About the initiative

The Goethe-Institut is represented in over 50 development cooperation countries. Every day, our work with partners demonstrates first-hand that a thriving cultural landscape and confident arts and academic scenes decisively influence the development of a country: artists, academics and people engaged in the cultural sector are seismographs as well as creators of social change. For these reasons, the Goethe-Institut is committed to supporting cultural and media players on location with targeted educational and promotional programmes. In late 2008, the Goethe-Institut launched the “Culture and Development” Initiative to intensify and consolidate its activities in development cooperation countries.

It began with conceptual focal points in Southern Asia, Southeast Asia and in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Pilot programmes were carried out there and in sub-Saharan Africa, which will carry on in 2010 and 2011 while further development cooperation regions will be included.

The cultural initiative is active in four spheres:

• Capacity Development
• Consulting and Networking
• Cooperation with civil society
• Creation of Cultural Spaces, Cultural Preservation and Infrastructure

The projects within these spheres are planned for the long term and initiated, designed and realized together with partners from the arts and media, education, academics and business from the host countries and from Germany. We meet together under the premise that, in the cultural sector in particular, intercultural dialogue on equal footing is a learning, thinking and production process from which both sides benefit. The initiative’s programmes – from advanced training for cultural managers to consulting for the establishment of a platform for museum educational services – contribute to the creation of networks that enable dialogue and cooperation between people in the cultural sectors of neighbouring countries or regions.

Artistic productions, cultural events such as festivals and exhibitions that the participants in the educational programmes develop and realize are conceptually supervised and, depending on pertinence and possibilities, integrated in the cultural programming or library and information work of the Goethe-Institut. For example, following the Cultural Management in Africa advanced training course, the fashion show Renaissance Fashion was conceived by cultural manager Alemayehu Seife-Selassie and realized in Addis Ababa and in Munich.