCD hopes to have made significant progress toward these goals by its 2004 China gathering. For further information on the INCD, CLICK HERE.