SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Sustainable Development Goal 11 is defined as “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. It is notable as the only United Nations Sustainable Development Goal that officially recognises heritage as a contributing factor to meeting its target. Specifically, this is subtarget 11.4 “Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage” and relies solely on total per capita expenditure on the preservation, protection and conservation of cultural and natural heritage as its only indicator. However, heritage organisations have long recognised that heritage and archaeology can play a more active role in contributing to the SDGs.

In particular the British Council published the report, The Missing Pillar: Culture’s Contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in which they provide an overview of the main frameworks and institutions that currently engage with the SDGs, analyses the SDGs through a cultural lens, offers examples of relevant British Council programmes, and sets out recommendations for the arts and culture sector to demonstrate the value of arts and culture to sustainable development.

Similarly, ICOMOS published a report in 2021, Heritage and the Sustainable Development Goals, which aims to demonstrate the potential for harnessing heritage to assist in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

Building on these reports, this Workshop explores the different ways in which heritage and archaeology plays and can play in the future in working towards achieving SDG11 – to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Speakers:

(Brief) Introduction by Dr Mark Manuel

Kai Weise, President of ICOMOS Nepal and GCRF Doctoral Student Durham University

Jane Gibson, Durham World Heritage Site Co-ordinator

Dr Keir Strickland, Senior Lecturer, La Trobe University, Australia

https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/the_missing_pillar.pdf 

https://openarchive.icomos.org/id/eprint/2453/1/ICOMOS_SDGs_Policy_Guidance_2021.pdf