The International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD) is a multi-donor fund established under the 2005 UNESCO Convention for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. IFCD is key to the role of culture in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. Its purpose is to facilitate international cooperation for sustainable development, poverty reduction and dynamic cultural sectors in developing countries that are Parties to the 2005 Convention.

Creative Economy’s Helene George was engaged as one of six international experts in the fields of cultural policy and/or cultural industries to form the UNESCO IFCD Panel of Experts. Experts conduct transparent evaluations assessing probity and accountability of project plans, outcomes, resourcing and budgets against IFCD goals and outcomes.

Since 2010, the Expert Panel’s recommendations to IFCD has resulted in more than US $7 million in funding for nearly 100 projects in over 50 developing countries, covering a wide range of areas such as the development and implementation of cultural policies, capacity-building of cultural entrepreneurs, mapping of cultural industries and the creation of new cultural industry business models.