On 6th September 2017, the Ministries of Culture and Economy in Latvia launched an updated design strategy called ‘Design of Latvia 2020’ building on the first national design strategy from 2013.
The Latvian Government has recognised the strategic value of design and adopted a broad definition of design emphasising its importance in all sectors, industries and at all levels of decision-making and management. The strategy aims to...
"to fully exploit innovative potential of design as a strategic tool for promoting the economic growth, social welfare, cultural identity, environmental sustainability and the image of state in Latvia by 2020."
Policy-makers responsible for the development of the strategy took part in the Design4Innovation workshops in Bruges and Thessaloniki and used our approach and tools to conduct an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Design Ecosystem in Latvia, which underpinned 'Design for Latvia 2020'. For Dzintra Purvinia, one of the policy-makers in the Ministry of Culture behind the startegy:
“The Design Ecosystem is constantly evolving and changing. Using Design4Innovation’s Design Ecosystem model as the basis we were able to map and acknowledge all the players involved in the Latvian Design Ecosystem. We then performed a SWOT analysis and were able to diagnose the problems and identify possible directions for actions.”
This new policy for design provides a perfect framework for the development of Design4Innovation Action Plan and more specific measures for SME support for design in Latvia.
You can find a copy of 'Design for Latvia 2020' strategy in our Library in section 'Worth Reading'.
