ABSTRACT
The debates on the relationship between cultural globalisation and local communities are gaining ground in the global agenda. This chapter attempts to connect some threads on culture and sustainable development and aims to explain why an Agenda 21 for Culture developed by cities and local governments is needed. Cultural diversity widens the range of options open to everyone as a means of access to achieve satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence. Public policies are needed to fill the space between raw capacity and capability, as well as between capability and activity. This is why today cultural policies have become important for human development. Agenda 21 for Culture is a commitment between local government and the communities they serve to expand and implement cultural policies and programmes. It can also be considered as a declaration of cities support of cultural rights and is an example of the kind of political innovation needed to link culture to human development.
