Strategic Objective 8

Fostering creativity and the diversity of cultural expressions

131.     Creativity, understood as the human capacity, through imagination or invention, to produce something new and original in order to solve problems is a unique renewable resource. Creativity enables individuals to expand their abilities and develop their full potential. In today’s global, knowledge-based societies, creative assets are generating new forms of revenue and employment that are spurring growth, in particular among youth. Releasing diverse sources of inspiration and innovation, creativity contributes to building open, inclusive and pluralistic societies. As a multi-faceted human resource that involves processes, environments, persons and products, creativity can inspire positive, transformative change for future generations.

132.     Economic inequalities, social exclusion, and unsustainable use of assets and conflicts over scarce resources are among the major challenges in our globalized world. Creativity, embracing cultural expression and the transformative power of innovation in knowledge societies, can contribute to finding imaginative and better development outcomes. Tapping into creative assets can effectively contribute to making globalisation a more positive force for all the world’s peoples, of present and future generations. Creativity is thus essential to promoting peace and sustainable development..

133.     UNESCO’s Conventions, Recommendations and Declarations provide tools for the implementation of sound policies with socio-economic impact at the national and local levels. Providing advice for policy development and acting as a capacity-builder, UNESCO will support policies and regulatory frameworks that promote creativity and are derived from the internationally agreed principles contained in its conventions, in particular the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. It will help create and strengthen national and local specialized institutions, and provide expertise, thereby offering an integrated set of mutually reinforcing measures, creating an enabling environment to promote, protect and transmit cultural resources for social and economic development for this and future generations. This will go hand in hand with strengthened efforts to develop institutional capacity to generate information, allowing for monitoring and informing on the effectiveness of normative action and its impact on national policies in the field of culture and creativity.

134.     Intangible cultural heritage is continually created and recreated. The 2003 Convention’s potential as a powerful tool to improve the social and cultural well-being of communities and to mobilize innovative and culturally appropriate responses to the various challenges of sustainable development will be fully explored. Emphasis will be given to empowering marginalized and vulnerable communities and individuals, in particular indigenous communities, women and youth, to participate fully in cultural life through the continued creativity that is a defining characteristic of intangible cultural heritage, and to make cultural choices according to their own preferences and aspirations.

135.     The creative economy has proven to be a feasible development option. It relies on the transformation of creativity as raw material into assets, often operating on a small scale and offering new employment opportunities and forms of revenue at the local level, thus contributing to more balanced and inclusive economic growth. UNESCO will support the emergence of dynamic cultural and creative industries and markets. In so doing, it will encourage investments in the artistic and creative potential of individuals and institutions in developing countries, securing access and the full participation of all, in particular small and medium sized cultural enterprises and creators from the South. This will involve supporting the development of policy frameworks as well as technical and infrastructural capacities.

136.     While creative potential is evenly distributed through the world, not everybody can exert their full creative potential. Creative voices from the global south are often absent. Artists and creators live unstable lives, many remain silenced and are not free to travel, create or enjoy the minimum benefits of their creativity. Increasingly artists demand better social and economic conditions and unhindered mobility. UNESCO will promote the status of artists, their individual mobility and preferential treatment for creative works from the global South. It will continue its efforts to support artists through fellowships and grants for young creators and re-invigorate the global debate and action necessary to improve the social and economic conditions for their work.

137.     By the same token not everybody has access to cultural life, the capacity for creative expression and the possibility to enjoy diverse cultural goods and services, including their own. These are fundamental for the building of socially inclusive, creative and knowledgebased societies and enhance overall quality of life. In pursuit of the Seoul Agenda and Development Goals for Arts Education to enhance the creative and innovative capacity of societies, priority will go to scaling up efforts and removing barriers that limit access to and participation in cultural life, capacities for cultural and creative expressions and the availability of diversified ranges of cultural goods and services. UNESCO’s role as a reference point in the field of contemporary creation will be underscored through the promotion of dedicated “world class initiatives” in the performing and visual arts, in partnership with leading artists, architects and institutions from all regions.

138.     Rapid and unprecedented urbanization around the world is putting pressure on the availability and use of resources, resulting in overburdened urban environments and generating new security issues that are unsustainable on the long run. Placing creativity at the heart of urban renewal and planning can lead to more liveable, safer and productive cities offering better quality of life. UNESCO acts to support shared urban public spaces where creativity fosters social engagement, inclusion and security. UNESCO’s action will focus on supporting the model of “creative cities” and in particular the revitalized Creative Cities Network as laboratories for sustainable development and poverty alleviation, places where imagination, inspiration and innovation are openly and freely exchanged: platforms for dialogue and ideas, where a diversity of images, text, sounds are conceived, created, produced, exchanged and traded, including in particular those of Diaspora communities.