Established by the 2003 Convention, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund essentially provides assistance to States Parties in their efforts for safeguarding.

Use of the Fund

Article 7(c) of the Convention requests the Committee to ‘prepare and submit to the General Assembly for approval a draft plan for the use of the resources of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, in accordance with Article 25’. Article 25.4 of the Convention further provides that the use of the resources of the Fund by the Committee ‘shall be decided on the basis of guidelines laid down by the General Assembly’. Those guidelines were adopted by the General Assembly of the States Parties in its second session in 2008 and are found in Chapter II.1 of the Operational Directives for the Implementation of the Convention.

States can request International Assistance from the Fund:
- How to request assistance
- Assistance granted

The General Assembly approved the plan for the use of the resources of the Fund for the period 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2017 (Decision 6.GA 9) for an approximative amount of 8 million US$:

• Working document of General Assembly on the use of the Fund for 2016/2017:
  ITH/16/6.GA/9: English|French|Spanish|Russian|Arabic|Chinese
• Working document of Bureau of the Committee regarding the utilization of the funds allocated for ‘other functions of the Committee’ for 2016/2017
  ITH/16/11.COM 2.BUR/1: English|French

Contributions

Obligatory contribution

The States having ratified the Convention make an annual obligatory contribution, corresponding to 1% of their contribution to the regular budget of UNESCO.

• Assessed contributions to the Fund: 31 December 2016

Voluntary supplementary contributions

Voluntary supplementary contributions may also be made not only by States, but also by any other donor, including public or private organizations and individuals. These contributions can be:

• earmarked for specific purposes, subject to approval by the Intergovernmental Committee to support projects for which States are invited to inform the Secretariat through a letter of intent three months prior to the Committee meeting at which their proposal will be examined (Model letters: English|French);
• donated to the sub-fund created within the Fund in June 2010 to be used exclusively for enhancing the human capacities of the Secretariat, in accordance with Resolution 3.GA.9 (Model letters: English|French);
• unrestricted, used according to the plan for the use of the resources of the Fund approved by the General Assembly of the State Parties every two years (Model letters: English|French).