The United
Nations’ member states this month adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as
the world tries to build on the successes – and surmount the failures – of the
previous eight Millennium Development Goals, which should have been achieved by 2015.
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| Culture is just a shadow in SDGs. |
The new
global objectives still focus on eradicating poverty and hunger, achieving
gender equality, and providing good healthcare and universal education. But they
now include access to affordable, clean energy, and place much greater emphasis on protecting the
environment.
A glaring
oversight, however, is culture – mentioned just a few times in the 169 subordinate
aims or targets. This is a lapse that many in the cultural sector see as unfortunate, especially when one considers the destruction of
cultural heritage taking place in some parts of the world. It seems that the voices appealing for recognition of culture’s role got lost in the UN babel.
At a
high-profile meeting last year for instance, Irina Bokova, the director-general of the UN’s
cultural agency UNESCO, joined policy makers from different countries in
calling for culture to be integrated into the Post-2015 development agenda.
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| Irina Bokova, UNESCO's DG. |
During this
special thematic debate on culture and sustainable development held May 5,
2014, in New York, speakers used data and national examples to emphasize that
culture “drives and enables the social, environmental and economic pillars of
sustainable development”.
Participants
also recognized that culture is “the thread that binds together the social
fabric of our societies”, as Acting President of the UN General Assembly Khaled
Khiari put it at the time. Bokova warned, too, of the dangers of repeating the
“mistakes” of 2000, when culture was omitted from the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs).
Last October
as well, UNESCO hosted its third Forum on Culture and Cultural Industries, in
Florence, Italy, where representatives from a range of countries discussed the
contributions that culture can make to a “sustainable future” through
stimulating employment, economic growth and innovation. (For the full article
on this conference, please see: http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/10/sustaining-the-future-through-culture/)
All this
seems to have borne little fruit, however, as culture is mentioned in the SDGs
only as a subtext to education, tourism and making cities sustainable.
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| Is tourism the main reason for promoting culture? |
In Goal 4 – to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote
lifelong learning – the objective is that by 2030, all learners will have
acquired the “knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development,
including … appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to
sustainable development”.
Apart from
this, there’s Goal 8 – to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth,
employment and decent work for all – in which the member states aim to “devise
and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and
promotes local culture and products”.
A similar
idea is repeated in Goal 12 – to ensure sustainable consumption and production
patterns. Here, states undertake to “develop and implement tools to monitor
sustainable development impacts for sustainable tourism that creates jobs and
promotes local culture and products”.
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| Seventeen goals and little space for culture. |
Such wording,
of course, raises the question: do governments see the promotion of culture
only as a way to boost tourism? Is tourism necessary for promoting culture? The sad
answer to both appears to be “yes”, and the SDGs aren’t helping to change this mindset.
The only really clear aim for culture comes in Goal 11: to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Among the 10 targets here is to "strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world's cultural and natural heritage". One wonders if the protection of culture could not have been a goal itself.
In an interview, a UNESCO official said that while some people may be disappointed that the language is not detailed enough, the new development agenda does reflect the role of culture throughout.
"This is a substantial step forward from the MDGs, when there was no mention of culture," she said, while acknowledging that greater action could still have been taken. - A.M.
The only really clear aim for culture comes in Goal 11: to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Among the 10 targets here is to "strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world's cultural and natural heritage". One wonders if the protection of culture could not have been a goal itself.
In an interview, a UNESCO official said that while some people may be disappointed that the language is not detailed enough, the new development agenda does reflect the role of culture throughout.
"This is a substantial step forward from the MDGs, when there was no mention of culture," she said, while acknowledging that greater action could still have been taken. - A.M.
