The National Arts Council of Namibia (NACN) has started with its regional consultations on the amended draft bill and regulations for the National Arts Fund. 

One such meeting took place in the ||Kharas Region.

The purpose of the National Arts Fund is to promote and develop the arts in Namibia and to ensure that Namibia's rich cultural heritage continues to thrive in a modern and digital age.
 
Arts include all forms and traditions of dance, drama, music theatre, visual arts crafts, design, and written and oral literature, all of which serve as a means for individual and collective creative expression. 

"We are here really just to find out, as is the case with public consultations during law review processes, what the people in the south think about how the arts fund is administered right now and what we can improve on it, and so overall, hopefully we will have more turnout as we go through the regions, but one of the main inputs we received is how do we make it more efficient and more effective?" said the chairperson of the National Arts Council, Cecily Jacobs.

The regional consultations with key stakeholders are supported and funded by the UNESCO ASCHBERG Programme. 

"The way communication is happening generally for areas that do not have access to all the information is through these regional officers and extension officers, and so consistently having them explain to their constituency when these things are happening is also important, but as we are doing right now again, we want more people to come up."

Regional consultations will next be held in the Hardap Region, followed by consultations in the Omaheke Region.