UNESCO’ CULTURE SECTOR
Gender and Culture
Culture and Gender
Dr Mechtild Rossler
On behalf of the gender focal points of the CLT Sector
Gender, Place and Culture
A Journal of Feminist Geography
Impact Factor 1.030. Ranked in 2010
Thomson Reuters SSCI: 35/65
(Geography); 10/35 (Women's
Studies)
Volume Number: 18
Frequency: 6 issues per year
Integrating Culture, Cultural/Natural Heritage in Development
Integrating Culture, Cultural/Natural Heritage in Development
UNESCO has long advocated for a more central role of
culture in sustainable development. The Universal
Declaration on Cultural Diversity ( 2001), defines
cultural diversity as "one of the roots of development,
understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but
also as a means to achieve a more satisfactory
intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence"
The link between culture and development has been
increasingly recognized: The UN General Assembly
passed a resolution calling for the integration of culture
into global and national development policies at the end
of 2010.
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Tuesday
Feb152011
The UN Resolution on Culture and Development
was Adopted 20 Dec 2010
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 11:11AM
The UN Resolution on Culture and Development has been adopted on 20 December 2010 "which
emphasizes the important contribution of culture for sustainable development and for the achievement
of national and international development objectives, including the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).
This represents a major breakthrough at the international level in so far as there is no explicit mention
of culture in the MDGs. This new resolution will encourage stakeholders to more fully integrate the
cultural dimension into development processes thereby ensuring their sustainability.
Read more http://www.arterialnetwork.org/news/fourth-international-conference-on-african-cultureand-development-24-july-2011-to-27-july-2011
Moveable cultural
property
Cultural and natural
heritage
Protection of the World
Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972)
Protection of the Underwater
Cultural Heritage (2001)
Protection of Cultural Property
in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954)
Illicit Import Export and Transfer
of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970)
UNESCO’s NORMATIVE
INSTRUMENTS
Protection and Promotion of the
Diversity of Cultural Expressions
(2005)
Safeguarding of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage (2003)
Intangible cultural
heritage
Universal
copyrights
(1952, 1971)
Contemporary
creativity
1972 World Heritage Convention
• about heritage of outstanding universal value
• issues related to gender including at site level
• issues related to access and human rights
• Article 5: “...to adopt a general policy which aims to give the
cultural and natural heritage a function in the life of the
community and to integrate the protection of that heritage into
comprehensive planning programmes”
1972 World Heritage Convention: example of Sundarbans
Any sympathetic discussion with the women
of the Sundarban region (the famous
archipelago in the southern fringe of the
Gangetic delta in eastern India known for its
mangrove forest and Royal Bengal tigers)
will reveal the stark realities about their
abysmal health standards and the widely
prevalent reproductive health problems in
spite of a plethora of public health
programmes…..
Researcher Jharna Panda shared her experience living and
working in the Sundarban Region, at Visva-Bharati's
International Conference on Women after Independence.
1972 World Heritage Convention
• new
avenues, opportunities, but also new
challenges
• 2012 ‘World Heritage and Sustainable
Developmen: the Role of Local Communities’
2003 Convention:
Knowledge about
nature and the
universe
• Traditional ecological
wisdom, indigenous
knowledge, ethnobiology, -botany, zoology, traditional
healing systems and
pharmacopoeias, rituals,
foods, beliefs, esoteric
sciences, initiatory rites,
divinations, cosmologies,
shamanism, etc.
• Culture and
Development : Moving
UNESCO’s action in the
field of culture into
the sustainable
development arena…
• Mainstreaming gender
equality!
2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the
Diversity of Cultural Expressions:
Convention calls on its Parties to introduce measures that
encourage women to create, produce, disseminate, enjoy and
have access to diverse cultural expressions. Information on the
extent to which Parties have done so will be reported on in the
Periodic Reports (June 2012).
The analysis by the Secretariat: report on such measures that
will enable the monitoring of developments in this field. Cases of
best practice that promote women will be included in various
information exchange activities.
• Call for applications for funding from
the International Fund for Cultural
Diversity (IFCD) in 2011: opportunity
to introduce the gender component
in application form, as a means of
encouraging both governmental and
non-governmental applicants to plan
their projects in a gender-responsive
rather than gender-blind manner.
Potential beneficiaries had to
provide information on how their
project’s objectives and expected
results would contribute to
promoting gender equality. The
Secretariat : analyze the 200
applications received in March-June
2011 from this perspective.
The UNESCO Culture for Development Indicator Suite
- first tool to generate evidence on how culture contributes to development at the
national level.
- CDIS provides policymakers and development actors with clear benchmarks for
policymaking and encourages further investments in cultural statistics and
national capacity building.
- Indicators: measuring the economic weight of cultural industries, addressing
culture’s role in social cohesion, governance and education, promoting rightsbased development and individual freedoms.
- Women’s empowerment and gender equality features strongly in the Suite, in
recognition of their importance for national development objectives. Gender
equality is one of the seven dimensions of the Suite and indicators are
disaggregated by sex whenever possible.
A first test phase was recently completed in six countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Ghana, Uruguay and Viet Nam). A second test phase is
foreseen in 2012 in a further 6 countries, including Namibia and Ecuador. The CDIS
initiative is an operational project of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and
Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (Arts 13 and 19) and is supported
by the Spanish Agency for Development (AECID).
Pilot projects that foster female creativity in the cultural and creative industries:
article 15 : collaborative arrangements/capacity building of creatives
fundraising options being explored with potential partners such as
the Mastercard Foundation) Invest in female creative talent in selective subsectors (design, audiovisual, TBD) through mentoring of young female
creative, already displaying potential (in a recognized institution) and investing
in her talent, allowing her to transform talent and ideas into viable creative
enterprises.
The selected female creatives are accompanied throughout the creative cycle.
This could take the form of a global ‘network’ of young female creatives who
are mentored by successful cultural entrepreneurs either in their own country
or from overseas.
To enhance the dynamic and ensure long-term sustainability of the project,
private enterprises can play an important role in identifying new talent in their
particular domain, mentoring and even giving opportunities for creatives to
showcase their work under their particular label.
Challenges
equality mainstreaming –
participatory approach, as culture is a tool
for development
•Gender – social and cultural construct
•Integrate actual field experiences and
include gender at planning stages of
projects and share results and challenges
with others
•Indicators often quantitative and not
qualitative
• Culture Sector: reports from retreats and
its gender sessions
•Working group on notion of gender in
different cultures
•C-5 inclusion of publication on culture
and gender (for 2013)
• gender