Because today's world connects diverse cultures and mindsets in formerly unprecedented ways, arts and culture have a heightened potential to critically impact human and socio-economic development within and across cultures, organizations and borders.

To support this potential, the AIF functions as an independent knowledge-resource and global meeting space for donors and policy-makers who invest in arts and culture internationally, for example in the context of international development cooperation or international relations.

As a knowledge resource, the AIF aims to offer up-to-date information on the latest trends, developments and challenges as a sound basis for interventions; as a meeting space it aims to facilitate the exchange of best practice, information-sharing, open discussions and collaborations and helps to catalyze action on some of the most critical meta-issues.