Culture, the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda: A Guide for Local Action

Research conducted by Agenda 21 for culture – UCLG Committee on Culture and other stakeholders has increasingly proven that cultural aspects are necessary to achieve the 17 SDGs. The recent publication of Culture in the Sustainable Development Goals: A Guide for Local Action aims to illustrate this with evidence from all corners of the world, stressing the important role of local governments and communities and making explicit connections that are often only implicit. A more explicit acknowledgement of the place of culture in local sustainable development can be found in the New Urban Agenda.

In the last few years, Agenda 21 for culture has developed a range of evaluation, policy innovation and peer-learning schemes that are helping cities improve their understanding of the place of culture in sustainable development and to develop more effective strategies in this area. This side event will present evidence of this and will also aim to showcase the existing tools (including the aforementioned publication, as well as the related peer-learning programmes) that can help a broader consultancy understand the links between culture and local sustainable development and make it operational. The context of WUF9 provides an excellent opportunity to reach out to a wide range of stakeholders and generate a conversation on the links between culture, the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda.

The side event will comprise an introduction by Agenda 21 for culture – UCLG Committee on Culture and illustrative experiences from two local governments with extensive experience in this area: the City of Mexico, which holds extensive experience in the design of rights-based cultural policies which contribute to economic, social and environmental development in a holistic perspective; and the Jeju Special Self-Governed Province, Republic of Korea, which has developed a culture-based approach to sustainable development. Presentations will aim both to present the evidence and the tools available and to invite to a conversation with other stakeholders represented at WUF9, in order to strengthen networking in this area. The last third of the session will invite participants to present experiences and discuss the issues raised in the course of the side event.