The information was provided by Guilherme Bragança, technician of the Project Procultura PALOP-Timor-Leste, being one of the programs called Diversity, which aims to boost the identity issues related to the development of cultural diversity in these countries.
"With Diversidade, it is expected to be able to support around 400 projects in all PALOP and Timor-Leste. It is a very ambitious goal", said the technician who is responsible for implementing the program in Cape Verde.
The program is open to applications from projects in the various cultural sectors, with funding from 2 thousand euros to 20 thousand euros, said the same source, stating that, in total, there are 100 thousand euros for each country, to be managed throughout of the entire project, until 2023.
Applications are already running and are open to all sectors, public, private or civil society, and the priorities are young people, women, areas with the most challenges, job creation and improving people's living conditions.
During the presentation of the program, the director-general of Planning, Budget and Management of the Ministry of Culture and Creative Industries of Cape Verde, Marly Cruz, indicated that in four years the Ministry received applications from 481 projects, in an amount exceeding 6.3 million euros, but fails to finance them all.
"These data are elucidating the potential of the sector and the need to create tools to access financing", said the official, for whom Cape Verde sees in the Diversity program "a great opportunity" for civil society to act proactively on its projects.
He also said that the initiative will respond, in part, to the growing demand for financing requests and give a new dynamic to the cultural sector in Cape Verde.
The PALOP-Timor-Leste Procultura Project is budgeted at 19 million euros, of which 17.7 million are financed by the European Union, 1.2 million by Camões - Institute for Cooperation and Language and 90,000 euros by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
It intends to support projects for job creation, training, capacity building for cultural agents, artists, mobility in the cultural area and in the development area.
For the Portuguese ambassador to Cape Verde, Helena Paiva, Diversidade is an "ambitious program" and a "determining stimulus" for cultural initiatives in these six countries, which can apply with small projects.
In turn, the European Union ambassador to Cape Verde, Sofia Moreira de Sousa, stressed that the project Procultura PALOP-Timor-Leste, in general, and the Diversity program will not respond to all initiatives, but guaranteed that they will make it possible that some "see the light of day and gain some energy", especially in the initial phase, so that later they can develop.
As part of Procultura, which started months ago, Sofia de Sousa said that there are already several activities taking place, linked to literature and the arts in general.
Applications are open until September 2022 in each of the PALOP countries (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe) and Timor-Leste.
