UNESCO will award a total of $900,000 from its International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD) to 11 projects that advance the global creative economy in 2023. The decision was approved during the 16th Session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, held from 7 to 10 February at UNESCO Headquarters.

This year’s IFCD projects cover a wide range of activities, from amplifying the voice of indigenous filmmakers in Argentina to revising Ghana’s current national cultural policy and gathering data and statistics on Pakistan’s cultural and creative industries so as to strengthen policymaking.

The Committee’s decision to support projects from 11 countries this year is in line with UNESCO’s renewed commitment to bolster support for the creative and cultural sector, which is still recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It also reflects the recent MONDIACULT 2022 Declaration, which calls for the strengthening and adaptation of cultural policies to contemporary challenges, as well as UNESCO’s efforts to prioritize initiatives in Africa and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and projects that focus on youth and gender equality.

Botswana, Egypt, Ghana, and Pakistan are receiving support from the International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD) for the first time. This brings the total support from the IFCD towards the cultural and creative sector to $10.3 million since 2010, shared among 140 projects implemented in developing States.