A participatory approach focused on culture. An alternative way to define the development in rural Ecuador

Un enfoque participativo centrado en la cultura. Una forma alternativa de definir el desarrollo en el espacio rural de Ecuador

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are often used to monitor the development in South America. The United Nations definition of development can create goals and projects inappropriate for local communities, which could significantly harm them. We argue that listening to how communities conceptualize and contextualize their own definitions of development is a better way to involve them in promoting this process. Using the approach of communication focused on culture we show the experience of mural art created with children in a extremely marginalized rural community in Ecuador. Children's art reveals that development It means providing additional services to the community and establishing a strong educational system. After discussing these issues, we argue that a community-based definition of development can better serve local processes.