Culture-based Development to Eradicate Poverty

The programme will involve various strategies to draw upon culture as a means for fighting poverty. For example, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will raise awareness of local stakeholders about cultural diversity through the introduction of a "Cultural Diversity Programming Lens" so that governance processes are more inclusive of ethnic minorities and sensitive to culturally-based development strategies. Developed by UNESCO Bangkok, this framework is an interdisciplinary tool to systematically analyse and evaluate whether programmes, policies, and practices do in fact incorporate and promote the principles enshrined in the adopted Declarations and Conventions.

Collaborators will also undertake cultural mapping and museum enhancement to improve the proficiency of ethnic minorities to understand and protect cultural capital and awareness of cultural diversity. UNESCO Office Beijing's Culture Section is involved in a myriad of activities, ranging from examining the roles of museums in public participation and education outreach to providing individual museums with assistance. Connected with this work will be the development of cultural tourism to build competence to manage minority community resources and leverage tourism for local livelihoods. UNESCO Office Beijing's Culture Section assists and advises the cluster country member states in sustainable tourism development, i.e. through attendance of tourism workshops and meetings, through workshops and seminars, and through dissemination of materials and tools relevant to the planning and development of sustainable cultural tourism. This also includes assistance to World Heritage Sites so that tourism development does not negatively affect the conservation of those sites.

This project will also undertake capacity building based on the criteria and conditions of UNESCO's Award of Excellence for Handicrafts programme to strengthen its institutional environment for ethnic minority arts and crafts. This award programme was established in 2002 to encourage craft-workers to use traditional skills and materials so as to ensure the perpetuation of traditional knowledge and to preserve cultural diversity. It is also set up with the goal of setting quality standards for handicrafts and raising international awareness of Asian handicraft products, in order to enlarge and strengthen the market for these products. A strong market ensures that the production of these handicrafts provides the producers with a viable livelihood and long-term employment. According to UNESCO, by participating in the programme, craft producers benefit in various ways, including:

1. They receive a certificate of excellence, which can be used as a promotional tool (for this specific product or product line only) to attest the quality and authenticity of a product.
2. UNESCO assists national and sub-regional partners in organising workshops on product assessment, design, and promotion for the producers of awarded products and programme applicants.
3. Producers have the opportunity to display the awarded product at annual exhibitions and fairs and will receive guidance about participating in international trade fairs.
4. Producers benefit from the communication and promotion campaign coordinated by UNESCO and its partners. Promotional materials, such as brochures and catalogues, are designed to enhance the product visibility and acknowledgment.
5. All awarded products, together with producers’ information data, are listed on the UNESCO Bangkok website so that interested persons can directly communicate with producers.
6. Producers of the awarded handicrafts are sensitised on the benefits of registering their products under intellectual property rights regimes.

Poverty.

China has 106 million ethnic minority communities, and is struggling to help lift them out of poverty.