Mondiacult 2022 - World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development

The cultural sector itself has evolved considerably over the last decades covering a wide range of areas of development but also informed by societal change and the digital transformation. These advances have led to the decisive recognition of the nexus between culture and sustainable development emphasizing the role of culture in supporting continuity, participation, education, employment, resilience, and well‐being, while also revealing the value of culture to foster inclusive societies, social development and economic growth at the global and national levels.

The global landscape has also profoundly evolved marked by overarching transnational challenges, such as inequalities, conflicts, technological revolution, climate change, leading countries to adapt their public policies to better fulfill their role in ensuring the provision of global public goods - an imperative which is particularly relevant to culture.

The COVID‐19 pandemic has starkly exposed the existing vulnerabilities of countries in facing emergency situations in the cultural sector in an abrupt manner, during which countries were called upon to continue providing basic services while ensuring, at the same time, social and economic sustainability. The widespread disruption of cultural activities and practices, also impacting cultural institutions across the world have brought to the forefront the urgent need for adaptation of the cultural sector itself, but also vis-à-vis the overall crosscutting role that cultural policies play within the broad public policy spectrum.

This momentum has opened new opportunities for a renewed vision of cultural policies to gain ground in the broad public policy spectrum. In this context, UNESCO is reinvesting in the global policy dialogue in the field of culture, building on its mandate and expertise to foster multilateral cooperation and policy dialogue for the free flow of ideas and in the wake of its landmark conferences on cultural policies held respectively in 1982 and 1998 - whose conceptual and policy outcomes laid the ground for major advances in the conceptualization and architecture of cultural policies.

As we entered the last Decade of Action for the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, agreed by the international community as a common aspirational roadmap, UNESCO is engaging its Member States and the international community to embark on a renewed reflection on cultural policies to tackle global challenges and outline immediate and future priorities in order to shape a more robust and resilient cultural sector, fully anchored in sustainable development prospects in line with the vision enshrined in the UN Secretary-General's report Our Common Agenda (September, 2021).