Integrating culture into development policy has moved up the EU’s agenda.
For decades, culture has been “a hidden component” of development policy in the EU and globally, says Luis Riera Figueras, the director of development policy at the European Commission.
The Lomé Conventions of the 1980s, signed by what was then the European Economic Community with scores of countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP), referred to the importance of culture in development strategies. But development policy remained almost exclusively focused on economic goals.
That has begun to change in recent years. Greater stress was laid on culture in 2000 with the European Union’s signing of the Cotonou Agreement with ACP countries, and culture is now, albeit slowly, being integrated into development policy. The need to do so was re-emphasised in June, when EU foreign ministers stressed the importance of considering the cultural dimension when drawing up development programmes.
EU officials are forceful advocates. “Culture is not a luxury for when the real problems are solved, a luxury that only rich countries can afford. It’s a real sector of development,” says Christoph Pelzer, a cultural expert at the EuropeAid Co-operation Office. Riera Figueras goes as far as to say that “we will fail unless we put cultural activities at the heart of our development actions”.
International institutions and donors now recognise that the social benefits of culture – as key elements of social identity and as contributors to a sense of community – can support development work. But they also see its potential in conflict prevention and reconciliation processes. There is also a belief that donors themselves benefit: a European Commission seminar held in Gerona this May concluded that the cultural sector has “added value as regards its potential to improve the efficiency and impact of aid programmes”.
“Culture is clearly on the rise in development thinking and doing,” Pelzer says.
Giorgio Ficcarelli, the head of the culture team within the Commission’s development department, suggests that a Commission conference held last year has been critical in boosting attention on culture. He argues that “by reaching a critical mass”, the conference, which brought together 48 ministers of culture from ACP nations and 800 artists and professionals in the cultural sector, “caught people’s attention and reinvigorated the debate”.
The conference, which was entitled ‘Culture and creativity as vectors for development’, highlighted the potential of cultural sectors in development policy and pushed for that potential to be recognised in national development strategies and international co-operation programmes.
The result was the Brussels Declaration, a set of goal and recommendations.
But this new emphasis faces a challenge noted at the conference by the then director-general for development, Stefano Manservisi: “Today, culture is still too frequently the last item of long policy wish-lists and is often left out of the development policy strategies due to lack of funding.”
For culture to be an integral part of development policy, the EU is aware of the need to produce proof of the economic impact of culture and that a strong economic case for culture may well be the principal way to change perceptions and win over sceptics.
A June 2009 study by the Brussels-based consultancy KEA, produced for the Commission, concluded that culture is a motor of economic and social innovation. A separate study, focused specifically on a partner country in sub-Saharan Africa, showed that Mali’s cultural sector accounted for 2.38% of gross domestic product in 2006.
The EU’s support for the creative and cultural sectors of partner countries includes funding that, for example, is meant to raise the production standards of handicrafts, interior design and fashion, and provide access to local, regional and international markets for these goods.
The EU is also using some of its funds – roughly €200 million was earmarked in its 2007-13 budget to support culture in other countries – to help to preserve cultural heritage. In Ghana, for example, the EU has supported projects to upgrade Old Accra, the historical centre of the capital, and the town of Elmina. The restoration of forts, castles and historic buildings, along with training programmes and setting up a tourist information centre and a museum, serve to provide a basis for the development of tourism as part of the local economy.
Anna Jenkinson is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.
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