Bilel Aboudi

Culture Policy Lead, Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism

Bilel ABOUDI is specialist in Cultural policies for development. Currently, he is Culture Policy Lead at Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism. Previously, he worked as Senior Public Policy Analyst at the Ministry of Cultural Affairs of Tunisia since 2001 with diverse mandates including: National coordinator for major international programmes (EU), Head of cultural industries’ development, international negotiator (Culture and trade) and Regional culture policy expert (Arab and North
Africa regions).

He actively contributed to the drafting and the adoption of the of UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (UNESCO Convention 2005) and led the foundations for its implementation from the perspective of developing countries, especially Arab and African countries. He held several positions at international organizations such as Vice-President at UNESCO bureau for UNESCO Convention 2005 (2004-2011), Board member of the International Federation of Cultural Councils and Agencies (IFACCA) in Australia (2012-2018) and regional expert at the International Institute of Gastronomy, Culture, Arts and Tourism (IGCAT).

In addition, he participated in international seminars and conferences on culture and development, especially for the advocacy to insert “culture” in UN MDG’s and SDG’s. His contributions to international studies and reports on cultural policies include: Tunisia Cultural Policy Reports (2013-2014-2015), UNESCO/UNDP Creative Economy Report 2013, The Global Call for Inclusion of Culture in the Millennium Development Goals (2013), Cultural policy framework and tools for “Cultural Diversity and Development”; and the Study on the implementation of UNESCO Convention 2005 Article 16 “Preferential treatment”.
He holds a Bachelor of science in Management (Bilkent University, Turkey) and graduated from the Graduate studies Cycle (Master level) of the National school of Public Administration (Tunis, Tunisia) as a Senior Public Policy Analyst specializing in development policies and project management.