Our Expertise

East Asia is home to abundant heritage resources that need to be conserved and safeguarded; it is also one of the world’s fastestgrowing economies undergoing accelerating urbanization and globalization. Balancing heritage conservation and socio-economic growth is therefore a key challenge. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes for the first time culture’s enabling and crosscutting role in sustainable development. UNESCO, as the only UN agency with a dedicated mandate on culture and as the facilitator of key culture Conventions, is ready to contribute the expertise on culture-driven sustainable development, and to provide platforms for the dissemination of the region’s good practices and experience to a global audience, especially to other developing countries.

At a time when East Asian countries are facing challenges, UNESCO continues to push forward on its fundamental humanist mission to strengthen understanding among people, and to mobilize knowledge for just, fair, ethical, and inclusive societies. The Social and Human Sciences (SHS) Sector is assisting countries in East Asia to foster inclusive growth and reduce inequalities through producing knowledge to inform better policies and decision-making. Meanwhile, noting the acceleration of the use of frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence in the sub-region, SHS is also assisting Northeast Asian countries to develop their ethics infrastructure to better address issues related to these technologies, and to contribute to the global dialogue on bioethics and ethics of science and technology.