A special session organised by the President of the UN General Assembly and UNESCO will look at the connection between culture and sustainable development. IFLA will be represented by Governing Board member Loida Garcia Febo, speaking on behalf of the Culture2030Goal campaign.

The session has the formal theme: “Culture as a global public good: Filling SDG implementation gaps beyond 2030”. This touches on an issue where IFLA, alongside partners in the Culture2030Goal campaign, has been very active in recent years.

Too often, culture has not been given the priority it deserves or needs in SDG implementation, leading to missed opportunities and under-performing policies.

We hope that this session will start to correct this, drawing on the positive examples of those governments at national and local levels which have integrated culture into the planning and delivery of development policies.

A short term goal will be to secure the place of culture in the Declaration of the SDG Summit, a priority already identified by the Campaign earlier this year. This will send an important signal both for implementation today, and planning for the future.