The Cultural Development Network (CDN) advocates for the essential role of arts and cultural expression in the development of creative, healthy, engaged and sustainable communities and support local government cultural development staff and others to assist and resource local communities to make and express their own culture. It is based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Recognising their common aims, the CDN and the UCLG Committee on Culture have collaborated regularly for over a decade. More recently, in 2019 they signed a partnership agreement which focuses in particular on the following items:
- Exchange of information and learning opportunities, including on the use of the tools and programmes developed by each organisation.
- Collaboration in the provision of capacity-building, peer-learning and technical assistance, including through the combination of programmes developed respectively by the CDN (e.g. the ‘Measurable Outcomes’ framework and the WhiteBox outcomes planning platform) and by UCLG (e.g. Culture 21 Actions and its related capacity-building schemes, including Culture 21 Lab and Pilot Cities).
- Exploration of opportunities for the participation of Australian cities in UCLG.
