I am happy to report that my application to UNESCO’s Expert Facility for the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, focused on the governance, data collection, and monitoring of culture and creativity, has been pre-selected for a mandate between 2023 and 2026. UNESCO received over 330 applications from over 80 different nationalities.
The facility is supported by UNESCO Culture’s Sector’s work and the EU-funded program “Advancing evidence-based policies and actions, and supporting policymaking to enhance the contribution of creative sectors and industries to sustainable development.”
I am excited for the opportunity to continue working as part of this strong network, which supports UNESCO Member States in developing their cultural and creative industries.
Background
UNESCO launched a call for the expression of interest for the renewal of the EU/UNESCO Expert Facility on the governance, monitoring, and evaluation on culture and creativity (hereafter: the EU/UNESCO Expert Facility) in March 2023. The EU/UNESCO Expert Facility that is mandated between 2023 and 2026 consists of 87 pre-selected members. The Expert Facility represents a wide range of expertise related to the main themes of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and the Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and the Culture|2030 Indicators.
The Expert Facility serves a community of practice that assists UNESCO’s Member States and furthers the knowledge on questions related to the elaboration of policies and actions for the cultural and creative industries, as well as the monitoring and evaluation of culture’s contribution to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its goals (SDGs).
In this sense, the Expert Facility is fundamental to implementing the EU-funded Programme “Advancing evidence-based policies and actions and supporting policy making to enhance the contribution of creative sectors and industries to sustainable development”. This programme aims to contribute to the enhancing national and local capacities for gathering data on culture and the development of evidence-based policies and actions for culture and creativity to achieve the SDGs on a global and national level. On a global level, the Expert Facility will assist amplifying the messages of the importance of culture and creativity to attain the SDGs through sharing knowledge, whereas on a national level some members of the Expert Facility will be requested to provide technical assistance. Data collection and analysis will be carried out at the national and local levels.