FOLLOW-UP TO THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE ON CULTURAL POLICIES FOR DEVELOPMENT (STOCKHOLM) OUTLINE

Transcription

1 Conférence générale 30e session Document d information inf Paris 1999 General Conference 30th Session Information document Conferencia General 30 a reunión Documento de información 30 C/INF.7 17 September 1999 Original: English/French FOLLOW-UP TO THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE ON CULTURAL POLICIES FOR DEVELOPMENT (STOCKHOLM) Source: Stockholm Action Plan. OUTLINE Background: The Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies for Development was held at Stockholm, Sweden (30 March-2 April 1998). One of the major impacts of the Conference has been to underscore and broaden recognition of the cultural dimension of development. Purpose: The present report summarizes efforts undertaken by the Secretariat to follow up on the above-mentioned Conference, in accordance with the orientations set out in the Action Plan adopted by the Conference. Decisions required: No decision is required on this document.

2 30 C/INF.7 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies for Development marked the culmination of many years of work undertaken during the World Decade for Cultural Development and by the World Commission on Culture and Development. The Conference has also provided benchmarks for a vigorous renewal of these efforts, i.e. a new phase of advocacy on the part of UNESCO which responds to the complex and rapidly changing needs of the new millennium and, in so doing, also consolidates the Organization s leadership role in this field. Indeed, it has already become clear that one of the major impacts of the Conference has been to underscore and broaden recognition of the cultural dimension of development - a cause that has been central to UNESCO s work for so many years. 2. Many governments, as well as organizations and institutions in both the public and the private sectors, have responded individually and collectively to the rallying cry for culture contained in the Stockholm Action Plan. This heightened awareness has been demonstrated by a variety of initiatives launched in the past 15 months. A case in point has been the launching by Ms Sheila Copps, Minister of Canadian Heritage, of an informal network of ministers of culture, who met for the first time in Ottawa in June 1998 to discuss ways of sustaining local and national cultures in an increasingly globalized and digitized world and who agreed to launch an informal international network to promote these goals. Mexico will host a second meeting in September 1999, followed by Greece in the year Other important developments have included the creation by the World Bank of a lending programme for cultural projects, the holding on 28 and 29 September in Washington, on the eve of the Bank s annual meeting, of a Conference on Culture and Development, and the organization by the World Bank and the Government of Italy, in cooperation with UNESCO, of the forthcoming Conference in Florence (4-7 October 1999) on Financing, Resources and Economics of Culture in Sustainable Development. 3. UNESCO has encouraged these and many other initiatives directly inspired by the Stockholm Conference. It has also been closely associated with them and has consistently stressed the need for concrete initiatives that mobilize political will and persuade governments to promote public policies that recognize the central role of culture in development. 4. The purpose of this document, however, is to summarize the ways in which the Secretariat itself has sought to implement both the recommendations contained in the Stockholm Action Plan and the decision of the Executive Board at its 155th session that the Draft Programme and Budget for (30 C/5) should include a strategy to implement the Action Plan adopted at the... Conference. The Secretariat s follow-up activities have taken two main forms: (i) the elaboration of a new line of action on cultural policies for development; and (ii) reflection on the ways in which UNESCO s entire programme could be reshaped in the light of the Stockholm Action Plan. The focal point for these efforts has been the Cultural Policies for Development Unit established in the Culture Sector in December II. NEW LINE OF ACTION ON CULTURAL POLICIES FOR DEVELOPMENT 5. The Stockholm Conference having demonstrated a renewed commitment to cultural policies among Member States, the first main task of the Secretariat was to elaborate a new line of action on cultural policies and development. In document 30 C/5, this new component is the core of the culture and development section that opens the chapter on Major

3 30 C/INF.7 - page 2 Programme III, Cultural development: the heritage and creativity. It is based on the three-pronged strategy described in paragraph 03011, viz. (i) the monitoring, collection and dissemination of policy-relevant knowledge and information; (ii) the promotion of capacitybuilding in Member States; and (iii) the mobilization of expertise networks and new knowledge. 6. In order to elaborate this strategy, the Secretariat has consulted widely with governments, international organizations, NGOs and foundations, as well as with individual experts and activists in the cultural policy field. The aim has been to develop a programme that will be nourished by an impact upon all the areas of UNESCO s activities in the field of culture. The main purpose of this preparatory consultation has been to map in a general way various policy stances and actions with regard to some of the key issues highlighted at Stockholm. The consultation process has included the commissioning of analytical studies on approaches to these issues in different regions. One of these studies has focused on the specific recommendation of the Stockholm Conference that UNESCO s work to encourage networks should include study of the establishment of an observatory of cultural policies. Although the study is only of a preliminary nature it recommends that the service envisaged by the Conference could best be provided not by a single entity but through a process of international networking. In the meantime, the Secretariat has begun to explore concrete domains of cooperation with bodies such as the INTERARTS Observatory in Barcelona, the Budapest Observatory on Financing Culture in Central and Eastern Europe and the Southern African Cultural Information System (SACIS). 7. In cooperation with the Division of Cultural Policies and Action of the Council of Europe, the Secretariat has carefully examined the Council of Europe s cultural policy review programme, with a view to applying the valuable lessons of that experience in other geocultural settings. On the basis of what has been learned and at the invitation of the Swedish National Commission for UNESCO, the Secretariat is organizing a workshop entitled Assessing needs, devising tools, imagining new methods at Gällötsta, Sweden, from 11 to 13 September The workshop will bring together a small group of government officials with responsibility for cultural affairs, representatives of cultural NGOs and individual cultural activists and/or experts, with the aim of helping the Secretariat identify the core working methods that it will begin to apply in the biennium as well as the services which it will offer Member States. 8. To this end, in May 1999, the Secretariat also sent out a questionnaire concerning the follow-up to the Stockholm Conference in which it asked governments: (a) to identify their policy objectives, achievements and challenges in relation to the objectives set out in the Stockholm Action Plan; (b) to indicate the types of cooperation they expect from UNESCO with regard to cultural policies for development; and (c) to express their views on the recommendation made by the World Commission on Culture and Development that a Global Summit on Culture and Development be organized by UNESCO. To date, replies have been received from 28 Member States; however many governments have requested more time to complete the questionnaire, and a much larger number of replies is thus expected before the end of the year. The full range of responses to part (b) of the questionnaire, which asks governments to indicate their priorities with regard to specific types of activities proposed under the threefold strategy mentioned above, will be of great value as the new line of action begins to be implemented in the year However, direct action has already begun in two Member States, the Dominican Republic and Uganda, both of which have been contemplating a redefinition of their cultural

4 30 C/INF.7 - page 3 policy frameworks for some time, and have sought and obtained the Secretariat s technical and financial assistance for a process of review that is currently under way. 10. Activities to disseminate the messages of the Stockholm Conference have been closely linked to the elaboration of the new programme. Some 10,000 copies of the Final Report of the Conference have been distributed widely in all the working languages of the General Conference. A special effort has been made to provide UNESCO field offices with copies of the Action Plan as well as the full Final Report, both in electronic format and in paper form, in the hope that they might be able to stimulate the establishment of national working groups and other initiatives designed to make practical use of the outcomes of the Conference. A new section on the Conference and the follow-up to it, including an interactive component, has been developed within the UNESCO Culture Website; this includes such new features as a bimonthly editorial on culture and development issues. III. INTERSECTORAL COMMITTEE AND TASK FORCE ON CULTURE AND DEVELOPMENT 11. In addition to the specific and practical strategy in the domain of cultural policies outlined above, follow-up to the Stockholm Conference has also required, as indicated by the Executive Board at its 155th session a comprehensive range of activities to advance international cooperation on culture and development. Within the Culture Sector this has included notably the work being carried out in the framework of the World Culture Report. Similarly, programming in the domains of cultural heritage, copyright, creativity and cultural industries, and cultural pluralism has taken into account the Stockholm Action Plan. A case in point was the organization in June 1999, with the support and cooperation of Canadian Heritage and the French National Commission for UNESCO, of a symposium entitled Culture: A Form of Merchandise Like no Other. This meeting brought together artists, independent professionals, jurists, economists and other experts from the private and public culture and broadcasting sectors from all world regions. The discussions focused on the economic and commercial stakes of the cultural sector, as stressed at Stockholm, and indicated clearly that there was a role for UNESCO in promoting international debate on the appropriate strategies required in international negotiations, on the contents and procedures of governmental action, as well as sector-specific debate on the situation of the cultural industries in different regions. 12. Concurrently, the broader goal of reshaping UNESCO s entire programme in the light of the Stockholm Conference has been pursued through the work of the Intersectoral Committee on Cultural Policies for Development chaired by Mr Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and a more informal intersectoral Task Force on Cultural Policies for Development chaired by the Assistant Director-General for Culture. The creation of both groups was decided by the Director-General in December The Intersectoral Committee held a first meeting on 21 May 1999 under the chairmanship of Mr Pérez de Cuéllar and intends to meet again in September or October The first meeting was devoted to a review of the ways in which the cultural dimension was already present and now being intensified in different programmes of sectors other than that of Culture. This discussion has as a basic reference document the Preliminary Proposals for the Elaboration of a Comprehensive Strategy to Implement the Stockholm Action Plan in all of UNESCO s Major Programmes. This document consisted of an

5 30 C/INF.7 - page 4 inventory of culture-related activities envisaged under all the major programmes of the Organization together with a certain number of tentative proposals for new work. 14. The Intersectoral Committee endorsed and enriched the following suggestions for action to be taken which had been identified a few weeks earlier by the Intersectoral Task Force: Undertake intersectoral reflection on the theme Cultural policies for what kind of development? with a view to updating and expressing clearly UNESCO s multifaceted vision of development. Prepare a work for publication in to demonstrate why it is essential to take account of the cultural dimension as a component of all development projects and programmes. Drawing inspiration from UNESCO projects in all its fields of competence the work would be intended to raise awareness among decision-makers and planners, to convince them and to change attitudes. Endeavour to strengthen the culture and development component in the main lines of implementation of document 30 C/5 and in future programmes. To this end, the members of the Intersectoral Committee will circulate to the various units in their sectors and bureaux the document entitled Preliminary Proposals for the Elaboration of a Comprehensive Strategy to Implement the Stockholm Plan of Action in all UNESCO s Major Programmes, prepared by the Cultural Policies for Development Unit in February Furthermore, the following openings were identified as being conducive to such strengthening: the 2001 summit on the information society to be organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU); the concept of public service in relation to culture in general and the media in particular; questions concerning young people arising from the draft UNESCO strategy for action with and for young people; developing (intersectoral) interdisciplinary projects, in the spirit of the Stockholm Action Plan, with a view to obtaining funding from outside donors and extending that approach as rapidly as possible to other agencies of the United Nations system, occupying to that end slots such as the Intergovernmental Commission on Sustainable Development. 15. The first meeting of the Intersectoral Task Force which had put forward the above ideas was held on 5 May 1999 and was chaired by the Assistant Director-General for Culture. Substantive comments from field offices were also received and circulated. The members of the Task Force had been identified as a group of people who all have a professional stake in the culture and development relationship, whose activities are germane to the achievement of UNESCO s goals in this area and who would appear to be ready to contribute on a personal basis to an informal and trans-sectoral reflexive process. Apart from the specific suggestions outlined in previous paragraphs, the members of the Task Force also agreed that there was scope to strengthen the links between culture and other areas of endeavour that already existed in UNESCO s programme, e.g. between culture and education, the environment, media, tourism and socio-political pluralism. They also agreed that as professionals they shared many

6 30 C/INF.7 - page 5 objective reasons to develop an intersectoral dynamic of cooperation on issues of culture and development and expressed their willingness to establish such a dynamic in the coming weeks and months. Since the first meeting, which will be followed up in September/October by a second, a number of informal follow-up discussions have taken place, including a working lunch held on 27 May at which colleagues explored their visions of what the world community might expect from UNESCO with regard to international cultural cooperation in the new millennium.