THE “Culture 21 Actions” toolkit providing guidance for cities aiming to evaluate, design and implement cultural policies contributing to sustainable development was adopted at the first UCLG’s Culture Summit, held in Bilbao, Spain on 18-20 March 2015 under the title “Culture and Sustainable Cities.”
“Culture 21 Actions” builds on the work of the Agenda 21 for culture, and UCLG’s standing work on culture and sustainable development, including the Policy Statement “Culture: Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development” and the integration of culture in the Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments for Post-2015 Development Agenda Towards Habitat III.
The approach proposed by Culture 21: Actions combines the promotion of synergies between culture and other areas of local sustainable development and the strengthening of cultural policies based on heritage, diversity and creativity.
Much remains to be done to enable effective evaluation, peer-learning and the dissemination of existing intelligence. The “Culture in Sustainable Cities, Learning with 21 Actions” programme, devised by UCLG’s Committee on culture, aims to address this gap, by providing opportunities for cities to participate in a learning process, on the basis of the principles and actions included in Culture 21 Actions. The programme builds on the experience of a similar scheme launched in 2014 and will enable participating cities to become “Pilot Cities” of the Agenda 21 for culture.
Under the leadership of the President of UCLG ASPAC, the Culture Committee for Asia Pacific Region was recently established. Activities and strategies of this Committee will be presented at the upcoming ExBu and Council Meetings of UCLG ASPAC. (MH)
