Culture in the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda: A Report by the Culture 2030 Goal Campaign
c_ Selections of Exemplary Content on Culture in 2019 VNRs Below are excerpts from the VNRs with exemplary approaches to engaging with culture for the SDGs focusing on the five highest scorers in the Keyword Analysis. Palau: • Title: “Pathway to 2030: Progressing with Our Past: Toward a Resilient, Sustainable and Equitable Future” • Executive Summary: Building resilience: “Climate change, and associated disaster risks, impact all aspects of life and without climate-informed development threaten Palau’s health, culture, economy, infrastructure, and environment.” • Policy and Enabling Environment: Ownership of the SDGs: Working Groups: “The third and final pre-VNR meeting of working group chairs took place on 6 June 2019. Considering a pre-final draft, chairs identified (…) examples of Palau culture and traditions that illustrate the subtheme of this report, “Progressing with our Past”. • National SDG Framework: Progress, Challenges, Future Priorities: Pillar One: People: “Palau begins this VNR with a focus on four enablers of human well-being–• SDG 2, food and nutrition; SDG 3, health and well-being; SDG 4, education; SDG 11, human settlements (focus on culture). (…) SDG2, Food and Nutrition: “Palau’s traditional agriculture is a multi-story agroforestry system, where tree crops provided a protective canopy for the intensive production of over 40 plant varieties. (…) Traditional agriculture is good for people and the environment. Research shows that taro patches absorb up to 90 percent of sediment thus protecting Palau’s coral reefs.” (…) • National SDG Framework: Progress, Challenges, Future Priorities: Pillar One: People: SDG11, human settlements (focus on culture). Palau has integrated 3 of the 10 SDG 11 targets into the National SDG Framework. The focus for discussion in this section, however, will be SDG 11.4 (culture) since this very important element of sustainability from a Palau perspective is not fully explored elsewhere in the SDGs. (…) Cultural and Natural Heritage: Target 11.4. “This is a high priority target for Palau with many actions having been taken or in progress to protect Palau’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Several government and semi-government organizations (Bureau of Cultural and Historic Preservation within the Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs, Palau Society of Historians; an NGO, Risel Belau; States; other ministries, for example, the Ministry of Education) have responsibility for arts, culture, and historic preservation. (…) Several government and nongovernment conservation agencies also touch on cultural heritage because of the close link between Palau’s natural resources and its cultural resources. Because of the multi-sector and multi-agency involvement in this area, it has not been possible to track expenditures by all the parties per the 11.4 indicator.” Pathways to 2030: Closing Gaps, Improving Quality and Reach, Building Resilience. • National SDG Framework: Progress, Challenges, Future Priorities: Pillar Three: Planet: “We do not inherit the earth from our parents; we borrow it from our children.” - Traditional wisdom. • Progressing with the Past: SDG1: Culture of “sharing and caring”; SDG14: Traditional “Bul” (the Council of Chiefs placing reef areas off limits to fishing during known fish spawning and feeding periods) as the Foundation for MPAs (Marine Protected Areas).
59
