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The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) is supporting an innovative cultural heritage protection initiative in Cape Verde aimed at promoting sustainable development with an impact on six of the country's ten islands. 

This joint initiative with Cape Verdean public institutions focuses on the recovery and enhancement of eight lighthouses of great historical and cultural interest: Dona Maria Pia, in Praia, and Ponta Preta Lighthouse on the Island of Santiago; Faro do Boi in Fontes Pereira de Melo, on the Island of Santo Antão; Faro Don Luis I and Faro Dona Amélia on the Island of São Vicente; Faro Morro Negro on the Island of Boa Vista; Faro São José on the Island of Maio; and Faro do Leste on the Island of São Domingos.

All of them will be connected through a cultural route that will favour alternative and sustainable tourism, as well as job creation in local communities.

Cape Verde, with its particular island configuration, faces important sustainability challenges, but has a great wealth of heritage, both cultural and natural.

The objective of this cooperation initiative is to achieve sustainable management of this heritage, prioritising its conservation and identity features, and benefiting its population.

The project has a budget support from the AECID of 536,400€, distributed over three years, and includes architectural renovation works, preserving the integrity of its heritage values, as well as improvements in the surrounding areas to facilitate the connection on the route, in addition to the creation of the entire signalling and communication system to ensure the functioning of the route as a system.

EMPLOYMENT BEYOND LIGHTHOUSES

Beyond the protection of the lighthouses, the implementation of services linked to the route will be promoted to favour the emergence of new sources of employment for the population, who will receive specific training.

The initiative, which is in addition to another important project supported by Spanish Cooperation between 1998 and 2008 for the enhancement of Cidade Velha, on the island of Santiago, was conceived in a participatory workshop held in 2023 within the framework of AECID's ACERCA programme for training in the cultural sphere.

This workshop served as a space for reflection and exchange on the particularities of this interesting heritage, its state of conservation and the opportunities to initiate a process to enhance its value and promote local development actions.

In this workshop, an interesting team began to be formed for the implementation of the project, interdisciplinary in its areas of knowledge, and plural in terms of the institutions represented, as it is being coordinated between the Institute of Cultural Heritage and the Maritime and Port Institute of the country, and has the involvement of the municipal chambers, responsible for local management, and other ministries, such as the Ministry of Tourism.

SSG AND THE AFRICA WE WANT

The role of cultural heritage is highlighted in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in target 4 of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 on inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements. It is also in SDG 8.9, which focuses on fostering sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes culture and local products. The promotion of cultural identity and cultural heritage is also one of the aspirations of the African Union's Agenda 2063, "The Africa We Want", of which Cape Verde is a member state.

CULTURAL HERITAGE AS A DRIVER OF PROGRESS

The Heritage for Development Programme (P>D) is conceived as an instrument of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) in its contribution to sustainable development and the fight against poverty, through the use of cultural heritage as a driver of progress in the communities where it is located. To this end, support is provided for actions to enhance the value and sustainable management of cultural heritage, aimed at improving habitability, institutional strengthening, management capacities and income generation, as well as protecting identity, cultural legacy and collective memory.

The P>D has intervened in priority countries for Spanish Cooperation in Latin America, the Mediterranean region and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

With a track record of more than 25 years, the Programme is recognised, due to its singularity in the international cooperation panorama, as a hallmark of Spanish Cooperation.

 

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