La cultura contribuisce direttamente ai cinque pilastri dell’Agenda 2030: Persone, Pianeta, Prosperità, Pace e Partenariato. In particolare, la Cooperazione Italiana valorizza la cultura come strumento di sviluppo socio-economico, dunque strumento di Prosperità. Tale approccio ha una storia che affonda le radici nella conferenza Culture Counts di Firenze (1999), co-promossa dalla Banca Mondiale e dal Governo italiano in cui, in maniera all’epoca innovativa, si affermava il ruolo della cultura nello sviluppo sostenibile interpretandola come poliedrica risorsa. Il G20 della cultura del 2021 a Roma ha riaffermato il ruolo della cultura come risorsa per l’economia dei servizi, innanzitutto, ma anche per l’economia della conoscenza e l’economia della sostenibilità.
Culture contributes directly to the five pillars of the 2030 Agenda: People, the Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership. In particular, Italian cooperation values culture as a tool of social and economic development, and consequently of Prosperity. This approach has a history whose roots go back to the Culture Counts conference of Florence (1999), co-sponsored by the World Bank and the Italian government where, in ways that were innovative at the time, the role of culture in sustainable development was emphasized, viewing it as a multifaceted resource. The G20 on culture in Rome, in 2021, reconfirmed the role of culture as a resource for the service economy, above all, but also for the economics of knowledge and sustainability.
In line with this approach, since the earliest days of its operation, the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) has invested in the culture sector, for a total of 70 million euro in the first six years of activity (2016-2021). These resources were distributed among four major areas of intervention: protection of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage; development of cultural and creative industries; development of sustainable tourism; education and broadened cultural awareness
AICS can count on consolidated expertise in the sector of protection of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage, a sector in which Italy has an extraordinary ability to generate added value. While actions on the heritage are a priority to protect the socio-cultural fabric of the countries that claim them, as evidenced by the projects currently ongoing in Tunisia and Morocco for North Africa and in Havana for Central America, at the same time, the actions on the heritage are catalysts for the development of sustainable tourism. In this perspective, a number of interesting actions are described on the UNESCO World Heritage websites regarding Petra, in Jordan, and Baalbek and Tyra, in Lebanon. AICS promotes the sector also by supporting innovative partnerships other than Cooperation: for example, in Bosnia Herzegovina where, with the project DDT – Digital Destination Tuzla, the Agency is working with other Italian (for-profit) enterprises, organizations of the civil society (non-profit) and local public entities to promote sustainable tourism.
Confirming its increasing commitment in the cultural sector, AICS has undertaken initiatives in the Western Balkans, also as an organization qualified to carry out projects financed by the European Commission. In particular, in 2020, the Commission appointed AICS to undertake an initiative in Albania for the protection and valorization of the prestigious archeological site of Byllis, with the aim of developing the local resources and sustainable tourism in the area and, in 2021, another initiative involved the entire region of the Western Balkans (The European Union, UNESCO, the British Council and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, which launched the project ‘Culture and Creativity for the Western Balkans’).
The project C&C4WB promotes the development of cultural and creative industries as tools for economic growth and social stability, confirming the Agency’s interest in an evolving sector, as is also the case of the AICS projects in Tunisia and Cuba. By combining creative skill, activities of production and distribution of cultural goods and services, the cultural and creative industries generate employment and income and contribute to build a public sector that is both democratic and open to the expression of creativity and cultural diversity, all fundamental elements for development.
Culture is, for AICS, a field of interest and continuous study, also in collaboration with the partners of the European Network of institutional agencies for development cooperation (Practitioners’ Network). In this context, AICS organizes events for the exchange of information, such as the recent webinar devoted to the protection of the cultural heritage as an engine of sustainable development in the Mediterranean Basin (November 24, 2021, ‘Protecting Cultural Heritage’ Webinar report) and the workshop devoted to the Culture of redevelopment of urban and rural areas in Central America (June 28, 2022).