PNP Welcomes Insurance Scheme for Creative Practitioners, Highlights Key Policy Gaps for Long-Term Success
Kingston, Jamaica. November 13, 2024: The People’s National Party (PNP) extends its congratulations to the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sport on the launch of the Jamaica Entertainers and Creatives Insurance Plan (JECIP). PNP Spokesperson on Culture and Creative Industries, Dr Deborah Hickling Gordon, commended the initiative at the launch on November 12, stating, “Anything that positively impacts Jamaica’s culture, creative economy, and its practitioners is a welcome addition to the landscape and is a good thing.”
However, Dr. Hickling Gordon cautioned that existing policy gaps for the growing, changing, and increasingly complex creative ecosystem could hinder the insurance plan’s effectiveness and sustainability. Specifically, she questioned the lack of clarity in defining the Entertainment Culture and Creative Industries (ECCI): “Most of the questions at the launch came from creative workers who are unsure of where they fit within the ECCI, and whether they qualify for government initiatives like this insurance scheme,” she noted. “We call on the Ministry to publicly define and classify the range of industries within the ECCI so that practitioners across the at least twenty sub-sectors of the creative economy can understand how they might benefit.”
Dr. Hickling Gordon further proposed an additional, optional contribution feature within the insurance plan, that would allow allow policyholders to match the government’s contribution to enhance their benefits. “While the Insurance Plan is a welcome start, it may struggle to maintain its sustainability in its current configuration”. The Scheme requires that cultural and creative practitioners join the Entertainment Registry. That is intended to increase compliance and formalise the sector. This, however, raises concerns about the scheme’s capacity, questioning whether adding large numbers of new registrants might limit access to benefits under the current budget and in its current form.
The government will spend 55 million dollars from the Consolidated Fund to provide policies free of cost to entertainment and creative practitioners listed on the Entertainment Registry. “This guarantees the return to and eliminates the risk of the underwriters, Guardian Life. It is an important first step with our financial partners. To further grow the sector, we must encourage the development of financial instruments that can respond to the financial nuances of the cultural and creative sector”.
The PNP Shadow Minister also highlighted the challenges faced by emerging fields like pyrotechnics, independent media, and social media management, which lack formal recognition and dedicated professional associations within the current ECCI. This, she said, could limit their access to insurance benefits and representation within the sector. It is an issue that needs to be addressed.
In responding to the Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport’s ‘dare’ to successive governments’ possible attempts to remove programmes such as these when the administration changes, Dr. Hickling Gordon notes that PNP policies for the cultural and creative economy are comprehensive, progressive and sustainable; and seek only to improve on initiatives that make the lives of cultural and creative practitioners better.
