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7. Conclusions and Recommendations

Country Overview of Algeria

7. Conclusions and Recommendations

7. Conclusions and Recommendations

Output of a civil war that lasted ten years (1990-2000) and has profoundly changed the structure of society, Algeria has had, in recent years, substantial financial resources to build a strong cultural sector capable of strengthening social cohesion[1] and contribute to human development and the country's social and economic states.

But imbued with the reflexes of colonial cultural policy and the command economy, the governance selected to manage the cultural sector since 2000 turned counterproductive: Attacks on freedom of artistic expression, freedom violations of cultural entrepreneurship, folklore ... are all aspects that mark and characterize the cultural sector in Algeria today. Getting rid of all that is a challenge that we must absolutely overcome. To do this, a set of urgent entrepreneur actions, including the re-centralization of the Ministry of Culture to the heart of business, namely the regulations and promotion of civil society and the private sector to undertake in the cultural area. More specifically, it is:

1. Develop a clear cultural policy in consultation with civil society, and get it approved by the Government, in order to set the objectives and the means to achieve specific targets, and in which the Ministry of Culture only plays the role of regulator and not an entrepreneur.

2. Release the cultural institutions from the too rigid supervision of the Ministry of Culture: designing new statutes for these institutions to develop more effective financial and moral autonomy.

3. Strengthening mediation and cultural communication: within cultural institutions and schools in order to engage the public.

4. Create academic training in the trades of arts and culture in order to train cultural managers, cultural mediators, cultural administrators, etc.

5. Encourage private investment in the cultural sector: notably by loosening the requirements for the show promoter's license, to reduce subsidies in the publishing industry...

6. Involving the private sector in the financing of culture in particular supporting the tax exemption and communicating devices around the action taken.

7. Decrease the conditions for the creation of artistic and cultural associations, but for that you have to go through the modification of Law No. 12-06 of 12 January 2012 on associations.

8. Increase the budget for the independent cultural sector (civil society) to move it from 0.2% of the overall budget of the Ministry of Culture at a minimum of 5% initially.

9. Strengthen the capacity of the independent cultural sector through training workshops in management of cultural projects, research funding, etc.


  • [1] « Le vide laissé par le déficit culturel a vite été comblé par une vision réductrice et vindicative de la religion qui n’a pas tardé à être exploitée dans le cadre de stratégies violentes visant à l’accaparement du pouvoir et qui allèrent en Algérie jusqu’à leur plus extrême manifestation durant la « Décennie noire ». Les intellectuels animant la vie culturelle du pays furent une cible privilégiée de ce terrorisme sans foi ni loi. ». Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Discours. Alger, Capitale de la Culture Arabe, 2007.
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