J. Francisco Ayi d’ALMEIDA is the co-director of the Culture et développement association, which works for the integration of culture in development and international cooperation policies. He advises governments and local authorities in France and Africa on cultural policies, particularly with regard to the cultural and creative industries at city and regional level.. He also leads cultural engineering projects: spaces for music, reading, cultural business support and training, and a resource center for arts and crafts.. Francisco is also a consultant for international organizations, ministries in Europe and Africa, as well as local authorities in West Africa. In addition to these activities, he provides training at the at Senghor University in Alexandria (Egypt) and at the Korê Cultural Center in Ségou, Mali, directed by Mamou Daffé. His forty years of professional experience and expertise cover, on the one hand, cultural industries strategies and the cultural economy in francophone countries in the global South, and on the other hand, transversal strategies for local development promoting the cultural assets of local territories: cultural decentralization and land use planning, cultural infrastructures and the integration of culture into sectoral development policies. He holds a degree in political science (Institute of Political Studies, University of Grenoble) and a PhD in the sociology of development from the University Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne (France).