Major Programme IV

Culture

Reinforcing impact in 2012-2013

04001     The main thrust of document 36 C/5 will be on developing operational activities that demonstrate the power of culture for sustainable development and dialogue. This will apply to all Main lines of action (MLAs) under both Biennial Sectoral Priorities (BSPs). For example, in addition to their contribution to BSP 1, MLAs 1-4 will each contribute, through operational projects demonstrating the pivotal role of cultural heritage and cultural expressions in sustainable development, to the achievement of the expected results under MLAs 5 and 6 in BSP 2 and therefore to the overarching objective of the Organization’s Medium-Term Strategy for 2008-2013.

04002     Work on long-term flagship dialogue projects will be strengthened – the final volumes of the Histories will be published and all volumes made available on the web. Teaching materials of the pedagogical utilization of the General History of Africa will be developed and the work brought to term in the course of the biennium. Likewise, work on the Slave Route: Resistance, Liberty, Heritage project will focus on the development of concrete products focusing on cultural interactions and the preservation of places of memory.

04003     Work on Cities will continue to explore the challenges for the preservation of the ecological balance and social identity of urban communities embedded in their cultural heritage, while at the same time fostering cities as the vanguard of creativity, innovation and sustainable human development. To this end, the Creative Cities Network will be reoriented to maximize the contribution of member cities as active partners in achieving expected results.

04004     A the new initiative on Heritage and Dialogue will build on work being undertaken in South-East Europe by creating expert working groups in all parts of the world to develop new approaches to complex regional issues relating to heritage management, conservation and promotion, and facilitating the exchange of information and development of joint initiatives as well as training and capacity-building and exchanges between professionals. This will be devolved to the field, with Headquarters undertaking a coordinating and backstopping role.

04005     The preparation of an evidence-based report on Gender and Culture is another new endeavour which will showcase UNESCO’s role in promoting gender equality in the field of culture.

04006     Another major trend of the Programme is to better delineate the responsibilities between Headquarters and the field. In terms of the six principal Conventions at its heart, Headquarters will concentrate on discharging the statutory functions of the Major Programme IV Culture 155 36 C/5 Approved – Major Programme IV respective governing bodies, while field offices will focus on mainstreaming the principles of the conventions into national policies and legislation, through operational action, capacity-building and benchmarking functions.

04007     With a view to increasing focus and concentration of the programme, the implementation modalities of certain activities will be reoriented or discontinued. For example, work to promote the crafts industries will be undertaken exclusively in the field, with Headquarters providing a coordinating function. In the same vein, while the sector will be fully involved in the development of a house-wide policy on indigenous peoples, operational activities will be primarily devolved to the field, with Headquarters undertaking a coordination role. The tourism programme will be scaled back and limited to the work undertaken under the World Heritage Convention, the intellectual cooperation with UNWTO and the inputs of the Handicrafts programme. The subprogramme on interreligious dialogue will also be scaled down and integrated into Organization wide work on dialogue. Agreements with NGOs and specialized regional institutions will be evaluated and new functional modalities considered, as will the arrangements for implementing the Award for Excellence in Handicrafts. Finally, Museum International will be discontinued under the regular programme and alternative methods of production market tested.

04009     Action under Major Programme IV in this third and final biennium of the Medium-Term Strategy for 2008-2013 (34 C/4) will continue to promote the pivotal role of culture for development through the recognition and promotion of cultural diversity in pursuit of the overarching objective of “Fostering 157 36 C/5 Approved – Major Programme IV cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and a culture of peace” and related Strategic Programme Objectives 9, 10, and 11: “Strengthening the contribution of culture to sustainable development”; “Demonstrating the importance of exchange and dialogue among cultures to social cohesion and reconciliation in order to develop a culture of peace”; and “Sustainably protecting and enhancing cultural heritage”.

04010     Activities will be organized around two biennial sectoral priorities and, at the request of the 185th session of the Executive Board, six MLAs. All MLAs will be geared towards mainstreaming across the programme the role of culture in promoting economic equity, social cohesion, reconciliation, peace and non-violence, building on the gains made in 2010 with the adoption of A/RES/65/166 by the United Nations General Assembly, recognizing culture and cultural diversity as fundamental components of development and encouraging international cooperation in this regard. Operational action to demonstrate these links will be paramount, as will efforts to integrate culture in development policies and strategies at national and international levels, building on progress made in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund as well as within UNDAFs.

04011     Action under the First Biennial sectoral priority, Protecting and promoting heritage and cultural expressions will contribute to UNESCO’s five established functions by ensuring the effective implementation and monitoring of UNESCO’s international standard-setting instruments in the field of culture, with heightened attention to capacity-building in Member States, including the elaboration of policy tools, as well as the promotion of international cooperation through knowledge sharing and providing a clearing house for the collection and distribution of best practices.

04012     Activities at Headquarters will concentrate on discharging the statutory functions of the Conventions’ respective governing bodies, while field offices will focus on mainstreaming the principles of the conventions into national policies and legislation, including through operational action, capacitybuilding and benchmarking functions.

04013     The Second Biennial sectoral priority, Advocating for the inclusion of culture and intercultural dialogue in development policies to foster a culture of peace and non-violence will be organized around two transversal MLAs focusing on the linkages between culture and sustainable development. It will contribute to UNESCO’s established functions as a laboratory of ideas, capacity-builder in Member States and as a catalyst for international cooperation.

04014     Emphasis will be placed on operational action that demonstrates culture’s relevance in aid effectiveness policies and mechanisms and for promoting intercultural dialogue through innovation and creativity. Initiatives begun in the last biennium to highlight the role of cities, museums and tourism as vectors for the rapprochement of cultures, peace and sustainable economic and cultural growth will be scaled up. Flagship projects promoting intercultural dialogue such as the Slave Route: Resistance, Liberty, Heritage and the pedagogical use of UNESCO’s General and Regional Histories will be strengthened and reoriented. The sector will make a major contribution to the intersectoral platform on the promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence and collaborate with other Major Programmes in designing and implementing programmes to this end. A new initiative, Heritage and Dialogue, will seek to develop new approaches to complex regional issues through the creation of expert working groups on heritage management, conservation and promotion to facilitate the exchange of information and development of joint initiatives in heritage conservation and management as well as training and capacity-building and exchanges between professionals. Actions under this Biennial Sectoral Priotiry will be largely devolved to the field, with Headquarters undertaking a coordinating and backstopping role.

04015     As part of its operational functions at country level under both biennial sectoral priorities, Major Programme IV will further develop “showcase” projects designed around the coordinated implementation of the various instruments and programming tools, notably through the MDG-F extrabudgetary-funded projects, and contributions to United Nations common country processes.

04016     Efforts to mainstream culture into national poverty reduction strategies (PRSs) and joint assistance strategies (JASs), with particular attention to the roll-out UNDAF countries, and new countries joining the “Delivering as One” exercise will be reinforced. The sector will also continue to assist countries wishing to take a Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) in the area of culture.

04017     Action to increase South-South and North-South-South cooperation will be a feature of assistance to developing countries in fulfilling national development strategies. Cooperation with regional organizations such as the African Union will be enhanced with a view to supporting regional integration strategies. Special attention will be given to the needs of disempowered and marginalized communities in LDCs and SIDS, and especially to indigenous peoples. Particular attention will be paid to developing the capacities of African Member States to protect and promote their cultural heritage and diversity of cultural expressions. Specific activities, including capacity-building, will be geared to the empowerment of women and girls as visible actors in the promotion of cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue.

04018     Given UNESCO’s unique mandate in the field of culture, Major Programme IV will strengthen its collaboration with other Major Programmes with a view to maximizing delivery and impact. Collaboration with Major Programme I will focus on the development of intercultural competences as a contribution to education for sustainable development and on the implementation of flagship dialogue programmes such as the Slave Route: Resistance, Liberty, Heritage and Pedagogical Utilization of the General Histories, World Heritage in Young Hands, culture-related category 2 centres and UNESCO Chairs, as well as on museums and arts education. Collaboration with Major Programme II will centre on natural disaster prevention and mitigating the effects of climate change on World Heritage properties and Biosphere Reserves, as well as the environmental challenges to urban areas. It will also collaborate with the LINKS programme on indigenous knowledge systems for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage and sustainable management of natural heritage sites. Work to address the interrelated cultural, economic, social and environmental challenges to urbanization and governance and work to promote cultural diversity as a vector for interaction among cultures to counter discrimination and intolerance will be the main focus of collaboration with Major Programme III, while actions to promote the development of multilingual contents in cyberspace, build an open access Global Platform on Culture and Development, advance the data collection and analysis based on the UNESCO Revised International Framework for Cultural Statistics and facilitate digital access to the UNESCO Histories and Routes of Dialogue documents will be the principal features of collaboration with Major Programme V.

04019     The sector will work closely with all other sectors in developing the intersectoral programme “Rabindranath Tagore, Pablo Neruda and Aimé Césaire for a Reconciled Universal”.

04020     In order to maximize the impact and visibility of programmatic priorities, emphasis will be placed on expanding the sector’s network of strategic technical, professional and financial partnerships with key stakeholders including donor countries, development banks, regional ministerial fora, civil society, the private sector, IGOs, NGOs and cultural institutions to enlarge support for culture, harnessing its capital for development and peace. In particular, a new Global Partnership for Museums, will seek to involve museums and related institutions as vital partners in the implementation of cultural policies for sustainable development. Major Programme IV will contribute to UNESCO’s partnership with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations as embodied in the Memorandum of Understanding signed in May 2010, through a series of concrete actions on the ground. National Commissions will continue to be the Sector’s natural privileged partners for programme implementation.

04021     Foresight capacities will focus on identifying challenges and new trends in priority areas and outreach efforts will be scaled up to better communicate the cultural dimension of development, including through UNESCO’s participation in the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development and other relevant international fora. This will include high impact initiatives such as the development of a global Knowledge Management Data Base on Culture and Development to serve as the international platform and world reference.

04022     With regard to post-conflict and post-natural disaster situations, actions will build on lessons learnt from the experiences and key achievements of the previous biennium, including the creation of a specific culture cluster in the context of the Post Disaster Needs Assessment exercise (PDNA) undertaken by the United Nations system, the World Bank and the European Commission, and the elaboration of related practical guidelines. Efforts to have culture recognized as an important sector for reconstruction and nation-building, as well as a vector for dialogue, reconciliation and social cohesion, and worthy of consideration in its own right in the context of United Nations joint initiatives such as Flash Appeals and CAP will be pursued.

04023     Drawing on its set of cultural normative instruments and its revised culture strategy for PCPD situations, UNESCO will continue to focus on operational interventions primarily on (i) damage-assessments, (ii) operational rehabilitation, safeguarding and conservation actions, (iii) actions building on the healing power of culture. All action will aim to further strengthen the intersectoral platform on post-conflict and post-disaster situations.

04024     Activities carried out under the two biennial sectoral priorities will be largely financed through the regular programme, complemented as necessary by extrabudgetary funds. However, certain activities will only be possible if extrabudgtary resources are available. These are clearly identified in the expected results.