ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter considers cultural heritage from a development perspective. What is the case for donors to support cultural heritage activities more explicitly and systematically as part of their aid programmes? How might advocates for cultural heritage support as a development programme overcome donor reluctance to fund such programmes as a more important part of development programmes? To date, advocates for cultural heritage support have tended to base their case on a narrow range of arguments centred on the worthiness of cultural heritage activities (UNESCO 2011)1 and/or their economic potential as a source of tourism revenue and jobs.2 While these are important reasons to support cultural heritage, arguments based on the normative and economic potential of cultural heritage can be easily marginalised as worthy yet unaffordable in the context of scarce donor funding. This chapter argues that a different case needs to be made for why scarce donor resources should be diverted away from core donor priorities such as basic service delivery (i.e. health and education) towards cultural heritage programmes. Such a case can be made but requires a more sophisticated understanding of the political economy of development and why donor support for cultural heritage activities might be an effective aid investment. This requires an understanding of the challenge of development as a collective action problem – how societies might overcome social differences to better collaborate to support national development through growth-enhancing investments.
