By Oscar Martínez
Photo: UNCTAD
2021 was declared the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development on the occasion of the 74th United Nations General Assembly. The objective of this initiative was to raise awareness, promote cooperation, networking, and an enabling environment to tackle the challenges of the creative economy.
The creative economy has an important role to play in sustainable development as it represents 3% of world economy GDP and around 30 million jobs worldwide, according to UNESCO’s data.
2021 comes in the context of a COVID-19 pandemic that paralyzed the creative economy with the closure of museums, theatres, cinemas and bookshops. In the first quarter of 2020, the sector related to arts, entertainment and recreations was the second most affected one in Europe, with a contraction of 6% of gross value added and hours worked. Worldwide, the book editing sector is expected to shrink of 7,5%, and the music industry is expected to lose of $100 billion US only in sponsorships in 2020, with regard to 2019. In addition, COVID-19 has accelerated the digitalization of culture, a process provoking adapting difficulties for sectors as the performing arts[1].
In this context and considering the upmost importance of promoting creative economy in the post-pandemic scenario, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is raising awareness about the creative economy challenges and promoting its importance as a potential sustainable development driver through a series of events and discussions organized throughout this year.
GlobalCAD, relying on its extensive expertise in developing strategic and innovative communication strategies and on its capacity to produce attractive visual products, has been charged with the responsibility of supporting UNESCO in its efforts to achieve these objectives.
For this purpose, GlobalCAD will elaborate the communication strategy of UNESCO for raising awareness of the creative economy during 2021. It will also support the institution in the organization of ResiliArt debates and other activities contributing to the promotion of creative economy, as the elaboration of human impact stories illustrating the importance of culture as a sustainable development driver.
[1] Culture in crisis Policy guide for a resilient creative sector, UNESCO 2020
