This monthly Tracker is produced by UNESCO to monitor the role of culture in public policy with regards to the UN Sustainable Development Agenda. It highlights developments within national and regional contexts, as well as emerging debates on culture's contribution to sustainable development. Drawing on a variety of sources, it provides a broad overview of cultural policy trends worldwide at the national, regional and international level and looks at ways in which countries integrate culture into other policy areas.
AT A GLANCE
Despite the continued state of turbulence in the cultural sector, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there have been many developments in the past few months that have instigated a renewed dynamism in cultural policies.
As we see in this month's Cultural Policy Highlights section, at the national level new measures and initiatives continue to reinforce countries' response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As countries switch into longer term recovery planning, there have also been several developments that aim to reinforce national cultural sectors in the longer term.
The future of multilateralism is a major theme as the United Nations’ General Assembly, which opened on the 22 September, is celebrating 75 years since its foundation. In the Cutting Edge section, we explore how culture can support multilateralism, which is currently at a crossroads.
Strengthened cooperation on culture in regional and sub-regional organizations, as well as regional development banks, continues to rejuvenate multilateralism. As part of UNESCO’s ongoing monitoring and support, this issues' Regional Perspectives section covers the latest developments.
Finally, the section Culture in the 2030 Agenda explores multifaceted approaches in which countries capture culture's cross-cutting role in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular through international cooperation. This follows the latest High-Level Political Forum held in July, at which 47 more countries submitted Voluntary National Reviews as part of monitoring progress towards the SDGs.