The meeting took place in Sao Paulo on April 13 at the headquarters of Fundación Nacional de las Artes (Funarte). The ministers and high authorities of culture from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil were present. The next day, at the same place, the discussion continued at the Meeting of South American High Authorities of Culture and Sustainable Development.
The emphasis was put on the role of culture in regional and global sustainable development, leading to the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development that will take place in Rio de Janeiro on June 2012.
At this meeting, the General Director of Ancestral Knowledge of Peru’s Ministry of Culture, Zulema Burneo, highlighted the need to incorporate an intercultural approach in the design and implementation of public policies. The goal is to meet the needs and aspirations of the citizens based on the respect to diversity.
During the seminar, ministers and high authorities exchanged with invited guests: mainly representatives of organizations dedicated to cultural administration in Brazil. The second day the meeting was brought to an end with the authorities that were present. The attendants discussed in depth the need to work with a wide concept of culture, that besides paying attention to the promotion and protection of arts and heritage, reflects on issues such as democratic and fair coexistence, social cohesion, the acknowledgement of diversity, rights’ exertion and equity.
The attendants admitted that it is not possible to leave aside the cultural dimension of sustainable development and that culture should be taken into account as development’s fourth pillar in addition to the other three pillars that have been acknowledged so far: social, economic and environmental. At the end of the meeting, Sao Paulo’s Declaration on Culture and Sustainability, that states the position of the South American countries on this subject, was signed.