_The Creative Wealth of Nations_ Evidence-based policy making generally requires measuring things; estimating the social, financial and economic returns of investment; and allocating scarce resources accordingly. The arts are often left out or dismissed in many development strategies on the premise that they cannot be measured, or that their data are nonexistent or “invisible.” This does no good to the arts community. It does no good for policy makers who care about data. And besides these dissonances, this thinking marginalizes the poor whose livelihoods may depend on (or benefit from) their artistic activities. Or those whose voice is amplified through the arts.

Cultural activities span a variety of sectors — or Global Practices, in the nomenclature of the new organizational structure of the WBG. For example, the practices of Education, Trade and Competitiveness, Poverty, and Urban, Rural and Social Development are all relevant. In addition, the Cross-Cutting Solution Areas (CCSAs) of Jobs, Gender, and Fragility, Conflict and Violence would be relevant. A key theme of the World Bank Group’s strategy is to work collaboratively across sectors and disciplines:

- A critical area is for the WBG to strengthen its ability to work on multi-stakeholder solutions through engagement with the public sector, private sector, and citizens. A change in WBG culture and in the currently predominant mode of operating in sector silos will be required to increase the use of multisectoral approaches. It will also be necessary to revamp the client engagement model into a more problem-driven solutions approach, systematically bringing together multiple disciplines, stakeholders, and WBG agencies.<sup>20</sup>

# _The Organization of the Paper_

This paper is organized into two parts, and it focuses on the strategic options for the World Bank Group to support the performing arts as a means of achieving its twin goals. There is a longstanding literature that has gained growing importance in recent years, and this paper draws on it. In line with Todd G. Buchholz’s New Ideas from Dead Economists, some early names that shed light on culture and the operation of societies include: Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Alfred Marshall<sup>21</sup> and John Maynard Keynes; (the last was the begetter of British arts policy).<sup>22</sup> Contemporary economists including Amartya Sen, from whom the author continues to benefit with intellectual mentorship, David Throsby, Kaushik Basu, and José Antonio Abreu have discussed, to a considerable extent, the role of culture in development. These thinkers have influenced the author. This paper also borrows and extends on the author’s thesis, “ ‘Where Culture Leads, Trade Follows:’ A Framework for Developing Uganda’s Music as International Trade in Services.” Many ideas here have been discussed in Creative Economy Reports by UNCTAD and UNDP (2008 and 2010) and UNESCO and UNDP (2013). These reports provide a “robust framework for identifying and understanding the functioning of the creative economy as a cross-cutting economic sector.”<sup>23</sup> On such issues as international trade, innovation, cultural heritage, dignity

> 20 The World Bank Group. 2014. _The World Bank Group Strategy_ .

> 21 See: Amartya Sen, “How Does Culture Matter?” in _Culture and Public Action,_ 37.

> 22 Nick Fraser, “John Maynard Keynes: Can the great economist save the world?” _The Independent_ , Saturday, November 8, 2008, accessed April 17, 2014, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and- <u>features/john-maynard-keynes-can-the-great-economist-save-the-world-994416.html.</u>

> 23 _Creative Economy Report 2013 Special Edition: Widening Local Development Pathways_ , UNESCO and

UNDP.

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