Expert Facility

The Expert Facility is a pool of 43 specialist advisors who provide on-demand, tailored technical assistance, coaching and mentoring to Parties. They have expertise in a variety of fields, including in international law; cultural statistics and indicators; trade; digitization; media diversity; status of the artist and freedom of artistic expression; preferential treatment and mobility.

The Expert Facility was created in 2011, in the context of a European Union funded project on “Strengthening the System of Governance for Culture in Developing Countries”. 30 international experts from 24 countries were initially recruited. This Facility supported developing countries during the period 2012-2014, through technical assistance missions, in their efforts to reinforce their human and institutional capacities and strengthen systems of governance for culture

Following the call for expression of interest launched in February 2015, a renewed Expert Facility comprised of 43 international experts was created to support capacity development for the 2015-2017 period.

This renewal diversified geographical representation, gender balance and areas of expertise including: cultural statistics and indicators; trade; digitization; media diversity; status of the artist and freedom of artistic expression; preferential treatment and mobility.

The Expert Facility can be solicited to deliver country-level assistance in different thematic areas of the Convention and through different modalities (workshops, advisory technical assistance, short and long-term capacity-building interventions, mentoring, coaching, etc.), depending on the availability of extra-budgetary resources. The experts are familiar with the UNESCO tools and training materials which they adapt to local contexts and use to deliver training and capacity-building services.