UNESCO MondiaCult 2022 Mexico

(Ministers of Culture and arts professionals met recently in Mexico City at the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development. They issued a 7-page final declaration with 22 paragraphs, each paragraph comprising one sentence, an average of 12 lines long! I’m not sure who they expect will read this document, let alone act on it? I’ve taken the liberty of proposing this alternative Final Declaration).

An Alternative Final Declaration

We, the ministers responsible for culture in the Member States of UNESCO, meeting at the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development in Mexico City from 28-30 September 2022:

Noting the numerous cultural policy declarations, protocols, conventions and recommendations produced over the last 40 years since the 1982 MONDIACULT Conference

Believing that the two key faultlines in our world – inequality (economic, political, military and cultural) and culture (beliefs, values, identity and meaning-making) – result in the general failure to implement these policies in an impactful and sustainable manner, particularly in the Global South where more than two-thirds of the world’s population reside

Recognising that our meeting, by virtue of who is present but more by who is absent, reflects these faultlines notwithstanding our wish for a truly global gathering

Conscious of the recent pandemic that both fast-tracked the use of technology and exacerbated the digital divides globally, regionally and within many nation-states

Admitting that the dependence on Global North resources (financial, human, intellectual, infrastructure, etc) in the international cultural arena often leads to ideological, value and experience bias in favour of the Global North in ‘international’ cultural policies, protocols and declarations

Conceding that our fundamental belief in and promotion of cultural diversity and its concrete expressions in the mobility of cultural workers and more equitable distribution of cultural goods and services, are stifled by the security and economic interests of the Global North, and by political considerations such as electorates leaning towards greater nationalism and whiteness

Acknowledging that as individual culture ministers and as a collective, we have very limited power at global, regional and national levels to influence economic, political, development, climate and even cultural policies, reflected in our inability to integrate culture in the Sustainable Development Goals when culture is so clearly a significant factor in the pursuit of these goals (for example, the culture of patriarchy that militates against SDG 5 to secure gender equality)

Recollecting that a number of initiatives in the arts such as the festival movement in Europe and international institutes of theatre and dance came about after the second World War as instruments to build peace globally, yet Europe is now experiencing a war that is bringing the world ever closer to the possibility of the deployment of nuclear weapons thereby reflecting the severe limitations of arts initiatives in pursuing social justice and building peace 

Confessing our shortcomings in being able clearly to articulate the relevance of culture to political decision-makers on the one hand, and on the other hand, our shortcomings in educating and empowering the arts sector in our respective countries about the relevance of culture as a transversal phenomenon in which they play a role

Realising that there is often a disjuncture between civil society actors in the cultural space and government agencies

Understanding the urgency with which we need to act collectively and individually to respond to the crises confronting humankind through climate change, increasing inequality and violent conflict

Aware of the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals, we commit

1. Not to produce any further declarations, protocols, conventions and recommendations but rather to summarise and simplify from existing global cultural policies the key interventions that need to be made in the next eight years both to help realise the SDGs and to respond to the most urgent contemporary crises
2. To invest in expertise and strategies to implement existing cultural policies, particularly in the Global South including
   • educating, training and providing support for policy-makers and administrators both in relevant government departments and in civil society
   • building sustainable and politically independent civil society networks at national, regional and global levels to ensure effective representation and participation by Global South actors
   • general and contextual curricula to educate decision-makers on the one hand, and the arts sector on the other, about the relevance of culture as a transversal phenomenon to the SDGs, social justice and peace-building
   • encouraging the arts sector to work outside of their silos and to collaborate with other sectors of society in pursuit of agreed aims
3. To undertake thorough research in every country in Africa, Asia, the Arab world, Latin America, the Caribbean and Pacific islands on the state of cultural policy and practice, and the obstacles to and possibilities for implementing the key policy recommendations
4. To establish and support effective regional implementation and monitoring mechanisms to assist countries in implementing and monitoring these policies and related strategies,
5. To refrain from hosting expensive gatherings with large carbon footprints in favour of more effective local, regional and global coordinating mechanisms, and rather to develop a system – such as the Ibrahim Index on African Governance or the UNDP’s Human Development Index – to report on progress every two years