Today is World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. It is celebrated to highlight not only the richness of the world’s cultures, but also the essential role of intercultural dialogue for achieving peace and sustainable development.

With nearly 90 percent of all current conflicts in the world occurring in countries with low intercultural dialogue, to forge effective cooperation and sustain peace, strengthening intercultural dialogue must be a priority. According to UNESCO, the cultural and creative sector is one of the most powerful engines of development worldwide. It accounts for more than 48 million jobs globally -almost half of which are held by women. It is also the sector that employs and provides opportunities for the largest number of young people under the age of 30.

However, the cultural and creative sector still does not have the place it deserves in public policies and international cooperation.

In a bid to change this, in September 2022, delegations from 150 States gathered in Mexico for MONDIACULT 2022, the largest world conference devoted to culture in the last 40 years. They unanimously adopted the historic Declaration for Culture affirming culture as a global public good and calling for it to be integrated as a specific goal in its own right in the development agenda beyond 2030.

In 2001, UNESCO adopted the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity. Next, in December 2002, the UN General Assembly, declared May 21 to be the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.

The day provides us with an opportunity to deepen our understanding of the values of cultural diversity.