The Culture for Development Indicators Suite (CDIS) is an advocacy and policy tool that assesses the multidimensional role of culture in development processes through facts and figures.
CDIS is a comprehensive set of 22 quantitative and qualitative indicators grouped under 7 dimensions which set out to illuminate the role of culture in development, particularly in low- to middle-income countries. The CDIS aims to provide an evidence-based and informed approach to the introduction of culture into national and international development strategies as well as to cultural policy formulation.
Launched in 2009, the objectives of CDIS were to :
contribute to the operationalization of the culture-for-development agenda by offering countries an advocacy and policy tool intended to demonstrate – with quantitative and qualitative data – how culture and development interact;
assess the environment in place for sustaining and enhancing cultural assets and processes for development;
reinforce capacities in data collection and analysis related to culture and development;
promote an evidence-based process of policy formulation and implementation.
Demonstrate with data how culture and development interact and enrich one another; Covering 7 key policy dimensions, the 22 CDIS indicators:
Assess the environment in place for sustaining and enhancing cultural assets and processes for development; and
Offer a global overview of national challenges and opportunities, informing cultural policies and development strategies to fully profit from culture’s potential.
Culture in Development
The role of culture in development is today recognized not only by the culture community but also increasingly acknowledged by the development community. References to the importance of culture both as a driver and enabler for sustainable development have been included in recent major documents that chart the path for a renewed development agenda, including the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. In spite of this promising environment, the difficulties encountered to date in quantifying the contribution of culture have led to its marginalization in national and international development strategies. UNESCO has developed the CDIS methodology in response to this challenge.
CDIS: a Methodological Tool
The CDIS has been conceived as a pragmatic and effective methodological tool that guides the construction and analysis of indicators for policy purposes in low and middle-income countries. It offers an opportunity to strengthen the case for culture’s inclusion in development strategies and agendas as it provides an empirical demonstration of culture’s contribution to sustainable development, economic growth and social progress. The CDIS thus facilitates the operationalization of the 2005 Convention and the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
Results
The CDIS generates original facts and figures demonstrating the multidimensional contribution of culture to development with proven policy impact at the national level.
For example, in Namibia, the CDIS data helped to successfully advocate for the inclusion of culture in the 2014-2018 UNDAF; in Ecuador, it inspired a formalized inter-institutional dialogue on monitoring of cultural objectives in the National Development Plan (2009-2013) through relevant indicators; in Cambodia, the national government used the indicators to draft the National Policy for Culture adopted in 2014. CDIS establishes a common ground for culture and development actors to better integrate culture in development policies and strategies and builds capacities at the national level for:
Strengthening national statistic and information systems on culture and development;
Informing cultural policies for development;
Positioning culture in national and international development strategies and agendas;
Enriching the CDIS Global Database.
Policy Dimensions
Adopting a holistic approach, the CDIS covers 7 interrelated policy dimensions that address the multi-faceted contribution of culture to sustainable development.
The selected CDIS dimensions follow the recommendations of Our Creative Diversity, the 1996 UNESCO Report of the World Commission on Culture and Development. They provide coverage of most elements to be taken into account when describing the role of culture as both a driver and enabler of sustainable development. This approach encourages cross-readings between policy dimensions, so the results then illustrate the contribution of culture to the creation of economic, social and cultural value, as well as increasing the impact and effectiveness of development interventions.
Economy
Education
Governance
Social Participation
Gender
Communication
Heritage
The effective inclusion of culture in national and international development strategies requires progress in the production of new information and data to show, explore and assess multiple, rich and varied forms of contribution of culture to development processes, recognizing the complexity of this task and the challenges without compromising the action. The notable absence of culture in the main instruments measuring development, whether the World Bank's, the Human Development Index of UNDP, or indicators of achievement of OECD, is an accurate reflection of this situation. In an environment where indicators are used to set standards for development policies to be followed, the absence of indicators and tools to measure the role of culture represents a serious disadvantage, particularly at a time when the international community prepares to define the new post-2015 development agenda.
In 2009, trying to find pragmatic solutions to this lack of quantitative data, UNESCO, with the support of AECID, launched - through the Secretariat of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions - an applied research process to develop an operational tool that responds to the need for countries to have empirical data and information that illustrate factually the multidimensional interrelationships between culture and development. International experts and young researchers have for over four years been associated with this project. They have contributed to the conceptualization, development and testing of a methodology for building indicators: the UNESCO Culture for Development Indicator Suite (CDIS). In addition, 11 associate countries have been active partners, particularly middle-, middle-low-, and low income countries through two test phases to refine and verify the pertinence of the selected indicators.
Under this project, UNESCO seeks to translate the abundant theoretical and political discourse on the contribution of culture to economic growth into empirical and tangible data that will convince not only cultural actors but especially other development actors of the valuable contribution of culture as an "instrument" of development and as an "end" of it. The outcome is a pragmatic measurement and analysis tool, adapted to the realities of national statistics - characterized by limited availability of data sources and statistical processing capabilities, which embraces the founding vision of Our Creative Diversity, the Report of the World Commission on Culture and Development (UN/UNESCO), and its call to action. (Guiomar Alonso Cano, Melika Caucino)