29 September 2022, Mexico City – National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Commissioner on Cultural Heritage and Head of its Sub-commission on Cultural Heritage Architect Michael F. Manalo delivered the Philippine intervention during the thematic session of the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development – MONDIACULT 2022 titled “Heritage and Cultural Diversity in Crisis”.
Architect Manalo stressed that “the threats of climate change are palpable. It is affecting everyone and spares no one. But sometimes the answers lie in what is skin-deep.”
He highlighted the country’s milestones in cultural management and policies such as the recent enactment of the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act (RA 11904), the Cultural Recovery and Resiliency Plan 2021-2028, the institutionalization of disaster risk management plans and policies at the national and local levels and most importantly, the incorporation of heritage impact assessment (HIA) in relevant Philippine laws. He emphasized the momentous events of the Philippines’ successful implementation of the UNESCO Culture|2030 Indicators in Baguio City, as well as the recent listing of the School of Living Traditions (SLT) in the UNESCO’s Register of Good Safeguarding Practices.
He called on the global community to craft cultural policies that are responsive to the global threats and crisis, sharing the country’s experience to enrich international and national policies and frameworks on heritage and natural calamities, to ensure transmission of diverse communities’ knowledge, heritage, skills, and values.
MONDIACULT 2022 is currently being held again in Mexico from 28 to 30 September 2022 forty years after the first MONDIACULT Conference in Mexico in 1982, and 24 years after the MONDIACULT Conference in Sweden in 1998 where hundreds of cultural ministers, experts, advocates, and networks convene to dialogue and respond to existing threats and crises as well as emerging trends in the field of culture.
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Source: Paris PE
