Culture and Development

CULTURE

Culture and Development

Placing culture at the heart of development policy constitutes an essential investment in the world's future and a pre-condition to successful globalization processes that take into account the principles of cultural diversity. It is UNESCO's mission to remind all States of this major issue.


	©UNESCO/M.Romanelli International Folk Art Market, 2005, USA

As demonstrated by the failure of certain projects underway since the 1970s, development is not synonymous with economic growth alone. It is a means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence. As such, development is inseparable from culture. Strengthening the contribution of culture to sustainable development is a goal that was launched in connection with the World Decade for Cultural Development (1988-1998). Ever since, progress has been made thanks to a corpus of standard-setting instruments and demonstration tools such as cultural statistics, inventories, regional and national mapping of cultural resources.

In this regard, the major challenge is to convince political decision-makers and local, national and international social actors to integrating the principles of cultural diversity and the values of cultural pluralism into all public policies, mechanisms and practices, particularly through public/private partnerships.

This strategy will aim, on the one hand, at incorporating culture into all development policies, be they related to education, science, communication, health, environment or tourism and, on the other hand, at supporting the development of the cultural sector through creative industries. By contributing in this way to poverty alleviation, culture offers important benefits in terms of social cohesion.

Culture and Development Indicators
Funding Culture, Managing the Risk (Symposium, 16-17 April 2010, Paris)
Action in favour of indigenous peoples

Documents

Proceedings of the Symposium "Funding Culture, Managing the Risk"

On 16 and 17 April 2010, UNESCO brought together leading experts from the financial, development, academic and cultural sectors for a symposium on "Funding Culture, Managing the Risk" to develop innovative strategies and approaches to improving funding and financing opportunities for culture in developing countries.

The two-day symposium, supported by the Government of Spain and held at the Orga-nization’s headquarters, was part of a series of events organized by UNESCO’s Culture Sector aiming to catalyse new ideas and international action around the culture and development agenda.

Culture is a proven effective driver of development, with great potential and impact for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals; with only five years before the deadline for their achievement, 2010 offers the international community critical oppor-tunities to place the role of culture more centrally in development practices and policies.

This volume reunites the presentations from leading experts and practitioners in the field and captures the dynamic exchanges of ideas and experiences. Included are the key messages of the symposium and the lead-up event, a global online discussion, as well as proposals on the way forward for the culture and development agenda.

Read the document (pdf)

The Power of Culture for Development (Brochure, PDF)
Culture, in all its dimensions, is a fundamental component of sustainable development. As a sector of activity, through tangible and intangible heritage, creative industries and various forms of artistic expressions, culture is a powerful contributor to economic development, social stability and environmental protection.

As a repository of knowledge, meanings and values that permeate all aspects of our lives, culture also defines the way human beings live and interact both at local and global scales.

Consult the brochure (PDF)

Symposium on Culture and Development: a Response to the Challenges of the Future?

In the context of the current world crisis, when new solutions are being sought –although preliminary studies suggest that the cultural sector has been largely unaffected by the crisis – UNESCO welcomed the opportunity afforded by the 35th session of the General Conference, held in October 2009, to place culture back at the centre of the debate on development.

The symposium on “Culture and development: a response to future challenges?” was held at Sciences Po on 10 October 2009, with the support of the Government of the Kingdom of Spain, to reopen the intellectual debate on the “cultural” component, which could provide a new key to sustainable and fairer development. The time seems particularly right to focus on culture’s capacity for permanent renewal, owing to the creativity of individuals, peoples and societies, and on the capacity for devising alternative models of development rooted in each country’s rich cultural diversity.

Read the Report

UNESCO World Report 2: Investing in Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue
At the crossroads of intellectual, scientific and political thinking, this 2nd UNESCO World Report aims to take stock of all that is being said, thought and done in the name of cultural diversity, and tease out the necessary conditions for diversity to become an asset and not a threat, a source of renewal for public policies in service to development, social cohesion and peace.

No longer limited to the cultural domain strictly speaking – and more complex than often assumed – cultural diversity needs today to be addressed in terms of dialogue, dynamics, and the new specific challenges it may pose for languages, educational systems, news and entertainment media and the business world.