The MDG-F Joint Programmes on Culture and Development are contributing in multiple ways to the achievement of MDG 1, namely eradicating extreme poverty while encompassing both economic and human rights perspectives, including by:

• Creating new jobs and market opportunities, and generating greater incomes, thereby improving living conditions, fostering community-based economic growth and empowering individuals:
  • Through capacity-building of artists, artisans, cultural and creative entrepreneurs, to foster creativity and enable them both to improve the quality of their products and to produce sustainable new products (e.g. handicraft producers in Cambodia have received trainings in handicraft production, entrepreneurism, financial literacy and rural marketing)
  • By supporting traditional livelihoods (e.g. intercultural fairs organized in Costa Rica, enabling marginalized groups to showcase and sell their traditional products)
  • By supporting and developing sustainable cultural ventures, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, through the provision of financial and technical support (e.g. grants provided to cultural tourism ventures in Kars province, Turkey, to develop local sustainable cultural tourism ventures; micro-credits issued for cultural goods in Mauritania)
  • By strengthening the culture sector through new and improved cultural policies, better implementation of the legislative and regulatory frameworks, and capacity-building of cultural institutions (e.g. in Albania, elaboration of a draft national strategy on cultural marketing and development of the National History Museum) 
  • Ensuring equal access to and enhancing basic cultural services and infrastructures (e.g. a Culture Centre has been created in Montevideo, Uruguay, to enable homeless people to exercise their cultural rights and participate in cultural life)
  • Incorporating cultural assets into national and local development policies, strategies and programmes (e.g. in Morocco, a strategy and charter for the promotion and safeguarding of cultural heritage has been established, and priorities promoting cultural heritage have been incorporated into the community development plans of four pilot municipalities located in the Southern Oasis)
  • Contributing to food security at the community level (e.g. revitalizing and promoting traditional foods in Nicaragua to ensure greater food security and nutritional health)
  • Empowering communities to manage their cultural resources, in particular intangible heritage assets, thereby fostering personal fulfilment and development while also strengthening social cohesion through an increased sense of belonging (e.g. documenting, inventorying and communicating on intangible heritage in China has been undertaken by the communities themselves)