Cultural governance and strategic partnerships define International Forum organised by UNESCO and Chile

On 5 and 6 February 2026, the UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago and Chile's Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage organised the International Forum "Cultural governance, public institutions and strategic partnerships for sustainable development in Chile". The forum provided a high-level space for dialogue aimed at strengthening cultural governance and advancing the implementation of Chile's international cultural commitments.

The event took place at the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Centre (GAM) and brought together national and international authorities, representatives of cultural organisations, academia, local governments and civil society. The initiative formed part of the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, a normative instrument ratified by more than 160 Parties and fundamental to strengthening cultural governance frameworks, promoting the diversity of cultural expressions-including in digital environments-and integrating culture into sustainable development agendas.

The opening session was led by the Director of the UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago, Esther Kuisch Laroche, and included greetings from Paris by UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture, Ernesto Ottone. In her remarks, the Director highlighted that, in the field of cultural policies, "the challenges are significant, but so are the opportunities: from expanding effective access to cultural rights to strengthening strategic partnerships between the public sector and civil society".

This was followed by an address by the Director of the National Cultural Heritage Service (Serpat), Nélida Pozo, who discussed Chile's participation in MONDIACULT 2025-the world's leading conference on cultural policies-emphasising the country's role in coordinating the Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Consultation.

During this presentation, it was underscored that the process leading up to MONDIACULT 2025 made visible the fact that people are not passive recipients of cultural policies, but rather producers of meaning, memory and collective imagination. Particular emphasis was placed on the mechanisms for consultation with civil society promoted at both national and regional levels.

In this context, Paz Portales, Coordinator of the Culture Programme, joined remotely from UNESCO Headquarters in Paris to reflect on the international commitments in cultural policy undertaken following MONDIACULT 2025. Updates were also presented on the follow-up and monitoring of this process, led by UNESCO.

The keynote lecture was delivered by the Director-General for Cultural Rights at Spain's Ministry of Culture, Jazmín Beirak, who addressed the challenges of guaranteeing cultural rights through public action, civil society participation and institutional innovation. In her intervention, she stressed that "cultural rights are human rights. Cultural life is not limited solely to access to goods, services or creative languages, but is deeply linked to people's integral development".

A panel entitled "Implementing the 2005 Convention from organisations with a cultural rights perspective" was also held, with the participation of Andrea García and Daniela Campos (Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage), Natalia Echenique (Concepción UNESCO Creative City) and Pilar Vicuña (UNESCO). The panel explored experiences of implementing the Convention from the perspective of cultural organisations, local governments and territories, with an emphasis on participation, decentralisation and a rights-based approach.

The closing lecture of the first day, "Caring for culture: Public policies, diversity of expression and cultural rights", was delivered by academic and researcher George Yúdice and commented on by Lázaro Rodríguez, Head of Culture at the UNESCO Regional Office in Santiago. In his presentation, Yúdice argued that "the objective of cultural management should be to improve life in common", calling for a shift towards regenerative models of cultural governance based on relationships, the common good and the care of diverse cultural expressions.

For his part, Lázaro Rodríguez, a specialist in UNESCO's Culture Sector, highlighted that "the first awareness we want to activate is the complexity of the actors involved in cultural governance when seeking to move towards a regenerative approach", underlining the need for comprehensive, collaborative and multi-actor frameworks.

During the second day, a series of presentation and working sessions were held, including "Chile and MONDIACULT 2025: current situation and pending agenda", with the participation of Ramón Solís, Head of the International Affairs Unit of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage, and Lázaro Rodríguez, as well as working groups focused on implementing MONDIACULT 2025 commitments in Chile.

In the final reflection, it was noted that, in contexts of crisis and uncertainty, the articulation between culture, democracy and sustainable development can form a virtuous circle, contributing to the resolution of social conflicts, the strengthening of deliberative capacities and the flourishing of community life. It was also emphasised that MONDIACULT 2025 leaves a central certainty: the future of culture is built through greater listening, greater collaboration and greater humanity.

The International Forum also sought to advance the participatory construction of a national roadmap for implementing the commitments of MONDIACULT 2025, aligned with the National Five-Year Strategy 2024-2029 of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage, reaffirming culture as an essential public good for sustainable development and social cohesion in Chile.