The second meeting on the « Updated Comprehensive Plan for Arab Culture » got underway Monday in Tunis.

The two-day high-level event is held at the seat of the Tunis-based Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALECSO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Cultural Affairs.

It is geared towards cultural institutions and different stakeholders.

Experts and representatives of participating countries, namely Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Tunisia and Yemen, are set to debate mechanisms to implement this strategy.

Issues in relation to identity, heritage, upgrading cultural policies, governance and digitisation as well as the development of creative industries and the funding of cultural action top the agenda.

ALECSO Director General Mohamed Ould Amar said the meeting offers a prospective vision of the organisation and provides an appraisal of plans and Arab and international events.

This plan was devised in response to the aspirations of Arab peoples, he further said.

Minister of Cultural Affairs Hayet Ketat Guermazi outlined the cultural policy in Tunisia. Culture, she said, plays a key role in building a creative, active and open society which can attain the hoped-for sustainable development goals.

The updated strategy is a roadmap developed by the ALECSO based on the recommendations of the 21st Conference of Arab Ministers of Culture on the Updating of the Comprehensive Plan for Culture.

This plan was adopted back in 1985 during the culture ministers’ conference and as part of the updated Comprehensive Plan adopted in Doha in 2010.

This new meeting is held in line with the recommendations of the first high-level meeting (November 21-22, 2022 in Rabat).

Morocco’s meeting was dedicated to the presentation of the Updated Plan of Arab Culture.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse