written by Roudabeh Jamshid Ein Global Youth Advocate at UNMC
On May 21 we celebrated the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. Emphasizing the importance of understanding cultural diversity to raise human living standards, and following the adaptation of UNESCO’S Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity in 2001, the UN adopted resolution 57/59 on December 2002 . From that time forward, May 21 has been declared the World Day of Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. UNESCO celebrated this day with events in Costa Rica, South Sudan, France, and Brazil. These were streamed on the web and via the radio. The results of these efforts has brought the attention of their population towards the importance of this day for peace building, cultural diversity, and other relevant issues to sustainable development.
Recognizing the importance of overcoming cross-cultural barriers to define the sustainable development goals, we at the United Nations Millennium Campaign celebrated this day as well.
Each specific cultural group has their own logic to interpret any specific notion in their own community. To ensure that we have a diverse and ambitious post-2015 agenda with global ownership, our work has focused on social inclusion and social participation.
Our team at World We Want 2015 supports this day by welcoming all stakeholders with different cultural backgrounds to join the global thematic consultations about culture and development. Understanding development has different interpretation in different cultures. The UN Millennium Campaign recognizes the importance of creating an environment to give a chance for diverse cultures to raise their voices and be recognized globally among others. This has been done by providing a forum, and open space for discussion and participation on the design of the post-2015 agenda. Furthermore, by providing the latest reports and other information such as different case studies and introducing selected publications, our team aims to raise awareness of the key role that culture plays in implementing the post-2015 agenda. The UNDG Dialogues on Implementation was a multi-stakeholder global discussion in over 50 countries and with 6 relevant streams. One particular stream focused on the role of culture on the implementation of the post-2015 agenda. Cultural diversity and awareness are and will continue to be central to our efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals by 2030.
If you want learn more about cultural differences on the priorities of the lives of ordinary people around the world we invite you to visit Human of My World’s Facebook page. Through this qualitative data sample culture and humanity of MY World voters are highlighted. For example: the key priority for the woman featured above from Cote d’Ivoire is job opportunities and autonomy. For the girl from Morocco, also featured above, a better education is her top priority.