Thank you for taking the time to answer this Strategic Survey that will be one of the key inputs to establish the guidelines of Central America’s Cultural Policy 2011-2013 that will be approved by the Presidents of the Central American Integration System.
This survey explores some of the needs the cultural sector has in Central America related to six thematic areas established during the last extraordinary Summit of Presidents in San Salvador, in 2010. These subjects are, in general terms, Central American identity; dissemination of cultural knowledge; the sense of belonging to the region; respect for the region’s cultural diversity; a culture of peace for the region, and a shared Central American vision. It also aims at identifying innovative solutions for these needs according to the cultural actors’ point of view with the perspective of regional integration. The information resulting from the analysis of the survey will be shared at Coordinación Educativa y Cultural Centroamericana’s Website. It will include a summary of the results and the strategic lines of the project.
This survey, that will include open ended questions and based on personal criteria, can take up to 20 minutes of your time. You will now find a glossary of terms that will be used in the survey.
Thank you again for taking part on this collective need identification project that will aid us to define a Central American Cultural Policy.
Glossary:
Cultural Agents: Are those individuals or institutions that exist within the cultural sector (see definition in this glossary).
Thematic areas: interest areas suggested by the Extraordinary Presidential Summit, carried out in San Salvador, on July 20, 2010, that will guide the institutional development goals of the Sistema Centroamericano de Integración (SICA) as well as the administration models of regional cultural policies.
Coordinación Educativa y Cultural Centroamericana/Sistema de Integración Centroamericano (CECC/SICA): institution that promotes cooperation and integration by aiding regional processes of communication, information, decision making and exchanges among policy makers and officials of the SICA’s ministries of education and of culture. These come from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama, Belize and the Dominican Republic.
Culture of peace: group of values, attitudes, traditions, behaviours and life styles based on respecting life, ending violence and promoting and practicing no violence through education, dialogue and cooperation, among others.
Discrimination: practice that attributes negative values to people belonging to a social group based on stereotypes and prejudice.
Cultural identity: Continuous and changing features, meanings and practices shared by individuals or social groups that are conscious of belonging to a group that is different from others.
Integration: cooperation among different social groups, institutions and/or countries that look for solutions to particular or common problems based on shared responsibilities.
Need: perception about deficiencies of a real state of affairs in relation to a desired state of affairs.
Central American Region: for this survey we consider this region as the area occupied by Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Panama.
Cultural sector: results from the relationships between institutions, individuals that regulate, produce, put into circulation, commercialize, among other activities, products and services defined as cultural by their high content of social meaning.