The UNESCO Chair on Inclusive Museums and Sustainable Heritage Development is the first such museum in the Asia Pacific region. It is second worldwide after Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. Serving as a think tank and bridge-builder between academia, civil society, local communities, research and policy-making, this Chair will promote and support the development of museum policies in the region. Designed to promote excellence and innovation, the Chair will establish new modes and modalities of locating culture in sustainable development.

Through this facility, Anant National University will provide critical direction to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with a focus on the built environment and inclusive design. Moreover, it will establish a nexus of collaborations that will benefit institutions across the Asia Pacific region.  Serving as an accredited facilitator of UNESCO, being inducted in the UNESCO Chairs Programme enables knowledge-sharing on a range of diverse themes. Facilitating UN SDGs, the chair will help build capacities and capabilities in the development of UNESCO and UN Standard Settings.

Additionally, this will allow them to advocate the UN Agenda 2030 and the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) focus on responsible heritage tourism and post pandemic poverty alleviation. Commenting on the induction as the UNESCO Chair, Professor Galla said, “It is a matter of great pleasure and pride at being inscribed in the UNESCO UNITWIN Network. We look forward to establishing global partnerships and collaborations around the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and contribute significantly to UNESCO’s priority areas on Education, Natural and Social Sciences, Culture and Communication.”

“I warmly welcome Professor Amareswar Galla, UNESCO Chair on Inclusive Museums and Sustainable Heritage Development into our UNESCO family in India. He has over three decades of experience working with UNESCO globally and one of the few that has engaged first hand with all the six international standard setting cultural instruments of UNESCO”, said Eric Falt, Director and UNESCO Representative in New Delhi.