Culture in Development
The Foundation recognises that culture should be central in governance and development.
Its new Commonwealth Culture Toolkit, amongst other things, highlights the uses of culture to achieve good governance and democracy objectives and respond to and meet human development needs.
In its work on people's participation in governance, the Foundation supported a number of projects which were culturally-based, including the use of local language cartoons and songs to encourage informed voting in Papua New Guinea, radio programmes and theatre to hold elected officials to account in Belize and drama to promote community level action against violence to women in Uganda.
The Foundation will continue to document and share activities which use cultural methods in governance and development interventions, and to give priority to such activities in its grant-making.
Culture in development discussed at the 2007 Commonwealth People's Forum
One of the ways in which the 2007 Commonwealth People's Forum was unique is that culture for the first time took its place among the subjects under discussion, sharing the stage and informing the Forum Statement alongside other key topics such as HIV/AIDS, human rights and education.
The workshop - Culture in Development: A Must for Sustainable and Equitable Development - started from the premise that, while there is a growing acceptance of the need to make culture an intrinsic component of the development process, there are few practical tools and mechanisms to make this a reality at both national and local levels. The meeting examined ways in which this could be furthered on the ground and will contribute to mapping out long-term plans for the Commonwealth Foundation and partners. It also examined what support cultural practitioners need in order to prosper, and discussed what Commonwealth-level structures are required as the Commonwealth's work in culture and diversity continues to break ground.
Among the main recommendations of the meeting was the Commonwealth governments should ratify and implement the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Culture Expressions.
Full statement text
The workshop was a collaborative effort between the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda, a civil society organisation that promotes culture as essential to sustainable development, and the Commonwealth Foundation.
Culture and Human Development: a Policy Discussion Paper prepared for the 2007 Commonwealth People's Forum (PDF)
Putting Culture First: culture, development and making the links
As part of the Culture and Diversity Programme's work on culture and development, a major research project called "Putting Culture First" was launched in March 2008. The project seeks to explore how links can best be made in practice between culture and development. A major report is scheduled for publication in November 2008.
