The Italian Agency for Development Cooperation. Culture as a People-Centered Path to Development: Best Practices from Fragile Areas—An Overview of Actions in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan

This text outlines the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation’s approach to culture as a tool of Prosperity, which contributes to the creation of favourable conditions for socio-economic development. It argues that such an approach must necessarily be people-centred and attentive to ownership and inclusivity, especially when dealing with culture, understood as a process and product of human expression. To promote culture in development involves prioritizing people’s meanings, goals, tools and, more broadly, societies’ right to self-determination and to establishing their own development priorities. An attention to culture and cultural diversity in development favors a process in which multiple parties come together and leverage their respective tools to achieve shared and more sustainable results. An array of projects carried out by AICS in the Region focused on in this volume, exemplify how, from a methodological and operational standpoint, Italian actions are designed to generate economic activity and participation for and through culture, placing people at the center.