City hosts Expert Meeting on “Creative Economy and Sustainable Development” (UNCTAD, Geneva)

Last week, Andy Pratt and Toby Bennett visited the United Nations headquarters at the Palace of Nations in Geneva. Andy organised an Ad Hoc Expert Meeting on the Creative Economy and Sustainable Development. This was a joint event, arranged between CCCI, the Commonwealth, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), placing City at the forefront of global debates in this field.

 

UNCTAD is the permanent intergovernmental body dealing with trade and investment issues, particularly within the developing world. Its Creative Economy programme plays a leading role in raising awareness of the importance of culture and creative sector for development, supporting national agendas and strengthening international partnerships, as well as generating and publishing reliable data globally.

 

The meeting was opened by the Chair of the G77, the Ambassador for Ecuador, and chaired by the Chief of the UNCTAD Creative Economy programme. It featured contributions from academics, policymakers, politicians and practitioners representing five continents, in front of an audience of around 70 attendees from NGOs and national delegations. Key policy issues and emerging trends in the global creative economy were discussed over four expert panels, including areas such as national and international development strategies, challenges of measurement and environmental harm, and business capacity-building. Andy gave the introductory and closing remarks.

Don’t tell artists what they can do already OR have a top-down policy, it doesn’t help, says @LondonU‘s Prof Andy Pratt at our #CreativeEconomy meeting.

Rather create institutions that help artists and creatives talk to each other and make connections. That’s what’s missing! pic.twitter.com/cqjCX6Pyz6

— UNCTAD (@UNCTAD) October 28, 2019

Andy delivers his opening comments, alongside Ambassador Diego Aulestia Valencia, Chair of G77 and China

 

They will now prepare a report on the meeting, to form the basis of a text for the next UNCTAD Creative Economy Outlook, in preparation for the fifteenth UNCTAD quadrennial conference in 2020.