The British Council operates an arts programme across Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) that seeks to enhance skills, networks, and business outcomes for creatives across SSA and the UK. It does through three pillars of activity – Creative Economy, Culture Connects, and Culture Responds to Global Challenges – that directly link to the British Council’s Global Arts Framework. 

This report summarises the final report in a four-year external evaluation of this programme by BOP, examining the cumulative impact of the SSA Arts Programme across the full breadth of activity. The SSA Arts Programme was created in 2020 with the overarching aim of supporting young people (aged 18-35) to acquire skills and knowledge, using arts as an enabler, and to create bilateral connections between SSA countries and the UK. The programme responds to the Global Arts Programme Theory of Change, ultimately contributing to the British Council’s goal of: Strengthening the creative and economic development of the arts, culture, and creative sectors in the UK and internationally to increase their contribution to social and cultural capital and to increase trust and favourability for the UK by building, deepening, and extending international connections and partnerships

Evaluation key findings

  • Sustained growth in income and sales: 77% of participants increased export value and/or sales, with a third reporting substantial gains. 84% of participants reported an increase in turnover, and a quarter described this increase as substantial. Most attributed this growth directly to the programme.
  • Job creation: 59% of participants created between one and twenty new roles, boosting employment opportunities in the creative sector.
  • Strengthening of businesses: Nearly one in four participants registered a new business during or after the programme, while 96% of existing enterprises expanded operations.
  • Increased collaboration: 98% of participants in the Arts Programme over the last four years are either already collaborating or actively considering it, with 74% accessing new or additional opportunities as a direct result of participating, 64% initiating new collaborative projects with other creatives after their involvement, and 54% taking part in collaborative projects during their time on British Council programmes
  • Enhanced market access: Both UK and intra-African commercial connections grew steadily, with significant improvements in perceived access to opportunities with UK creatives.
  • Boost to delivery partners’ capacity: Over half secured valuable new connections, almost half won new business, and a third accessed additional grant funding. Partnerships built through the programme are expected to have lasting economic value.
  • Catalyst for creativity and innovation: 70% of participants produced new cultural works and 72% developed new products and services

The British Council is actively working to be known as a space that supports arts and culture. Overall, there is a growing sense that the British Council’s SSA Arts Programme has been instrumental in delivering sector-wide, policy-level, and reputational impacts. Its work has directly shaped national cultural policies in Kenya and Uganda, formalised high-level strategic collaborations in Nigeria, and indirectly influenced policy through participant success stories in Senegal. There is evidence that these combined impacts have started to shape the role of the British Council SSA as an enabler of systemic change in the creative economy.

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