Culture is a key component of human development as it provides people with a sense of community, identity, innovation, and creativity. Recognizing this potential and in accordance with the UN Resolution 74/230, the President of the General Assembly will convene, in partnership with UNESCO, a one-day high-level event on 21 May 2021, World Diversity Day for Dialogue and Development.

Focused on “Culture and Sustainable Development” and commemorating the “International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development”, the event will highlight the transformative role of culture and creativity towards the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Themed “Building back better: towards a more resilient and impactful culture sector throughout COVID-19 and The Decade of Action”, the high level event spread over three panels, will shed light on the challenges faced by cultural and creative industries and more generally within the cultural ecosystem at both national and local level, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Along with high-level representatives from Member States, UN agencies and other international organizations as well as cultural practitioners, Mayors of the Creative Cities of Brazzaville (Congo), Changsha (People’s Republic of China), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Lyon (France), Montréal (Canada), and Rome (Italy) will participate in the event and share their cities’ experiences and good practices undertaken in support of their local creative economy during the pandemic.

In line with the Network’s mission to place culture and creativity at the heart of sustainable development plans and strategies, the event will provide a collaborative platform to identify and devise innovative solutions to address the current pandemic as well as to unlock the potential of culture and creativity to build back better.

On this occasion, UNESCO will also launch a joint UNESCO-World Bank publication titled “Cities, Culture and Creativity” (Link available post release). The publication will aim to support local decision-makers’ work to enable creative urban ecosystems in which the cultural and creative industries can take root, innovate and flourish.

Interested participants can follow the event live on UN WebTV at 10 am (EDT): http://webtv.un.org.

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