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"In the face of global fractures, and the paralysis of some institutional platforms, [culture] is a common language that breaks down barriers," declared the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, while opening the . The 130 ministers present agreed: now is the time to fully harness the power of culture to drive forward progress towards achieving a more sustainable future for all, tackling contemporary fault lines, from social fragmentation to climate change, from uneven distribution of emerging technologies to new conflicts. They recognized that the cultural sector – more than any other policy domain – has the capacity to adapt its models across time, building on the dynamic essence of culture itself.

The global health crisis and far-reaching ramifications starkly laid bare the urgency of shifting international relations from competition to cooperation and the need to reinforce multilateralism. Hence the call launched by the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, in his vision paper to strengthen global efforts to protect our most precious, shared assets, our “global public goods”. Based on a broad consultation with 1.5 million people, in all 193 Member States, this blueprint for the future looks ahead to the next 25 years as “our welfare, and indeed the permanence of human life, now depends on us working effectively together across borders and sectors to manage many shared risks and achieve a vital set of common goals.” Culture is one such common good.

Culture’s cross-cutting impact in contributing to sustainable development across policy domains has been recognized for over 40 years. Indeed, whilst the global shutdown of the cultural sector due to the COVID-19 shed light on its fragility, it also spotlighted its resilience and its vital role across sectors, from public health awareness-raising campaigns to its capacity to heal collective trauma. Attention is once again being focused on culture in broader global public policy debates. In the run-up to the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development - Mondiacult 2022, to be held in Mexico in September next year, the concept of culture as a global public good – our source of meaning and energy, our well-spring of creativity and innovation – represents a potent engine for social development and economic growth whilst opening up new perspectives for sustainability in achieving our shared ‘vital set of common goals’.

The contours of international development discourse have shifted and cultural policies have evolved in this landscape, often shaping it. The Mondiacult Conference that took place in 1982 affirmed that “development should henceforth be based on the cultural values of societies and on maximum respect for the personality of each of them and that it should therefore be centred on human individuals and on the communities to which those individuals belonged.” The World Decade for Cultural Development (1988-1997) represented a time to reflect on this fundamental role and develop new tools to reinforce the ‘first generation’ of international normative instruments, under the custodianship of UNESCO, (which included conventions related to the illicit trafficking of cultural property and World Heritage, including in times of conflict). The rooting of cultural policies as “one of the key components of development strategy” was the first objective following an Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies for Development, held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1998. That objective was a precursor to the mantra that “no one size fits all” for sustainable development policies, citing the need for “endogenous” models. During the first decade of the 21st century, UNESCO and the international community developed new normative instruments related to and , which expanded the conceptual toolbox for culture’s contribution to sustainable development, particularly as they adopted a more people-centred approach.

The United Nations General Assembly, for over ten years, has increasingly anchored culture in broader development, particularly through specific resolutions on “Culture and Development” (2010 and 2011). At in 2013, then Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon opined that “too many well-intended development programmes have failed because they did not take cultural settings into account”. Subsequent General Assembly resolutions on “Culture and sustainable development” (, , , and ) further boosted the incorporation of culture into UN programmes in countries, as illustrated in the UN Development Assistant Frameworks (UNDAFs): whereas in 2008 less than 30% mentioned culture, .

: Placing Culture at the Heart of Sustainable Development Policies (2013), further honed the typology of how culture contributes to sustainable development: identifying that, firstly, culture should be considered as a fundamental enabler of sustainability due to its “extraordinary power”, particularly when fostering people-centre and place-based approaches, integrated into development programmes and peace-building initiatives. Secondly, culture should also be seen as a driver through the specific contributions that it can make – as knowledge capital and a sector of activity - to inclusive, social, cultural and economic development, harmony, environmental sustainability, peace and security.

The , which sets out a shared vision for a more just and sustainable world, “acknowledge[s] the natural and cultural diversity of the world and recognize[s] that all cultures and civilizations can contribute to, and are crucial enablers of, sustainable development.” Indeed, research by UNESCO shows concretely that : in their submitted to the UN to monitor progress towards the SDGs, with linkages to culture. Culture is also being embedded in UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks (which replace the UNDAFs), UN Common Country Assessments and Covid-19 National Impact and Recovery Plans, although often to an insufficient degree.

Multiple global crises and systemic weaknesses in the international order have once again reignited interest in maximising the role of culture for sustainable development. In April 2020, joined an online meeting organized by UNESCO to exchange on ways to build resilience in the culture sector, which was shown to be so vulnerable during the global lockdown. Regional intergovernmental organizations and development banks also pledged their support to the cultural sector in an online meeting, highlighting the economic importance of culture, as well as the fundamental role culture plays as a resource for resilience, hope and social inclusion. The UN General Assembly designated 2021 as an , upon the initiative of Indonesia, to make the creative sector more resilient in the face of future crises and to design cultural policies that are better aligned with the 2030 Agenda, whilst the African Union declared 2021 the AU .

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In an historic first, world leaders, meeting in Rome, Italy, for the in October also vowed to prioritize culture as part of post-COVID recovery, as well as incorporating it into the economic group’s broader work to bolster economic and social progress. The culmination of efforts undertaken over the course of the year, it clearly positions culture in sustainable development frameworks and reflects the unprecedented . It built on the momentum instigated by Saudi Arabia who introduced culture on the agenda of the G20 for the first time in 2020. The UN General Assembly adopted just this month also sends a strong signal on the role of culture in rebuilding resilient societies. It significantly reinforces international efforts to harness culture for policy-making across the public policy spectrum, reinforcing its transversal role, with explicit references to culture for social inclusion – particularly of youth, women and indigenous peoples, as well as issues related to the digital transformation, environmental sustainability and synergies between culture and education.

Recalling that culture has intrinsic value, we underline the role of culture and of cultural and creative professionals and businesses as drivers for sustainable development and in fostering the resilience and the regeneration of our economies and societies, stressing the importance of international efforts to safeguard and promote culture, with a key role to be played by UNESCO…”

- G20 Leaders' Summit Final Declaration, October 2021

Work on the linkages between culture and other public policy areas has developed at different speeds, with some firmly embedded in international, regional and national policy frameworks. In order to strengthen synergies between culture and other policy areas, 91�鶹������Ʒ���� recently called on UN sister agencies, International Organizations and Development Banks to join forces to expand work, in line with the UN reform aim to build a shared reflection approach to maximise action on the ground. The , launched in May 2021, focuses on three broad areas - inequalities, climate change and peace-building – with a view to leveraging culture for the implementation of the SDGs, as well as identifying possible avenues for cooperation.

Reducing inequalities, encapsulated in the motto ‘leave no one behind’, is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda, in a world marked by increasing disparities. Culture’s driving force for creating job opportunities is well-documented, particularly through the creative economy and cultural tourism, including for otherwise excluded groups. It also contributes to decent work. In light of the pandemic, the has reignited a global conversation on improving the working conditions of cultural and creative professionals, reinforcing the long-standing efforts of UNESCO and the International Labour Organization, including through the . Boosting Technical and Vocational Education and Training in the cultural and creative sectors, including in non-formal education settings, is thus particularly important in fostering employment and entrepreneurship in the cultural sector, especially as more young people 15-29 are employed in the sector than any other fields of economic activity. Inequalities also exist in the online space and 91�鶹������Ʒ���� developed the 2017 Digital Guidelines for ensuring the diversity of cultural expressions online, as well as the 2021 related to the implications of, for example, AI-created artistic content.

Ensuring sustainable peace relies on harnessing culture and education “to build peace in the minds of men and women”, as implored in the preamble of the Constitution of UNESCO. The recently-published report reimagining how knowledge and learning can shape the future of humanity and the planet, emphasizes how the cultural context has an impact on learning outcomes by providing content and context relevance. Arts and cultural education are a particularly key ingredient, as is the intergenerational transmission of intangible cultural heritage, for social inclusion as a means to building peaceful societies. , adopted in 2010, provides a clear framework for arts education to benefit children, youth and lifelong learners, and UNESCO is providing fresh impetus to global reflections and recent reinvestments in this area, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. UNESCO, along with its partners, is stepping up its efforts in the area of cultural and arts education, and is working towards a World Conference on Arts Education in 2023.

The linkages between culture and climate change are also firmly established. UNESCO’s designated sites, including World Heritage properties, Biosphere Reserves and Global Geoparks, protect some 10 million square kilometers of cultural and natural sites around the world, thus contributing to global climate change mitigation action. Living heritage, in the form of local and indigenous knowledge, is a particularly vital source of resilience which provides adaptation strategies including through traditional water and land management techniques.

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Cities lead creative and innovative efforts to promote more sustainable production and consumption patterns, as well as by tapping into innovative approaches and materials building on creativity and design. Culture-based approaches can help shift the focus of climate negotiations from competing interests to shared values and the common good, whilst museums are vital spaces for dialogue. UNESCO closely cooperates with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the World Meteorological Organization, particularly the COP processes to reinforce these linkages. For the first time, culture was fully integrated into the negotiations in Glasgow, United Kingdom, notably through a high-level event, organised by the European Union on the initiative of Greece, on the , which the UNESCO Director-General addressed.

Whilst the necessity of embedding culture in some policy areas is more firmly established, albeit with differing levels of implementation, reflection on the role of culture in other policy areas is beginning to emerge more clearly. “The systematic neglect of culture in health and health care is the single biggest barrier to the advancement of the highest standard of health worldwide”, admits the World Health Organization (WHO) in a 2017 policy brief entitled . The 2030 Agenda gave WHO fresh impetus to focus on the notion of well-being thanks to its values base that calls for alternative ways of empowering and giving voice to marginalized groups. Examining cultural contexts, WHO reveals differences in value systems once deemed to be universal and also sheds light on determinants, such as socioeconomic status, environmental conditions, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation and level of education. Factors such as the influence of the extended family, maintaining harmony in relations, stigma regarding certain conditions such as mental health, mystical or religious beliefs, and perceptions of authority figures like doctors can all influence a patient’s interaction with the healthcare system. helps professionals, including in healthcare, to develop intercultural competencies to navigate such potential pitfalls. Furthermore, traditional knowledge of medicines are also increasingly being recognised as treatments, including elements on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, such as acupuncture or Thai massage.

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The COVID-19 pandemic also put a spotlight on the essential role of culture and creativity for our health and well-being. With billions of people confined to their homes at the onset of the pandemic, people turned to culture – films, books, music, and online cultural events and exhibitions – as a source of comfort and healing. from the start of the pandemic found that those who participated in art-related activities for at least 30 minutes each day reported lower levels of anxiety and depression. In September 2021, doctors in Brussels, Belgium, began to write , replicating a successful programme launched in Montreal, Canada in 2018. Artists also mobilized to raise awareness of COVID-19 health measures, as epitomized by UNESCO’s #DontGoViral campaign in Africa. In February 2022 UNESCO and WHO will hold an event on the “The Healing Power of Culture and Creativity.”

Through decades of experience in post-conflict and post-disaster contexts, 91�鶹������Ʒ���� also witnessed how culture and creativity can help people and communities heal from trauma. The UNESCO-led community-based reconstruction of Timbuktu’s famed earthen mausoleums, destroyed by extremists in 2012 in Mali, helped promote reconciliation and resilience. Meanwhile, the performing arts were harnessed to support healing and resilience for displaced people in Port-au-Prince following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti whilst a also taps into song and dance in community engagement of Congolese refugees. Indeed, research from the past 20 years shows that the arts have an impact in improving health and well-being, according to a whether it be supporting child development to promoting healthy behaviours, preventing and managing mental illnesses, or supporting acute and end-of-life care.

Just 30 minutes of artistic activity each day during the pandemic led to lower levels of anxiety and depression for 72,000 adults.

- University College of London

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Food straddles policy areas of health and nutrition, environment, and local economies, with outcomes also depending heavily on the cultural context. The tasks of sourcing and preparing meals, the ways in which we share them and the messages they convey are all core aspects of what food is. Eating effectively anchors us within communities of shared tastes, common habits and collective histories. The recognizes several elements related to food practices. For example, the Mediterranean Diet, described as “a set of skills, knowledge, rituals, symbols and traditions concerning crops, harvesting, fishing, animal husbandry, conservation, processing, cooking, and particularly the sharing and consumption of food” was included in 2013 on the initiative of Cyprus, Croatia, Spain, Greece, Italy and Portugal. Other examples include the Japanese culinary tradition of Washoku, traditional Mexican cuisine, the French gastronomic meal, the Korean Kimchi and the couscous of Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. In recognition of the need for a culturally-grounded approach to nutrition policy, countries such as Brazil have developed holistic national food guidelines with a wide variety of sources, including anthropology, gastronomy and political activism.

8.9% of the world’s population is hungry

- FAO

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Food security is becoming a more important issue for the UN, with current estimates showing that nearly 690 million people are hungry, or 8.9 per cent of the world population whilst the consequences of climate change become increasingly acute. Over the last century, food systems have undergone a significant transformation with technological advances, the massive use of fossil fuels, trends in migration and increasing urbanization. Food production accounts for a large share of global greenhouse gas emissions while we waste a third of the food we produce, equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes. The first-ever , held in September 2021, saw nearly 300 commitments from hundreds of thousands of people from around the world to transform food systems. In 2016, the UN-designated 18 June as the international Sustainable Gastronomy Day, acknowledging gastronomy as a cultural expression embedded in the natural and cultural diversity of the world.

Reinforcing the links between food and culture contributes to sustainable development through the safeguarding of the rich variety of food practices around the world. Several agricultural landscape properties on the UNESCO World Heritage List attest to the ingenuity of generations past and present to adapt to their surroundings to produce food, including the cultivation of taro in Papua New Guinea, rice systems in the Philippine mountain ranges, palm tree oases in Mauritania, coffee plantations in Cuba and Colombia, the stone-walled terraces of the Konso highlands of Ethiopia, as well as vineyards in Hungary and South Africa. The Food and Agricultural Organization recognises as a “living, evolving system of human communities in an intricate relationship with their territory, cultural or agricultural landscape or biophysical and wider social environment”. Indeed, the local and traditional knowledge associated with many World Heritage sites holds potential key lessons for future food production, such as the subak system of water management in Bali, Indonesia or the Al-Aflaj irrigation system of the United Arab Emirates, which is on UNESCO’s list of living heritage. The COVID-19 pandemic also prompted greater interest in urban food production and examples such as the Market Gardener’s District of the Middle Ages German World Heritage city of Bamberg can also be a model for local food security.

UNESCO Member States recognized in 2019 the importance of food and culture for sustainable development, under the initiative of Italy, and adopted the Parma Declaration at the . The Declaration highlights the need to strengthen the links between culture and food for environmental sustainability by safeguarding cultural identity for transformative change. In addition to exploring the role of cultural heritage and living heritage, delegates also drew attention to the role of creative gastronomy as part of the solution for food security. There are currently 49 of Gastronomy, each of which has adopted innovative and , such as Yangzhou (China) which is combatting food waste and Zahlé (Lebanon) which is supporting local food producers. Furthermore, food culture continues to foster, communication and intercultural dialogue, adapting and innovating - for example, fusion food- as well as being an engine for economic and social development, for example through food-related tourism, employment opportunities and Technical and Vocational Training.

Rice Terraces, Banaue, Philippines, Tara Kenny/Shutterstock.com*

Climate change, urban pressure and lack of disaster preparedness, are increasingly transforming natural hazards, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or tsunamis into disastrous events causing life and economic losses. According to the UN, by 2030, . Natural disasters arise from the intersection of natural hazard events and human populations. - which guides UN work in bolstering resilience against natural hazards – mentions culture some 17 times, particularly in the context of cultural heritage. Defined in its broadest sense, culture influences people’s interpretation of what a hazard means and how they should react to it, for example, whether they have grown up living in a floodplain or earthquake zone. Therefore, it is crucial to understand underlying belief systems, livelihood choices, social networks and time availability for preparedness activities, including education.

Communities worldwide are currently not harnessing the full potential of culture for reducing disaster risk. Recent studies have demonstrated how heritage, in both its tangible and intangible forms, has a significant potential to be harnessed to reduce vulnerabilities, and thus negative impacts on lives, property, and livelihoods, before, during and after a catastrophic event. UNESCO-designated sites (, and ) play a crucial role in fostering resilience by reducing vulnerabilities, and also by providing precious assets for the sustainable social and economic development of an affected region during its recovery phase, by attracting investment, creating employment, or providing renewable natural resources, such as in Nepal at the .

The knowledge base of how intangible cultural heritage can bolster resilience is also expanding. Vernacular architecture, for instance, can build resilience in the face of hazards. As observed during the 2003 earthquake in Bam (Iran), relatively few causalities were reported in the traditional mud-brick and timber-laced dwellings in comparison to the tragic death toll associated with the modern buildings constructed less than 40 years before. Similarly, in the Pacific Small Island Developing States, traditional building knowledge and associated features have been shown to better withstand cyclones and floods, including the Vanuatu nakamal, the Tongan fale, and the Fijian vale meeting houses. Other traditional knowledge and skills to enhance prevention and mitigation of disasters that have maintained over the centuries can be witnessed in the case of the fishermen of the Andaman Islands who survived the 2005 tsunami because they knew, from their forebearers, that when the sea withdraws, humans must do the same. Traditional knowledge also ensures fire protection at the World Heritage site of the Kiyomizu Dera Temple of Kyoto, in Japan. UNESCO’s Category 2 International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) has published further research on .

Ancient ruins Islamic Iranian citadel in Bam (Arg-e Bam), Iran

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Other traditional knowledge and skills to enhance prevention and mitigation of disasters that have maintained over the centuries can be witnessed in the case of the fishermen of the Andaman Islands who survived the 2005 tsunami because they knew, from their forebearers, that when the sea withdraws, humans must do the same. Traditional knowledge also ensures fire protection at the World Heritage site of the Kiyomizu Dera Temple of Kyoto, in Japan. UNESCO’s Category 2 International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI) has published further research on .

Whilst representing a unique repository of human knowledge, World Heritage cultural and natural properties, as well as living heritage practices, are increasingly exposed to disaster risk and face irreparable loss or damage. Yet, many World Heritage properties do not have any established policy, plan or process for managing risks associated with disasters. Moreover, existing national and local disaster preparedness and response mechanisms usually do not include heritage expertise in their operations. As a result, hundreds of sites are critically exposed to potential hazards. This is why 91�鶹������Ʒ���� started working, together with other partners, to integrate a consideration for heritage in disaster risk reduction policies including the and the . The UNESCO Heritage Emergency Fund enables the Organization to respond quickly and effectively to crises resulting from armed conflicts and disasters caused by natural and human-made hazards all over the world, intervening in domains including , , , and the .

Building transversal, comprehensive public policies – beyond sectoral approaches – is needed more than ever given the complexity and interdependence of sustainable development challenges. If the future envisioned in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to become a reality, the linkages between different areas of public policy – from culture and education to economic development and climate action – should be strengthened, systematized, and measured to bear social, economic and environmental outputs, truly forging more holistic sustainable development models.

In that light, the transformative impact of culture across public policies is particularly critical and increasingly acknowledged by policymakers. Culture reaches beyond the narrowly defined field of cultural policy itself, more broadly informing all environmental, economic and social policies, as reflected in the recently endorsed UN Resolution on Culture and Sustainable Development. Its contribution to other policy areas – for example, health, food security and disaster risk reduction – has remained hitherto relatively underexplored but may be further amplified in the future, particularly considering the impact of the pandemic, urging more people-centered approaches to development. However, despite this global recognition, culture and creativity remain under-invested to bring about the change in mindsets and behaviours that is urgently needed to address the stagnation of progress towards the sustainable development goals.

Measuring and demonstrating the multifaceted impact of culture on public policies therefore remains a priority to further amplify this momentum. The coexistence of diverse approaches and methodologies in collecting data and building evidence on culture’s impact on sustainable development makes it difficult to capture a global picture. The roll-out of the Culture|2030 Indicators currently being undertaken in 13 countries will help make the transversal role of culture in development more visible. Combining a variety of data, including quantitative and qualitative indicators, they rely as much as possible on existing data sources (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, national statistical institutes, and on Culture Conventions periodic reports) and will contribute to a greater base of evidence of culture’s transversal role, as well as inform policies at national and urban levels.

In building towards Mondiacult 2022, the call of the UN Secretary-General to “renew the social contract between Governments and their people and within societies” in Our Common Agenda should resonate with all stakeholders. This entails embracing a comprehensive vision of human rights in which civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights are mutually reinforcing, indivisible and universal, as well as updating governance arrangements to better deliver public goods, such as health and education. He also issues a call to identify “global public goods” that concern the welfare of humanity as a whole. International normative frameworks already identify cultural diversity – as a source of exchange, innovation and creativity – “as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature”, in the UNESCO 2001 Declaration on Cultural Diversity. Culture has increasingly demonstrated its vital importance as the ultimate renewable resource for enabling humankind to adapt to a changing world.