World Governments Summit What Role Does Culture Play in Shaping the Future of Humanity

I'm absolutely delighted to be hosting these two fabulous men. you and spoke last year. We did. your excellency is Salam. and we were with the at the time outgoing director general of UNESCO Dr. Khaled. Welcome. Muk. Congratulations. you are the new director general first from the Arab region in the organization's history and it couldn't be more difficult time. Good luck with this role. and I'm serious about that. this is really difficult time. you know fracturing international order. UNESCO facing real financial problems. Talk to us about your campaign, why you took this role and why your sort of banner is UNESCO for the people. Just explain. Thank you, Becky. Thank you for your nice words. Thank you, dear minister, dear brother. I'm very excited to be here and I'm very thankful to the UAE authorities for inviting me. It's my first world government summit in my new capacity that started 10 weeks ago. as as you said the first Arab DG and the second from Africa among 12 the brilliant DGs. it was very long campaign. Yes, it started in 2023. have been to 66 member states. my background was dedicated all my life in fields of competence of UNESCO. I'm teaching since 1993 in state public university teaching Egyptology. I'm scholar and worked in cultural management. have been director of museums in Egypt and the minister of tourism and antiquity. So but what faced and what learned during this campaign guided me to and shaped my view to the world. have been to 66 member states with different priorities, different culture, different religions, different aspirations. But there is one thing common that there is hope for better tomorrow. There is fear from what we don't know from other that we don't know. And this is the power of UNESCO. UNUSCO was created in 1945 at the end of the second world war to avoid another world war to another to avoid another holocaust. And this is UNESCO to bring peace to build peace in the mind of people through education, science, culture, communication, information. And fast forward 70 years and things feel as fractured as they were back when the organization launched. Sir, yes. And can say it might be worse because now we have more natural disasters. We have more hate speech. We have more technical tech technical tech technological divides. And we have multilateral system that really threatened. But there is hope because see with member states who are determined to maintain to protect the mandate of UNESCO because it's about peace. It's about bringing people together and the in the constitution of UNESCO it's very clear stated that as political agreement and the economic arrangement are not enough to bring people together. They bring governments together. But education, science and culture is really the thing that bring people together. And for my slogan to answer your question, UNESCO for the people people is the word that is most mentioned in the constitution of UNESCO in the preamble in the first pages to bring people together. And in one of the campaign visits with an African intellectual artist, he told me that we don't need another organization giving us lessons workshops, recommendations. We need an impact. We know we need UNESCO for the people. took my note and it became UNESCO for the people and during my term all what be doing in education, science, culture, it will be dedicated to people, to peace and to sustainable development. One classic example of UNESCO success is the revive the spirit of Mosul project which you and talked about at this time last year. UAE was lead funer on that UNESCO initiative. you and were together in Mosul for the handover of those cultural heritage sites back in September and just want you your excellency just to talk to us about why that project is so important to you and how it can serve as blueprint for recovery elsewhere. Thank you Becky. First allow me to congratulate his excellency Dr. on this wonderful position and wonderful appointment and we're all rooting for him and we're expecting lot from all the sectors of UNESCO and not only culture. So congratulations Dr. Khaled. Becky, culture is universal and protecting it is shared global responsibility and that's why partnerships with the international community is vital such as UNESCO, ALF, other organizations. the UAE similarly to humanitarian aid prioritizes cultural cooperation and it's always been prioritized for the country for continuing the legacy of coexistence and and peace and and tolerance. the last world government summit as you discussed we spoke about Mosul and only in September were we there. and I'd like to highlight that the UI's partnership with UNESCO is an extremely successful one and has become blueprint for future collaborations. And I'm pretty sure that the UNESCO will use this document as blueprint. We're working on video to explain as well, you know, the historical context of Mosul, what the UAE did to contribute to it with the partner of of UNESCO to give better idea of how this multilateralism and blueprint of of heritage sites actually work. So again we're optimistic about multilateralism. you need the right partners, the right people and more importantly and this is something that is excell and have been in vast conversations on is how do you have cross sectoral collaboration. So you know when you talk about culture great but culture without education is is nothing. how do you how do you bring in the sciences when you want to talk about the culture issue? How do you look at climate change issues of mitigation, adaptation through culture? So the interreation of the four sectors of UNESCO is key and think this is big four sectors are really important that we remember them because we we often times talk about the the the pillar of culture. UNESCO sir and this is challenge to you. UNESCO is about culture. It is about science is about education. It is about information technology. So here is, you know, question to you. How do you go about prioritizing the significantly reduced budgets? By the way, the US withdrew from UNESCO. That means you've lost 22% of your regular budget by the end of this year. even more countries are asking for help. So how do you ensure you are running the gamut across those four key pillars? And you know when conflict dominates, when we look at this fractured world, when we you know look at how few people are talking about the opportunities that multilateralism affords. You know there are lot of people who say culture is luxury. you know investment in science and and education really tell us go on. Thank you for this complex question. what you said is very right that UNESCO we are the victims of our success in cultural heritage big Nubian campaign and rescuing monuments around the world. spent my life in cultural heritage. So but when started the campaign was started to dig inside UNESCO. UNESCO is also and mainly education because UNESCO is the mind of the people and minds of the children. It's empowering children with skills with knowledge with values from the early childhood going through lifelong learning. It's capacity building of teachers. It's catalyst of international scientific cooperation. And know that the day that traveled to study my PhD abroad, it changed my life. So scientific diplomacy is something that is very valuable. Culture, it's not only about heritage sites, it's about intangible heritage sites about creative industries that can help communities to thrive. And I'm very happy that finally in 2024 the UN recognized in the pack for the future culture for the first time at the driver of sustainable development and of course communication information that we are in charge of freedom of expression of reliable and free communication and safety of journalists. It's also in the mandate of the organization. we will prioritize we are obli obliged to have focus on the pure in the mandate of the organization and to do maybe less but better because we have less financial resources and when you have less financial resources you're obliged to have less human resources as well. we are based in 53 countries around the world. We have nine category 1 institutes in different part of the world. We are going to maintain all of this and with member states we'll reach together compromise to be impactful preserving the mandate of the organization as for the financial resources which is very big challenge now not only for UNESCO but for the UN system it goes beyond the withdrawal of the US it's all the ODA's architecture is changing and priorities of member states now instead of giving specialized agencies they go to the pay to the military in their countries and others because of the proliferation of humanitarian crisis around the world they don't they go to the humanitarian. So as you said culture, science maybe it's not on the top of the agenda of donors and this is the only way that we have now is to multiply and diversify the partnership with the civil society with the private sector with with the philanthropy organization but to do so think that we change we need to change the narrative and to deliver the full mandate of the organization that is beyond the cultural heritage it's people it's UNESCO for the people it's for women empowerment it's for the youth the leaders of tomorrow. So if we were sitting here this time next year, what do you hope we will be talking about? What do you hope you will have achieved? Education. Mhm. and accompanying the young generation in natural disaster zones and in crisis zones in the world in Ukraine, in the Middle East to accompany this these children from trauma to trust to be able to deliver the equitable and quality education they deserve. don't want to lose this generation. I'm coming from Egypt. I'm African, I'm Arab, I'm Mediterranean, I'm crossroad of civilizations. believe on the in the intercultural dialogue and this is my daily fight that want to to have with all member states all the time that we deliver the message of respecting others, dealing with other, understanding and knowing others. mean, you sat on the board of UNESCO. mean, you were representative for the UAE in Paris for long period of time. So, know you'll have real perspective about, you know, what the organization is up to and where you hope it will go. And with the UAE's support, projects like Mosul are classic example of where country like this can really support. know that you'll also, you know, buy into the idea of public private partnerships for an organization like this as well. As the world enters an era of rapid tech advancement, how do we ensure that the younger generations value and protect cultural heritage in the first instance, but equally, you know, the issues that you've just brought up, which are mandate for UNESCO, education, science, information, technology. Becky, in simple answers is to involve them to involve the youth. again Mosul as an example and we keep bringing Mosul back again because think for myself and for his excellency it is the most recent significant restoration project globally. and his excellency's campaign about people. This is what the UEE is about. When we look at humanitarian aid it's for the people. When we look at cultural development and restoration it's for the people. So we have to be people focused. You know you were at Mosul, you saw Aluri Mosque. You saw the incredible headband. You saw that both churches restored the houses. However, at the end of the day, it's about the people. 7,000 700 Mosales have been trained. 2,700 of them are trained under the UEE budget and have permanent jobs there. What also saw was city that needs an awful lot of help still. What this project is doing is inspiring that sort of you know that the the opportunity to to work on one project which will ripple. Absolutely. Absolutely. The center of the city has been restored. People are back into the city. ISIS is completely out. You have youth working and believing in this project and that's how you bring communities back together. want to lean into your experience to that point as tour guide. You you you and want to close with this. you talked to the audience about your experience and and your CV clearly was you know the ultimate reason why after 30-month campaign you got 55 or 57 votes for this role. mean, you know, it but your experience as tour guide after really frightening period of tourism of terrorism in Egypt back in the day in the 1990s really provides you think some good storytelling on this. think two stories to tell from my experience as tour guide is how culture diplomacy is very effective tool. saw tourists when they arrived to Egypt after terrorist attack scared in the beginning when they arrived because they are coming to the Middle East and some of them it's and when saw them crying while leaving because they loved Egypt they loved the Egyptians so saw how the word of mouth when they went back until today after 35 years kept very strong friendship from my work as tour guide. The second lesson learned that how culture is sustained development tool and when we had this ter attack in 1997 that people who are working mainly in tourism in Luxor were unable to feed their horses. So imagine the families it was really very horrible situation and see it now when tourism is flourishing. see saw what happened during the co time when was minister of tourism at the time. We closed the restaurants, airports, hotels, how 1 million family suffered during the co time because of lack of information of resources. Culture is very important socioeconomic factor. And I'm just going to finally close with you because from UAE perspective, culture is strategic priority right now. Not just for identity but for the economy and for diplomacy. Correct. Absolutely. Absolutely. Culture and everything that comes out of culture. So again, education. Culture doesn't come without education. What is the link of climate change with culture? How do we look at issues of mitigation and adaptation of of the link of culture and climate? So again, culture as we traditionally know it to be, but also how it links to other subsectors is quite crucial for the UE. We are timed out. We've been timed out for minute or so, so I'm going to have to leave it there. Too short session. Been fantastic to have you though. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you. My guest today Shukran.