Culture and Development

Culture engages people in different ways and projects may achieve many different outcomes which are hard to capture. For example, a single project may address awareness, personal skills, economic potential, human rights and community relations. It may enable someone to express their identity and make them feel happier. Problematic though this is to capture, it is hard to find another approach which could work in such a broad-ranging way.

This also creates some challenges for the development sector, in which there is often a ‘silo’ mentality which goes against a cultural approach which acts across different agendas simultaneously. For example, a project addressing awareness about HIV and AIDS may also address gender equality and increase participants' capacity to act and advocate for themselves.

Culture is not a universal panacea for all development ills. Cultures can act against development, but who is to judge what is ‘bad’ or ‘good’ for development? There needs to be analysis of why and how, and participatory discussion with communities about this, before solutions can be found. For example, culture may be a factor in conflict and violence but unless the cultural roots are fully understood, this factor cannot be addressed.

There is much to be learned yet about the impact of culture in development. There is insufficient monitoring and evaluation of quality and limited evidence.

However, the following image illustrates how using a cultural approach can generate multiple impacts in different areas.