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Latin America and the Caribbean place culture as a pillar of sustainable development at a regional consultation
The MONDIACULT 2025 consultation, organized by UNESCO, focused on the six priority areas for advancing cultural policies and sustainable development, as outlined in the .
The online meeting was chaired by H.E. Ms Carolina Arredondo, Minister of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage of Chile, alongside Ernesto Ottone R., Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO. The Bureau of the consultation was composed of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage of Chile as Chair, the Ministries of Culture of Costa Rica and of Paraguay as Vice Chairs, and Guatemala as Rapporteur.
Cultural rights and human dignity are intrinsically linked. During the Latin America and the Caribbean consultation, we heard a strong call for the right to participate in cultural life, to access heritage as a source of identity, and to express themselves in their own language. In pursuing these rights, countries are increasingly engaging in inclusive cultural policymaking, reflecting the voices of diverse communities. MONDIACULT 2025 will further examine—and demonstrate—how culture contributes to peace, equality, and a sustainable future for all.
Additionally, participants explored key issues such as the protection of intellectual property rights in the digital environment, resilience of culture in the face of climate change, and heritage preservation. They also emphasized the need for a stronger regional integration and cooperation against the illicit trafficking of cultural property.
The consultation focused on protecting and promoting cultural diversity with a decentralized and inclusive perspective. Key policy actions identified during the two-day discussions included generating evidence-based data on culture's contribution to sustainable development, strengthening international cultural cooperation, and advancing the rights of cultural workers. The promotion of the integration of culture into education, in line with the UNESCO 2024 Framework for Culture and Arts Education, was also mentioned.
It is time for the comprehensive perspective that culture offers to take on new prominence in global strategies to address contemporary crises, explicitly incorporating a development objective centered on cultural policies.
Participants noted the importance of ensuring inclusive and transparent development of artificial intelligence, in alignment with the UNESCO 2005 Convention on Diversity of Cultural Expressions, the successive G20 Declarations, and the UNESCO 2021 Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. In this regard, they called for reliable databases to address ethical and technical challenges in digitizing heritage as well as in promoting linguistic diversity.
The discussions examined the challenges around protecting cultural heritage in the face of natural disasters, climate change and crisis, including armed conflicts. They agreed on the urgency of developing disaster risk reduction mechanisms as well as enhanced recovery efforts.
The Regional Consultation for Latin America and the Caribbean demonstrated strong support for the development of a stand-alone goal for culture in the post-2030 Agenda. Such a goal would multiply the positive impact of culture across public policies, serving as a key pillar of sustainable development in the years to come.
