PESHAWAR: The two-day workshop on cultural policy drafting concluded at a local hotel here on Friday.

The workshop, sponsored by the Unesco, was titled ‘Multi-stakeholder meeting on the Unesco 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions’. Academics, cultural experts, young entrepreneurs and mediapersons attended the event.

Earlier, Unesco country director for Pakistan, Ms Vibeke Jensen, said that the purpose of this consultation was to bring all stakeholders together to discuss the importance of the creative economy in Pakistan and to hear from creative entrepreneurs about their challenges, needs and aspirations so that a cultural policy that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would develop truly reflected the needs of the stakeholders.

She said that the Unesco convention of 2005 ensured that there was a diversity of cultural expressions, as transmitted through cultural goods and services, locally, nationally and internationally. She said that this convention was the only international treaty to date that provided a policy framework for creative sector.

Ms Vibeke Jensen said that it ensured the integration of culture into sustainable development strategies and national development policies and promoted international cooperation to facilitate the mobility of artists as well as the flow of cultural goods and services.

She said that Pakistan had yet to ratify this convention and this Danish Centre for Culture and Development-CKU project helped to raise awareness in various regions of Pakistan about this convention so that the stakeholders could see the benefit of ratifying it.

The participants put forward various suggestions to the KP government for drafting a comprehensive cultural policy to be reflective of people’s aspirations. Ms Reiko Yoshida and Mr Andrew, Unseco experts on cultural policy drafting, also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn November 19th, 2016