About

The Manila event consists of four components: ASEAN Art Camp, Workshops, Festival, Forum in the Senate and regional outreach

Objetives

Manila SDG Festival, Forum and Workshop owes it origin to the long standing efforts of Earthsavers Dream Center, UNESCO Artist for Peace, under Cecile Alvarez, but established by the late Senator and secretary Heherson Álvarez, to harness the power of art as a tool for peace and climate justice. In 2018, Mrs. Álvarez, organized under patronage of UNESCO and with support of the Senate and the Head of State, the 2018 forum to create the so-called Peace Movement: “Not by Force but by Art”. This was itself preceded by the 2017 Manila Declaration the Philippine Roadmap for the Paris Accord, held on 29-31 May.

These Manila events laid foundation for the Cartagena Declaration on Art as a tool for Peace and Afro Caribbean Integration which was adopted at the Conference organized by Earthsavers’ principal partner, South-South Cooperation Council in November 2018.

Manila SDG event also showcases the effort of organizers to join the Resiliart Movement launched by UNESCO Director General, Mme. Audrey Azoulay.

Finally, the Manila event is also a contribution to the vision of a world post covid, positioning culture as a “Vaccine against Pandemic”.

Event Director's Message

CECILE GUIDOTE-ALVAREZ

Director, Earthsavers Dream Center, UNESCO Artist for Peace. Founder, President Emeritus Philippines ITI Center

Theatre is a mirror for our national identity; an armor against social ills, a memory bank to prevent a nation’s amnesia, an engine for employment and entrepreneurship, a conscience and a lighthouse for a pathway of moral recovery and international understanding. There is a gold mine of talents that must be dug, sensitively unleashed and harnessed as a creative army for change. This is where I found meaning to serve.

Development plans will be accelerated or retarded, depending on the dynamic application of culture. This must be seen in the context of the realities and challenges faced by every country where the character, traditions, resources and capacities of its population serve as the shield in coping and overcoming the daily grind and periodic calamities

Amidst the pandemic, culture must not be forgotten; culture must have its place in our national psyche, permeated by the values of courage, compassion, solidarity and sacrifice, as a non-violent weapon to win the global war against this deadly virus, which has been compounded by climate change catastrophes and the threatening collapse of economies amidst the lockdown.

The education-for-all policy of governments, towards unlocking the gridlock of poverty, must be geared towards: invigorating tourism; building discipline to protect the environment and build disaster resilience; mitigating violence, and armed conflict , crime and corruption, drugs and disease ignorance and injustice terrorusmand tyranny undertaking climate action in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

This mission can be fast-tracked through relevant and sensitive integration of cultural communications-- based on appreciation of heritage, history, habitat, human rights, language and creative industries. Therefore, in December 1 to 10, 2021, we have rescheduled, under UNESCO patronage, the International SDGs ResiliArt Festival Forum and Workshops, to promote health and well-being, peace, and climate justice.

The historic gathering means to harvest and mobilize best practices, in connecting continents as we celebrate the Quincentennial Circumnavigation of the World. We hope to reinforce and harvest methodologies that integrate social issues in artistic expressions; to popularize science, through cultural symbols which people understand; to motivate involvement in an action agenda to better the condition of all, as we reimage a post-Covid world as a global caring family.

This significant event has the support of the Senate of the Philippines, endorsed by the Department of Foreign Affairs, undertaken by the Earthsavers Dreamcenter honoured collectively as a UNESCO Artist for Peace, the ITI Social Change Network and ITI Philippine Center) with all cooperating organizations like SSCC, APPAN, World Peace federation, SMCHTV Foundation, Climate Institute.

The dececmber event in the philippines, is designed to celebrate the month of the United Nations, teachers and indigenous peoples. The host city is Manila, for its 450th founding anniversary, with regional outreach to the Visayas and Mindanao.

We welcome you warmly in our country, and hope to have a most effective intercultural interfaith dialogue, to forge a platform for action, to actualize the Sustainable Development Goals to stop violence against mankind and mother earth.