Niger strengthens its capacities for inventories of intangible heritage

• 20 April 2015
• Niger,

Following an initial training workshop on the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in November 2014 , which marked the launch of a project for capacity building in Niger, the country will host its second training workshop from 21 to 30 April in the Cultural Culturel Oumarou Ganda Centre (CCOG) in Niamey which will focus on community-based inventory.
This workshop will open the main phase of the project to equip Niger with the required capacities to conduct inventory activities with the full participation of the communities concerned. The workshop which will be opened by the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Mr Ousmane Abdou, with the participation of the Minister of Tourism and Crafts, Ms Yahaya Barré Haoua Abdou, will bring together 18 participants, including community representatives, agents of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Leisure as well as academics, who will thus be more involved in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in Niger.
Priority attention is given to the communities of Agadez and the village of Boubon near Niamey, which will host, following this training, inventory pilot activities on the ground and that will last until the end of 2015. During this pilot phase it will mainly apply the methodologies and tools acquired during the training to develop inventory programs on a larger scale in the future.
The project, led by the Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums of Niger and supported by the Technical Cooperation Office of Spain in Niger, is most important since Niger has been intensifying, over the past several years, its efforts to safeguard its cultural heritage and especially its living heritage.

Project:

• Safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage through strengthening national capacities in Niger (1 September 2013 – 1 December 2015)