Civil Society at the Forefront of Cultural Renewal: Algeria Launches Summer University for Associations
✍️ BY: Dr. Hana Saada
Algiers, Algeria | In a step toward strengthening Algeria’s cultural fabric, Dr. Ibtissem Hamlaoui, President of the National Observatory of Civil Society, inaugurated the Summer University for Cultural Associations on Thursday in Zéralda, Algiers. The opening, held in the Village of Artists, was marked by the presence of Minister of Culture and Arts Zohir Ballalou and a host of institutional, academic, and cultural figures, underscoring the event’s national significance.
Far from being a mere ceremonial gathering, the Summer University represents a strategic platform designed to equip cultural associations with tools of innovation, capacity-building, and networking. In her keynote, Dr. Hamlaoui underlined that the initiative is intended to transform associations into engines of creativity and guardians of identity, ensuring that culture remains a central pillar in the consolidation of Algeria’s national consciousness.
“This Summer University is not simply about training. It is about empowering civil society to design and implement cultural projects that serve society and reflect the aspirations of Algerian citizens,” Hamlaoui declared.
Culture as a National Strategy
Minister Belloul echoed this vision, stressing that the project falls within Algeria’s broader national strategy to institutionalize participatory cultural policy. He highlighted the indispensable role of associations as “vital partners in elevating Algerian cultural action and projecting it beyond national borders.”
The program combined high-level intellectual debates with specialized training workshops. Legal scholar Fatma-Zohra Benbraham, journalist-activist Abdelali Mezghiche, poet-journalist Ibrahim Seddiki, and academic Ismail Ibrir spearheaded panels on the safeguarding of national identity, collective memory, and tangible and intangible heritage. They also addressed the global cultural dimension of just causes, situating Algeria’s cultural struggle within universal humanist frameworks.
Workshops tackled pressing issues such as:
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Sustainable cultural project management.
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Audiovisual documentation of heritage and the arts.
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Communication and cultural content creation.
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Financial and administrative governance for associations.
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Mechanisms for registering cultural heritage and advocacy strategies.
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Networking skills for building sustainable civil society alliances.
The open dialogue format allowed participants from across civil society to put forward proposals, enriching the conversation with practical insights. For Dr. Hamlaoui, this was a demonstration of participatory governance in action, turning civil society into a stakeholder rather than a spectator in Algeria’s cultural development.
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