At the September 27, 2022 event A Culture Goal is Essential for Our Common Future, held in the context of the Mondiacul 2022 Global Conference on Cultural Policies organised by UNESCO in Mexico City from September 28 to 30, 2022, the Culture2030Goal campaign, which brings together several global cultural networks, launched a zero-draft of a potential development goal focused on culture.
Culture is effectively missing from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet no one would argue that culture is irrelevant to the 2030 Agenda. Indeed, the United Nations General Assembly Declaration enshrining the 2030 Agenda refers to its importance, but there is no language specifying this “contribution” is, detracting from the Agenda’s supposedly “integrated and indivisible” character.
This document explores the structural absence of culture from the SDGs, and suggests the reasons for this, before turning to current issues, including the challenges that those leading the preparation of any post-2030 framework will need to address, including the framing of an agenda, the management of interconnections between goals, and a stronger implementation architecture, while also drawing on the successes that the current agenda has brought.
The Culture 2030 Goal campaign looks forward to working with all relevant stakeholders, using this document as a basis, to advance efforts to realise the potential of culture to drive sustainable development.