Towards a Gender Equal World: the EU Gender Action Plan III

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• Gender marker: G1-Promotes gender equality as a significant objective 

• Period of implementation: 2021 – 2022

• Amount: EUR 526,547

• Geographical area: Americas and the Caribbean

• Implementing partners:

  • CISP (International Committee for the Development of Peoples) 

  • CIERIC (Interchange and Referral Centre - Communitarian Initiative) 

  • FLACSO (Latin American Social Sciences Institute) 

  • ISA (University of the Arts) 

• GAP III’s Areas: 

  • Economic and social empowerment

  • Equal participation and leadership

Empowering girls and women through arts and cultural activities? It's possible! Based in Havana, Cuba, the Havana CreActiva project targeted local inclusive and sustainable development with the power of the cultural and creative sector. Women's participation in cultural and creative entrepreneurship was key and a positive transformative effect on stereotypes and prejudices was seen. There was a particular focus on young women, mixed-race and single mothers in informal employment. 

The project sought to achieve its objectives by implementing an incubator for cultural and creative entrepreneurship at the University of the Arts in Havana and supporting them with training and resources. It created a platform for the promotion and commercialisation of cultural and creative products and services and stimulated the exchange of experiences between Europe and Latin America. 

Among the businesses supported by Havana CreActiva, many stand out for their positive impact. One contributed to the acceptance and use of menstrual cups in Cuba (including the delivery of 350 cups), while another significantly increased the number of women attending an important cultural fair (to 196). In one neighbourhood, black women launched an inspirational agenda, promoted an audiovisual exhibition of women filmmakers, disseminated advice and care for Afro hair, and debated cyber violence against adolescent girls. 

Other results can be seen in the statistics: most of the jobs created in the supported enterprises were for women (62 direct jobs, of which 33 were occupied by women). In terms of leadership, the management teams of 8 of the supported enterprises are mostly made up of women; in 5 of them, the leaders and legal representatives are young women. 

This is the first initiative in Cuba to support cultural and creative entrepreneurship in this way, and these results demonstrate its overall success. At least one of these outcomes has a lasting transformative impact: the women-led enterprises have created a collaborative network for the exchange of materials and knowledge that will continue after the end of the project. 

“Entrepreneurship is never easy, and the Cuban context often adds more challenges. Being a woman, Cuban and an entrepreneur is an incredible triad that, intentionally or not, is oriented to overcome several of Cuba's socio-cultural elements that many times do not make the road easy for women in the professional sphere. Currently, being a woman, Cuban and an entrepreneur is synonymous with being brave, creative and empowered.” Laura Salas Redondo.