Culture and Sustainable Development

A/RES/68/223No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 21dCulture and development, published in 2014.

What other versions does this mandate have?

8 versions · 2014–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/148

2025A/RES/80/148Culture and sustainable developmentLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/161Culture and sustainable developmentCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/214Culture and sustainable developmentCompare with previous version
2020A/RES/74/230Culture and sustainable developmentCompare with previous version
2018A/RES/72/229Culture and sustainable developmentCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

4 topics

Cultural Policy Culture Economic Development Sustainable Development

What does this mandate say?

34 operative paragraphs

Takes note of the note by the Secretary-General transmitting the report prepared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and in this regard acknowledges the work undertaken by the United Nations agencies to optimize the contributions of culture to sustainable development;

Also takes note of the nine recommended actions contained in the Hangzhou Declaration to place culture at the heart of future policies for sustainable development, and invites all Member States, intergovernmental organizations, organizations of the United Nations system, relevant non-governmental organizations and all relevant stakeholders to consider them in the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda;

Takes note with appreciation of the discussions and conclusions of the high-level thematic debate on culture and development sponsored by the President of the General Assembly and held at United Nations Headquarters on 12 June 2013, which focused on culture as a resource for achieving the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals;

Takes note of the special edition of the Creative Economy Report, co-published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the United Nations Development Programme through the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation in November 2013, which explores the role of cultural and creative industries in achieving inclusive social and economic development;

Recognizes the role of culture as an enabler of sustainable development that provides peoples and communities with a strong sense of identity and social cohesion and contributes to more effective and sustainable development policies and measures at all levels, and stresses in this regard that policies responsive to cultural contexts can yield better, sustainable, inclusive and equitable development outcomes;

Also recognizes the potential of culture as a driver of sustainable development, which contributes to a strong and viable economic sector by generating income, creating decent jobs and addressing both the economic and social dimensions of poverty through cultural heritage and cultural and creative industries, while providing innovative and effective solutions to cross-cutting issues, such as education, health, gender equality and the environment;

Emphasizes the important contribution of culture to the three dimensions of sustainable development and to the achievement of national development objectives and the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, and in this regard acknowledges:

That culture contributes to inclusive economic development, as cultural heritage, cultural and creative industries, sustainable cultural tourism and cultural infrastructure are sources of income generation and job creation, including at the community level, thus improving living conditions and fostering community-based economic growth, and contribute to empowering individuals;

That culture contributes to inclusive social development for all, including local communities and indigenous peoples, with respect for cultural diversity, safeguarding of the cultural and natural heritage, fostering of cultural institutions and strengthening of cultural and creative industries;

That culture contributes to environmental sustainability, since the protection of cultural and biological diversity and the natural heritage is crucial to sustainable development, while supporting traditional systems of environmental protection, and resource management can contribute to the increased sustainability of fragile ecosystems and the preservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, reducing land degradation and mitigating the effects of climate change;

Acknowledges that culture contributes to peace and security, as a valuable resource for empowering communities to participate fully in social and cultural life, facilitating inclusive governance and dialogue at the national, regional and international levels and contributing to conflict prevention and resolution, as well as to reconciliation and recovery;

Recognizes that culture should be taken into account in the promotion and implementation of new sustainable consumption and production patterns that contribute to the responsible use of resources and address the adverse impacts of climate change;

Acknowledges that quality education is enriched by culture, which transmits shared values, knowledge and skills;

Invites all Member States, intergovernmental bodies, organizations of the United Nations system, relevant non-governmental organizations and all other relevant stakeholders:

To raise public awareness of the importance of cultural diversity for sustainable development, promoting its positive value through education and media tools;

To ensure a more visible and effective integration and mainstreaming of culture into social, environmental and economic development policies and strategies at all levels;

To ensure that women and men equally access, participate and contribute to cultural life and decision-making, and to further commit themselves to the development of cultural policies and programmes with a gender perspective at the local, national and international levels in order to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls;

To promote capacity-building, where appropriate, at all levels for the development of a dynamic cultural and creative sector, in particular by encouraging creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, supporting the development of cultural institutions and cultural industries, providing technical and vocational training for culture professionals and increasing employment opportunities in the cultural and creative sector for sustained, inclusive and equitable economic growth and development;

To actively support the emergence of local markets for cultural goods and services and to facilitate the effective and licit access of such goods and services to international markets, taking into account the expanding range of cultural production and consumption and, for States parties to it, the provisions of the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions;3

To preserve and maintain local and indigenous traditional knowledge and community practices of environmental management, which are valuable examples of culture as a vehicle for sustainable development, and to foster synergies between modern science and technology and local and indigenous knowledge, practices and innovation;

To promote global awareness of the linkages between cultural and biological diversity, including through the protection and encouragement of the customary use of biological resources, in accordance with traditional cultural practices, as a key element of a comprehensive approach to sustainable development;

To support national legal frameworks and policies for the protection and preservation of cultural heritage and cultural property, the fight against illicit trafficking in cultural property and the return of cultural property, in accordance with national legislation and applicable international legal frameworks, including by promoting international cooperation to prevent the misappropriation of cultural heritage and products, recognizing the importance of intellectual property rights in sustaining those involved in cultural creativity;

To note that, in achieving these objectives, innovative mechanisms of financing can make a positive contribution in assisting developing countries in mobilizing additional resources for development on a stable, predictable and voluntary basis, and to reiterate that such voluntary mechanisms should be effective, should aim to mobilize resources that are stable and predictable, should supplement and not be a substitute for traditional sources of financing, should be disbursed in accordance with the priorities of developing countries and should not unduly burden such countries;

To mobilize culture as a vehicle to foster tolerance, mutual understanding, peace and reconciliation in the context of conflict-prevention, conflict-resolution and peacebuilding processes;

Encourages all Member States, intergovernmental bodies, organizations of the United Nations system, relevant non-governmental organizations and all other relevant stakeholders to enhance international cooperation in supporting the efforts of developing countries towards the development, strengthening and consolidation of cultural industries, cultural tourism and culture-related microenterprises and to assist those countries in developing the necessary infrastructure and skills, as well as in mastering information and communications technologies and in gaining access to new technologies on mutually agreed terms;

Encourages initiatives to foster cultural cooperation agreements and networks at the regional level for knowledge- and information-sharing for sustainable development;

Invites the organizations of the United Nations system, in particular the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to continue to provide support, to facilitate financing and to assist Member States, upon their request, in developing their national capacities to optimize the contribution of culture to development, including through information-sharing, the exchange of best practices, data collection, research and study and the use of appropriate evaluation indicators, as well as to implement applicable international cultural conventions, taking into account the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly;

Invites the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and other relevant United Nations bodies to continue to assess, in consultation with Member States, the contribution of culture to the achievement of sustainable development through the compilation of quantitative data, including indicators and statistics, with a view to informing development policies and relevant reports, where appropriate;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that United Nations country teams continue to further integrate and mainstream culture into their programming exercises, in particular United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks, in consultation with relevant national authorities, when assisting countries in the pursuit of their development objectives;

Encourages all Member States, intergovernmental bodies, organizations of the United Nations system, relevant non-governmental organizations and all other relevant stakeholders to give due consideration to the contribution of culture to the achievement of sustainable development in the formulation of national, regional and international development policies and international cooperation instruments;

Also encourages all Member States, intergovernmental bodies, organizations of the United Nations system, relevant non-governmental organizations and all other relevant stakeholders to give due consideration to culture and sustainable development in the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session, in lieu of a report to its seventieth session, a progress report, in the most efficient and cost-effective manner, on the implementation of the present resolution, and, in consultation with Member States, relevant United Nations funds and programmes and the specialized agencies of the United Nations, in particular the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to present options for a United Nations consolidated approach on culture and sustainable development;

Requests the President of the General Assembly to hold a one-day special thematic debate at the highest political level possible, within existing resources, by the end of 2014, to give due consideration to the role of culture and sustainable development in the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda, and to present a Chair’s summary of the debate;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its sixty-ninth session, under the item entitled “Globalization and interdependence”, a sub-item entitled “Culture and sustainable development”, on an exceptional basis, and to include in the provisional agenda of its seventieth session, under the item entitled “Globalization and interdependence”, the sub-item entitled “Culture and sustainable development”, to maintain the biennial nature of this sub-item.

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