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As the “Mediterranean Living Heritage” (MedLiHer) project, co-funded by the European Union (EU) and UNESCO, is going to be fully implemented by the end of December 2012, the final project evaluation meeting will be organized in Paris on 17 and 18 December 2012 at the “Maison des Cultures du Monde”, which has been a partner since the beginning of this project.

This meeting will be the occasion to review the project in light of its goals in order to draw conclusions from the lessons learnt and explore possible ways to build on project outcomes in the future. The discussions will be based on a final evaluation report. The programme furthermore foresees:

• a public round table on intangible cultural heritage in the region,
• a presentation of examples of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) from the region,
• the projection of the film developed by the MedLiHer project together with the digital photo exhibition.

At the end of the meeting, a second screening of the film and the digital photo exhibition will be organized at UNESCO Headquarters in the evening of 18 December with the participation of UNESCO Delegations.

For further information click here

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A nomination workshop will be held from 10 to 14 December 2012 in Bagamoyo, United Republic of Tanzania. It will be organized by UNESCO Office in Dar es Salaam jointly with the Ministry of Information, Youth, Culture and Sports in Tanzania.

25 participants are expected, selected from the list of people trained on the community-based inventory workshop in February 2012. The participants should be able to identify an element and develop a sample file for nomination, including the strategy for the participation of the community and a safeguarding plan for the identified element.

The workshop will be facilitated by Julius Mwahunga and Silverse Anami, culture experts and UNESCO facilitators. Mr Anami is also member of the Intergovernemental committee for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage.

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Jamaica will host a national workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage from 10 to 14 December 2012. Organized by The African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica, Ministry of Youth and Culture, the Jamaican National Commission for UNESCO and the UNESCO Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean, the workshop will bring together government officials, non-governmental organizations and community practitioners to partake in the workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The official opening will take place on 10 December 2012 at the Courtleigh Hotel and Suites in Kingston with the presence of H.E. Yasuo Takase, Ambassador of Japan to Jamaica, Belize and The Bahamas, along with representatives from government and non-government institutions, universities, the diplomatic corps and the UN Agencies in Jamaica.

This workshop is part of a sub-regional project being implemented in Belize, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago within the context of UNESCO’s Global Strategy on capacity building on intangible cultural heritage. Funded by the government of Japan, this project includes an assessment of the intangible cultural heritage related policy development process in the respective countries and identification of their specific needs for safeguarding their living heritage. As a part of strengthening their safeguarding capacities, countries will also develop and implement a framework for community based inventory of the intangible cultural heritage in their territory, which will include pilot inventories.

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What has been achieved in the ratification, implementation, and capacity building processes related to intangible cultural heritage in your country?

This is the question that is going to be asked to an audience of Directors of Culture during a workshop organized in Nairobi, Kenya, from 25 to 28 November 2012. Burundi, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Djibouti, South Sudan, and Uganda will be represented.

The aim of the workshop is to have the participants understand more deeply the UNESCO 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage and its implementation at national level, as well as the role and tasks of the State Party in the implementation of the Convention at national level.

Documents

• Agenda of workshop: English
• List of participants: English

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After its ratification of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2007 and the organization of a national workshop on its implementation in July 2012, Uzbekistan will be hosting a sub-regional workshop on “Elaborating nominations to the UNESCO Intangible Heritage Lists”. The workshop to be held in Samarkand from 21 to 24 November 2012 is organized by the UNESCO Office in Tashkent in close co-operation with the Ministry of Culture and Sport of the Republic of Uzbekistan and with the support of the authorities of Samarkand Province.

Conducted as part of UNESCO’s global strategy on the enhancement of capacities in the field of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, the workshop aims to provide thorough understanding of the nomination processes and transmit the know-how on how to elaborate nominations files for inscription onto the Intangible Heritage Lists.

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Are you a youth from the Caribbean between 20 to 25 years of age who want to play a more active role in the safeguarding of living heritage?

UNESCO, through its Intangible Cultural Heritage Section, invites nationals of Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Maarten, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, to submit applications to attend the Caribbean Youth Forum on Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage to be held in Grenada, 20-24 November 2012.

Thanks to the generous contribution of Bulgaria and the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, the Caribbean Youth Forum on Intangible Cultural Heritage will be held in Grenada from the 20 to 24 November 2012. It intends to foster recognition of the significant role of young people in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and respond to the need of strengthening their knowledge and capacities in this area. Organized in the context of UNESCO’s global strategy to strengthen national safeguarding capacities through the effective implementation of the 2003 Convention, it will bring together about 25 participants from youth groups/organizations in the sub-region active in the field of culture. The youth coming from about 16 different Caribbean Small Island and Developing States (SIDS) and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) will learn about the core concepts of the Convention and develop substantial understanding of its mechanisms and their role in the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage.

The Forum is structured around a number of sessions: introducing the participants, introducing the 2003 Convention, key concepts in the Convention, intangible cultural heritage (ICH) safeguarding and sustainable development, field trip preparation, field trip visit to ICH community 1 and 2, feedback and discussion on field trip visit, the role of youth in ICH safeguarding, team planning and reporting on an action plan for participants’ engagement in ICH safeguarding, conclusion and evaluation of the Forum. At the conclusion of the session on team planning and reporting, participants will draft a brief report on their experience during the Forum to be submitted to the 7th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

With the exception of candidates from British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Sint Maarten and Suriname who have until 14 September 2012 to submit their applications to their National Commission/counterparts, all other candidates must submit applications to the National Commission of their country by 22 August 2012. Their contact details can be found here.

• Application form: Caribbean Youth Forum English
• Information document English
  

For further information regarding the forum, kindly contact Ritamae Hyde (rm.hyde@unesco.org).

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Central Africa is organizing a forum form 19-23 November 2012 in Brazzaville, Congo to give a sense of responsibility to the young generation. It will bring together young people from Congo, from the Republic of Central Africa and from Chad.

Youth represent the majority of the population in Central Africa, so their role in the revival of culture practices and knowledge systems in the region is important. Intangible cultural heritage is crucial for sustainable development and it has a long-term impact on people’s well-being, their relationships with others and with their natural environment. It gives people a sense of belonging, happiness and perspective. For that reason, intangible heritage has to be safeguarded in the interest of the future generations. Collaboration with youth is therefore essential, notably in a context of restricted access to education, economic opportunities and increasing violence.

This is why UNESCO makes youth a priority within the framework of its global capacity-building strategy for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage through effective implementation of the 2003 Convention. Funded by the UNESCO Emergency Fund; the Youth Forum in Central Africa is organized and coordinated by the UNESCO office in Yaoundé in close partnership with the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section at UNESCO headquarters.

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Following Benin’s recent ratification of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the country is developing a national process for implementation. In support of this process, a training workshop is jointly organized by the Ministry of Culture, Literacy, Craft and Tourism and the School of African Heritage in Porto Novo from 19 to 23 November 2012. It will bring together 23 key actors from Benin, but also 2 students of the University of Abomey-Calavi as observers, to build their knowledge on the basic concepts, mechanisms and state obligations of implementing the Convention at national level. It will also address the specific implications for implementation in Benin.

The workshop is held within the larger framework of UNESCO global strategy to build capacity on safeguarding and will be a milestone in a long-term process of political revision, community-based inventories and participation in the Convention’s international mechanism for cooperation (lists and international assistance).

The workshop is supported by UNESCO’s Regular Programme and Budget. It will be co-facilitated by two staff from the School of African Heritage and Ms. Marie-Thérèse Agueh, a facilitator trained by UNESCO. The closing ceremony will be chaired by the Minister of Culture.

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At the request of the State Parties to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and as capacity building in developing countries is essential to the implementation the 2003 Convention, UNESCO organized a regional Youth Forum for Central Africa (Congo, Chad and CAR) with patronage from the Minister of Culture and Arts on the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage from 19-23 November 2013.

This training brought together 21 participants and was facilitated by four trainers, two of whom were photographers.

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More than 25 participants from 12 provinces of Cuba, including rural community members, met during 10 days in the province of Matanzas, on the northern shore of Cuba, to undertake an intensive training on the elaboration of inventories of intangible cultural heritage in the spirit of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Facilitated by UNESCO-trained experts, María Ismenia Toledo from Venezuela and Enrique López from Mexico, the workshop focused on the role of communities in inventorying intangible cultural heritage, the requirement of their free, prior and informed consent and their full involvement in identifying and defining those practices and expressions that they recognize as part of their cultural heritage. The workshop also addressed field-based techniques and methods of interviewing and audio-visual recording and ended with a two-day field practice, including a session on organization of data collected.

The inventorying exercise was carried out with the Máximo Gómez rural community of Perico, a municipality of the province of Matanzas, which is considered to be a reference for repentismo (art of improvising poetry) in Cuba and who gave its free, prior and informed consent to inventory its Cucalambé homes. These are family houses in which their members foster indigenous traditions which identify the criollismo of Hispanic roots to the specific progress of contemporary times. Guateques (typical parties), décimas (improvised verses of ten-line stanzas), controversias (forms of declamation), singing and serenades are regularly organized in those houses.

With the support of the National Cultural Heritage Council (CNPC) and the local Houses of Culture, this activity launched in Cuba the regional project for strengthening capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in the Caribbean which will be implemented throughout 2013, with the funding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund thanks to the generous contribution of Norway.

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Documents

• Agenda: Spanish
• List of participants: Spanish

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The first international review meeting on UNESCO’s global strategy on strengthening national capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage will be convened from 7 to 10 November 2012 in Beijing, China. It is organized by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section at UNESCO in partnership with the Training Center for the Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the Auspices of UNESCO (CRIHAP) and the generous support from the Government of China.

One year into the global strategy, 42 countries are implementing tailored two-year capacity-building projects and 76 training workshops have so far been held, delivered by facilitators from the network of 75 UNESCO certified experts from all regions. They were trained to use the workshop materials developed by UNESCO in four thematic areas: (i) ratification, (ii) implementation, (iii) community-based inventorying and (iv) nominations.

The review meeting will therefore bring together 17 of these facilitators (English-speaking) and 8 UNESCO culture programme specialists from four field offices and the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section, who have all been actively engaged in this Programme. A number of CRIHAP members will participate as observers.

The meeting will take stock of the experiences so far and assess both the operational and substantive aspects of the capacity-building activities. It will review the process from project and workshop preparation to their impact on advancing the implementation of the 2003 Convention in beneficiary countries. The group will consolidate the lessons learnt and share ideas on how to further improve the content and effectiveness of this global strategy.

This meeting is an excellent opportunity of pursuing UNESCO’s objectives in the field of culture, notably to mobilize international and national expertise for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage. Following this first review meeting of the global capacity-building strategy, two additional review meetings are foreseen next year in Africa and Latin America with the participation of French- and Spanish-speaking facilitators.

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At the time of growing interest surrounding the development of a national cultural policy in Belize, UNESCO has launched under its global strategy, a two and a half year project that will help the country safeguard its living heritage.

Thanks to funding from Japan, Belize is one of three Caribbean countries, along with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago that will benefit from this safeguarding initiative. With nation-wide consultations ensuing with the development of its national cultural policy, the project is rather timely for Belize. It will follow the development of the ICH related policy and help to bridge the way forward.

On the 5 to 9 November at the House of Culture in Belize City, community bearers of intangible cultural heritage along with officials of the National Institute of Culture and History, non-governmental representatives and cultural experts will come together to partake in a workshop on the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The next step to follow is the development and implementation of a framework for community based inventory of the intangible cultural heritage in Belize, which is slated for 2013.

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With a view to build national capacities of Papua New Guinea in implementing the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), Noriko Aikawa-Faure, one of UNESCO facilitator, prepared and facilitated a workshop entitled “Community-based inventorying ICH workshop (INV)” from 22 to 27 October 2012 in Goroka, organized in close collaboration with the PNG National Cultural Commission.

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A three-day National Workshop on the Community-based Inventory of the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) was held on 23-25 October 2012 in Suai sub-district in Cova Lima, Timor-Leste. The workshop was jointly organized by the State Secretariat of Art and Culture of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, the Cova Lima District government and UNESCO with support from the Government of Japan through UNESCO Japanese Funds-In-Trust for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

This workshop gathered some 50 participants, including national and district culture officials, governmental officials, Suai sub-district community leaders, teachers, young traditional female dancers, local traditional musicians, and other community members of the Suai sub-district. The twelve sessions of the workshop were intended to help equip participants with basic knowledge and skills to design and facilitate a community-based inventorying process tailored to the current circumstances of Timor-Leste.

During the opening ceremony, Maria Isabel de Jesus Ximenes, the State Secretary of Art and Culture of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, highlighted the importance of joint efforts among governments, civil societies and communities to ensure that Timor-Leste’s precious intangible cultural heritage is safeguarded and passed on to the next generations. She underlined that the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage should play a key role for ensuring mutual respect, sustainable development and peace promotion in Timor-Leste and beyond.

The opening ceremony was followed by a three-day community-based inventorying workshop. This workshop introduced the participants to the key concepts of the Convention, community-based inventorying methods, free-prior-informed consent in the process of inventorying, creative processes and techniques of generating and systematizing information with the community, a community-driven sample inventorying framework and much more. As part of the workshop, participants also completed a fieldtrip to the village of Lia Na’in in Suai in order to apply theoretical knowledge to actual inventorying work.

Through these training sessions, participants acquired a broad understanding of how the Convention works and recognized diversity within a community regarding their ICH, as well as the importance of the inclusion of youth, elders and women as part of multiple voices on ICH. Participants also had an opportunity to exchange views on the diverse opinions concerning the community-based inventorying and to share their knowledge experiences on the ways to record ICH locally.

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From 22 to 23 October 2012 and from 24 to 25 October 2012, Bogota welcomed two successive workshops on the results and the continuity of the implementation of the 2003 Convention in Colombia, discussing its challenges and strengths.

Two UNESCO accredited facilitators, Fabián Bedon and Lucas dos Santos Roque, animated the session in front of an audience of communities representatives, during the first workshop, and an audience of officers of the Ministry of Culture of Colombia during the second workshop. The workshops allowed an advance in knowledge of participants on ICH and on the aspects that constitute the 2003 Convention, the various ways to implement their content and the importance of the establishment of a National Committee to implement these actions.

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With the support of UNESCO/Japan Fund-in-Trust, Mongolia is going to benefit from a training on the concepts and mechanisms of the 2003 Convention from 19 to 23 November 2012 which will reinforce their capacities to safeguard their living heritage at both national and international levels.

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From 15 to 19 October 2012, La Paz welcomed three successive workshops on the results and the continuity of the implementation of the 2003 Convention in Bolivia, discussing its challenges and strengths.

Two UNESCO accredited facilitators, Fabián Bedon and Lucas dos Santos Roque, animated the session in front of an audience of officers of the cultural heritage in the Ministry of Cultures of Bolivia. The workshop allowed an advance in knowledge of participants on ICH and on the aspects that constitute the 2003 Convention, the various ways to implement their content and the importance of the establishment of a National Committee to implement these actions.

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Just one month after the ratification by the Netherlands of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (which extends not only to the European part of the Netherlands but also to its Caribbean part and Aruba), UNESCO organized in Oranjestad a workshop on the key concepts of the Convention and the main implications of the ratification. Within the framework of a regional project for strengthening capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in the Caribbean which is supported by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund thanks to the generous contribution of Norway, the meeting was inaugurated by Mr Arthur Dowers, Minister of Education, Ms Ineke Strouken, President of the Dutch Centre of Popular Culture and Intangible Heritage and the Coordinator for Culture of the UNESCO Office in Havana, Mr Fernando Brugman.

The workshop was organized thanks to the excellent work done by the Aruba National Commission for UNESCO with the support of the Department of Cultural Heritage of Aruba and counted with the presence of some 25 representatives of the most significant cultural institutions in the country to whom it provided an opportunity to discuss about the implementation strategy of the 2003 Convention in Aruba. The inclusive nature of the Convention was discussed, understanding that, in the conditions of a rapid globalization, it was a fundamental element of cohesion, mutual recognition and respect.

The workshop was honoured with the visit of Ms Michelle Hooyboer-Winklaar, Minister of Economy, Social Affairs and Culture, who, in an interview with the representative of UNESCO, stressed the vital need for safeguarding of the cultural heritage in Aruba.

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Documents

• Agenda: English
• List of participants: English

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In the context of Phase III of the Mediterranean Living Heritage (MedLiHer) project financed by the Euromed Heritage IV Programme (EU) and implemented by UNESCO, the Lebanese National Commission for UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture are organizing a workshop on the methodology and procedures of nominating intangible cultural heritage elements to the Representative and Urgent Safeguarding Lists. This workshop will take place in Byblos from 12 to 14 October 2012.

The targeted group in the present training workshop consists of representative of the UNESCO Regional Office, the Lebanese National Commission for UNESCO, the Ministry of Culture (especially who are directly involved in the administration and the preparation of the documents and deliverables of the project), in addition to the members of the Lebanese MEDLIHER Team and an expert of Zajal.

Two accredited UNESCO facilitators, Prof. Dr. Annie Tabet (Lebanon) and Prof. Dr. Hani Hayajneh (Jordan), will run the workshop.

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Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay are engaging in a capacity-building program for the safeguarding of their living heritage: entitled “Patrimonio Vivo”, the project is led by UNESCO Montevideo Office and financed thanks to the resources of the Japan Funds-in-Trust.

The first workshop, to be organized during the second week of October 2012, will introduce the key concepts and mechanisms of the Convention. It will focus on the challenges of its implementation, not only on a national but on a sub-regional level: indeed, cooperation between the three countries lies at the core of the project.

The workshop will bring together communities, experts and authorities from the North-Eastern Argentinean provinces Catamarca, Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero, but also delegations from Uruguay and from Paraguay, including representatives of the Museo del Barro in Asunción in Paraguay.

It will be conducted by two UNESCO-trained facilitators: Mr. Francisco López Morales, Director of the Department of World Heritage at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INHA) of Mexico, and Mrs. Mónica Lacarrieu, Director of the Cultural Anthropology Programme of the Institute of Anthropological Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).

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In the context of Phase III of “Mediterranean Living Heritage” (MedLiHer) project, co-funded by the European Union (EU) and UNESCO, a workshop on the methodology and procedures of nominating intangible cultural heritage elements to the Representative and Urgent Safeguarding Lists will be held in Amman between 7 and 11 October 2012.

The Amman workshop follows the Madaba one and will focus on the preparation of nomination files for inscription on the Lists of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). It will describe the requirements of the nominations’ process, evaluate sample nominations, and discuss descriptions of the elements from the Madaba Inventory and the participation of communities.

The workshop is intended primarily for members from the Jordan National Commission for Education, Culture and Science and the Ministry of Culture, and especially the ones that are directly involved in the administration and the preparation of the documents and deliverables of the project. Some of them are connected to the local communities of Madaba.

Two accredited UNESCO facilitators, Prof. Dr. Hani Hayajneh (Jordan) and Prof. Dr. Mustafa Gad (Egypt), will run the workshop. They will use the UNESCO capacity-building workshop materials in training activities, and deal with some nominations predefined by the UNESCO as case studies.

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Sao Tome and Principe’s ratification of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), in 2005, has just been the first step into a much larger reflection on the construction of a national cultural policy. Within the frame of a capacity-building project in selected Portuguese speaking African countries (including also Angola and Mozambique) funded by a generous contribution of the Kingdom of Norway to the ICH Fund, Sao Tome and Principe is now about to welcome a UNESCO training-seminar on strengthening national capacities for an effective safeguarding of its intangible cultural heritage.

The project is timely, since the government is now ready to launch a wide reflection on the issue of culture and to raise awareness about the preservation of the country’s cultural heritage, especially the intangible heritage.

The most urgent need is to build knowledge on the concepts and mechanisms of the 2003 Convention, and to assist Sao Tome and Principe in developing the institutional framework required to effectively implement the Convention in a long term.

The project will therefore focus on strengthening key stakeholders, establishing a national ICH committee and setting basis for the elaboration of a national strategy for safeguarding ICH.

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In order to intensify its collaboration with youth in the implementation of the 2003 Convention, UNESCO launches three sub-regional youth forums in South-Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Central Africa.

The first one is the youth seminar of Sofia, taking place from 24 to 25 September 2012 and organized by the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe (a category 2 centre under the auspices of UNESCO) in Sofia, Bulgaria. The participants of the forum are students, researchers and representatives of youth organizations in the region, exploring and debating the role of youth in the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage.

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Following training on strengthening national capacities for implementing the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), Zambia, Botswana, Malawi and Zimbabwe have recently further benefited from a policy and legal framework review meeting convened in Harare from 3 to 7 September 2012.

These four countries are already motivated to safeguard their intangible heritage with the support of UNESCO/Flanders Fund-in-Trust. Participants from the four countries acknowledged that awareness of safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage has been widely raised in recent years and cultural heritage does no longer end at monuments and collections of objects. It also includes traditions or living expressions such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts. The importance of intangible cultural heritage is not the cultural manifestation itself, but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next. While fragile, intangible cultural heritage is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalisation.

The need to speed up the process of developing policies and legislations was identified within the framework of UNESCO/Flanders FIT project for the Convention to be effectively implemented and domesticated. Some of them do not yet have relevant legislation such as national cultural policies and various Acts of parliament to anchor the implementation of the convention in their respective countries. For those that do have them, the policies are in need of revision to accommodate provisions more related to ICH safeguarding. Thus, consultants have been contracted by UNESCO Harare Office to conduct policy review in each of the four countries with the purpose to facilitate this workshop and the future policy revision process in the long run. Papers presented by Mr Marc Jacobs from Belgium, Mr Lovemore Mazibuko from Malawi and Dr Francis Matambirofa from Zimbabwe during the workshop examined various ways to do with the convention, among topics that included Intellectual Property Rights Protection, Policies and Development of National actions plans.

Currently, challenges remain are mainly funding and coordination to take the capacity building activities to the communities at local levels. The participants hoped that various ministries such as the ministry of sport, arts education and culture will continue with their efforts for fund-raising and other support for this worthwhile cause of safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage.

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Using audiovisual as a vector in the promotion of Mediterranean Living heritage is the ambition of the Egyptian, Lebanese and Jordanian filmmakers and photographers, who will gather at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris from 27 to 29 August 2012 in the framework of the Medliher project.

The project, co-funded by the European Union and UNESCO, has indeed a strong regional component devoted to the visibility of intangible cultural heritage of the partner countries. It is in this light that a documentary film and photographic exhibition will be made honoring the heritage of the governorates of Damietta in Egypt, Madaba in Jordan and Lebanon Zajal poetry. Those various elements of cultural heritage are at the heart of the inventory work undertaken as part of Phase III of the project.

The meeting in August aims at:

• developing a common vision of the film project between the coordinator/regional director and the national directors and photographers,
  
• formulating key messages that are going to be broadcasted through the film
  
• defining a methodology taking into account the spirit of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage: its context, deadlines, budget, target audience and
  
• elaborating a work plan defining the roles of each participant and the technical issues to be addressed.

The work of filmmakers and photographers will help to raise public awareness at the international level, as well as that of concerned countries on the importance of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in today’s world. The film will be screened and photographs exhibited at the Maison des Cultures du Monde in Paris. Furthermore, it is currently envisaged that the documentary would also be broadcasted by local television stations in participating countries.

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ICH training-seminar in Dushanbe

UNESCO training-seminar «Strengthening national capacities for effective safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in the countries of Central Asia» was conducted in Dushanbe, Tajikistan from August 21 to August 25, 2012.

Part of a series of seminars for local specialist, the training was organized by the UNESCO Cluster Office in Almaty and supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with the Tajikistan National Commission for UNESCO.

Participants in the training included staff of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tajikistan, the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, the Tajik National Conservatory, representatives of public and private museums, representatives of NGOs taking part in the preservation of intangible cultural heritage, as well as artisans and musicians.

An Opening speech was given by Ms. Farogat Azizi, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Tajikistan and Ms. Shahlo Abdurahimova, Secretary General of the National Commission of the Republic of Tajikistan for UNESCO. The closing ceremony was attended by Mr. Mirzoshohruh Asrori, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Tajikistan. It was emphasized that since the ratification of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (17 August 2010) Tajikistan is paying special attention to the preservation of ICH at the national level. In particular, the programme for the preservation of ICH till 2015 was developed and approved by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Mr. Yuri Peshkov, UNESCO Almaty Culture Specialist, stated that the 2003 Convention is designed to ensure respect for the intangible cultural heritage and to highlight its importance. The Convention obliges States to take necessary measures to ensure the protection of intangible cultural heritage and promote cooperation at regional and international levels.

Ms. Sabira Soltongeldieva, a UNESCO consultant for the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the ICH, stated that the training was aimed at improving the understanding and use of practical mechanisms for implementing the Convention at the national level. These include for example, the creation of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) lists, the inclusion of intangible cultural heritage elements in the Convention’s nomination lists, as well as strengthening international cooperation. The training emphasized the need to enhance the role of the government, NGOs, communities and media in the identification, inventory and preservation of ICH.

In 2013, in Tajikistan, two more training sessions are planned on how to prepare nomination papers for inclusion in the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, as well as for the identification, documentation and inventory of intangible cultural heritage.

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Many ICH elements in Cambodia are in danger of disappearing, mainly due to the long-lasting conflicts, the declining number of ICH practitioners and lack of interest from the younger generation. Having ratified the 2003 Convention, the Cambodian Government has expressed its commitment to identify ICH elements still being practiced and to safeguard them for future generations. To this end, UNESCO will assist the Cambodian Government in strengthening its institutional and policy frameworks for safeguarding ICH, and on building the national capacity for the effective implementation of the 2003 Convention.

Since January 2012, five meetings were conducted by the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts to prepare and finalize a national work plan for the implementation of the 2003 Convention. Translation of the 2003 Convention and its Operational Directives are currently being undertaken, in preparation for the first capacity building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level, which will take place from 13-17 August 2012. The initial workshop will be followed by a workshop on community-based inventory (February 2013) and a workshop on the preparation of nomination files in August 2013. Project activities will also include the documentation, inventorying and transmission of Sbek Thom (Shadow Puppet Theatre) traditions from the masters to the younger generation.

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On 26 and 27 July 2012, UNESCO Quito Office hosted the second capacity building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, for civil servants of the Municipality of Quito, and specifically for staff from the Metropolitan Institute of Heritage.

The main objectives of this workshop were to provide new tools and knowledge regarding the measures to ensure the safeguarding, dissemination and promotion of intangible heritage in the metropolitan area of Quito. It included training materials, presentations and practical exercises.

The training session was in charge of Mr Fabian Bedón and counted with the collaboration of the National Institute of Culture Heritage (INPC) of Ecuador. The institution made a presentation on how the Intangible Culture Heritage is being safeguarded in the country . Presentations on practical cases in Ecuador and the process for nominations for the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO were included.

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Birthplace of Egyptian civilization, the Nile is still a lifeline for many communities living along its banks. The encounter between man and the river’s ecosystem has uncovered a rich and diversified intangible cultural heritage. Over the next six months, between July and December 2012, this heritage will be the focus of a pilot inventorying activity in the governorate of Damietta.

This initiative is part of Phase III of the MedLiHer -Mediterranean Living Heritage – project co-financed by the European Union and UNESCO, which aims at promoting the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

Community members and others responsible for culture at the national and local level, including researchers and NGOs will benefit from extensive training on the concept of community-based inventorying under the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage; the training will cover the role of different stakeholders in the process and the tools and techniques of participatory documentation.

The workshop is intended primarily for field researchers and communities whose intangible heritage will be inventoried. It will start with a “theoretical” component in which the methodological framework for the inventory will be collectively developed, followed by a field practicum.

This inventory work will concentrate on identifying and involving bearers (individuals, groups or communities) of intangible heritage, focusing significantly on its present social functions and challenges for transmission to future generations.

The workshop will be facilitated jointly by Mr Mostafa Gad and Mr Ismail Ali El Fihail, both belonging to the network of facilitators trained by UNESCO as part of its strategy of capacity building for the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The methodologies developed during this pilot exercise could then be applied on a wider scale to other regions of the Nile.

All data collected will be systematized and digitized. Moreover, a film and a photographic exhibition will make this inventory experience available to the Egyptian and international public.

Link for direct access 

Madaba and its 150,000 inhabitants will soon become the precursors of an experience never seen before in Jordan. Located near the capital, this region will indeed be the focus of a pilot activity of intangible cultural heritage inventorying as part of the “MedLiHer - Mediterranean Living Heritage” project, co-funded by the European Union and UNESCO.

Concretely, what is the pilot inventorying all about? Under the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, each State Party must involve communities, groups and relevant NGOs in identifying and defining elements of this heritage. Identification is the process of describing one or several specific elements of intangible cultural heritage in their context and to distinguish them from others. This process of identification and definition is what the Convention means by “inventory”. It also emphasizes that this should be done “in view of safeguarding” - that is to say that the inventory is not an abstract exercise, but a useful one. The inventory represents the first step in the development of safeguarding plans for those elements.

In order to get familiar with these concepts, those involved in inventory activities within the governorate of Madaba (community members, responsible for culture at the national and local level, researchers) will receive extensive training from 12 to 20 July. It will cover the principles of the inventory under the Convention, the role of the different stakeholders in the process and the tools and techniques of participatory documentation. This “theoretical” part will lead to the development of the methodological framework for the inventory and will be followed by a field practicum.

The workshop will be facilitated jointly by Ms. Annie Tohmé Tabet and Mr. Hani Hayajneh, both members of the network of facilitators trained by UNESCO as part of its capacity- building strategy for the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

During the three months following the training, the research teams will go to meet communities, characterized by great cultural and religious diversity, throughout the governorate. This inventory work will concentrate on identifying and involving bearers (individuals, groups or communities) of intangible heritage, focusing especially on present social functions and challenges for its transmission to future generations, in a context where rapid urbanization is disrupting the traditional socio-cultural fabric. The methodologies developed during this pilot exercise could then be applied on a wider scale to other regions of the country.

All data collected will be systematized and digitized, while a film and a photographic exhibition will make this inventory experience available to the Jordanian and international public.

The workshop and inventory activity are part of Phase III of MedLiHer, which aims at promoting the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

Link for direct access 

The National workshop “Implementing the UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage at the National Level” will be held in Tashkent from 3 to 7 July 2012. The workshop is organized by UNESCO Office in Tashkent in close co-operation with the ministry of Culture and Sport of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is integral part of life and culture of humanity. In this connection it also called as living heritage, transmitted by people within communities, which is ever changing. ICH has important functions for the communities, groups and individuals concerned, and for the understanding and promotion of cultural diversity and human creativity. Uzbekistan ratified the Convention in 2008. As a result, the present workshop is organized for the specialists in the field of IHC from all principal regions of Uzbekistan within the framework of a project ”Strengthening the National Capacity on Safeguarding ICH in Central Asia” launched by UNESCO offices in Tashkent and Almaty with the financial support of the Norwegian Trust-in-Funds in the beginning of 2012.

The main goal of the workshop is to strengthen the national capacity in the field of Implementation of the UNESCO Convention 2003 at national level, in particular provide a broad overview of the Convention and Operational Directives, what obligations States take on when ratifying the Convention and possible ways of implementing the Convention as well as safeguarding the ICH, its identification and inventorying, cooperation with communities, public awareness and international assistance.

The workshop will be conducted by UNESCO certified experts in the field of intangible cultural heritage.

Agenda of the workshop: English Russian
List of participants: English Russian

Link for direct access  A widespread form of poetry in Lebanon, Zajal is chanted in daily practice, different life events and large celebrations. Weddings or funerals, parties and festivals: so many opportunities for Zajal poets (called quâl) to sing or recite texts expressing bravery, pride, love, flattery, pain, joy, conflict, violence or the call for dialogue. It is around this element of intangible cultural heritage that Lebanon has chosen to develop a pilot inventorying methodology, which may then be applied to the safeguarding of other expressions of its living heritage.

From 29 June to 3 July 2012, actors of Zajal will benefit from an extensive training on the concept of inventory and its principles under the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the role of different stakeholders in the process and tools and techniques of participatory documentation. The workshop is intended primarily for field researchers and communities whose cultural heritage will be inventoried. It will start with a “theoretical” component including the joint development of a methodological framework for the inventory, followed by a field practicum. A day of reflection on the lessons learned from the exercise is foreseen on 9 July 2012.

The workshop will be facilitated jointly by Ms Annie Tohmé Tabet and Mr.Mostafa Gad, who form part of the network of facilitators trained by UNESCO as part of its capacity-building strategy for the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

During the three months following the training, the field researchers will go to meet the Zajal communities across the Lebanese territory. This pre-inventorying work will focus on identifying and involving the bearers (individuals, groups or communities) of this element of intangible heritage, focusing particularly on how it is transmitted, and its social functions in Lebanese society today.

All data collected will be systematized and digitized, while a film and photographic exhibition will make this experience available to Lebanese and international audiences.

The workshop and inventorying activity are undertaken as part of the Phase III of the MEDLIHER project supported by the European Union and UNESCO, which aims to promote the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.

Link for direct access 

Sri Lanka ratified the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2008 and although there are a number of inventories on ICH scattered in various government departments and private institutions, there is still no legislation to safeguard ICH and there is a need to consolidate various efforts at national level. UNESCO has supported the initial stages of developing a web portal on ICH restricted to data gathered by various government bodies and now with the support of UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust, the capacities of concerned stakeholders will be further enhanced in the effective implemention of the 2003 Convention, community-based inventorying, as well as in the preparation of nomination files.

he first capacity building activity, a workshop on the Implementation of the 2003 Convention at the National Level will be organized in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and the Arts from 25-29 June 2012. The workshop will be facilitated by by UNESCO certified trainers, Mr Rahul Goswami and Ms Sajida Vandal. Future capacity building workshops include a Workshop on Community-based Inventory to be held in 2013 and a Workshop on the Preparation of Nomination Files schedueled in 2014.

Link for direct access 

As a new vision of cultural heritage is gaining prominence, UNESCO calls upon African universities to revisit their training programmes for future decision-makers and professionals in the field of heritage studies and sustainable development. Indeed, despite international recognition of intangible cultural heritage and its critical importance for sustainable development, the theme has been largely neglected in heritage studies in many parts of the world, notably in Africa. Therefore UNESCO identified the Centre for Heritage Development in Africa (CHDA) to organize a dedicated regional training workshop for teaching faculty from African universities in the field of intangible cultural heritage. It is supported by the Fund for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and will be held at the CHDA premises in Mombasa, Kenya from 18 to 22 June 2012.

The workshop aims at raising the level of knowledge of African university teaching faculty in the field of intangible cultural heritage safeguarding, enabling them to incorporate the issue in their teaching and provide guidance for their future courses and programs on heritage and sustainable development.
It will be co-facilitated by Ms Deirdre Prins-Solani and Ms Harriet Deacon who are both part of the network of 65 facilitators trained by UNESCO to use the workshop materials developed by the Organization on implementing the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Further information on the workshop: (English)

Contact in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Section : Susanne Schnuttgen, Chief, Capacity Building and Heritage Policy Unit, email: s.schnuttgen@unesco.org

Link for direct access 

Funded with the UNESCO-Republic of Korea Funds-in-Trust, a capacity building workshop on the Implementation of the 2003 Convention at the National Level was organized in partnership with the Heritage Department of the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism from 11-15 June 2012 in Vientiane, Lao PDR. Besides government officials, intangible cultural heritage practitioners also participated in this workshop co-facilitated by UNESCO certified trainers, Ms Paritta Chalermpow Koanantakool and Ms Shubha Chaudhuri. Lao PDR is a country with 160 ethnic groups, each of which has preserved much of its own language, customs, culture and traditions. The rich cultural heritage of Lao is also rooted in immense spirituality, as Buddhism has influences extending from lifestyle to arts. The country has adopted a Law on National Heritage in 2005 which provides the legal basis for safeguarding ICH even befort its ratification of the 2003 Convention in 2009. And a Section on ICH was created within the Heritage Department of the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism. UNESCO Bangkok Office has been working closely with the concerned authorities to have identified their need to enhance their ICH safeguarding strategy, reinforce their institutional and policy frameworks and develop their inventorying skills. Following this first capacity building effort, further training workshops on community-based inventory ( planned in 2012) and on preparation of nomination files ( in 2014) will be organized in Lao PDR to sustain the long-term effect of this project implemented within UNESCO strategy of global capacity building.

Link for direct access 

A capacity building workshop on preparing nomination files for the lists of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was held 11-15 June 2012 in Harare, which was facilitated by UNESCO certified trainers, Mr. Chifunyise and Mr. Mazibuko. This workshop is a further effort made within the project supported with UNESCO/Flanders FIT following a workshop on implementation of the Convention at the national level organized earlier this year.

Link for direct access 

Training local communities in inventorying methods to safeguard their intangible cultural heritage is the objective of a series of workshop kicking off in nine provinces of Gabon starting 4 June 2012.

The UNESCO Cluster Office in Libreville, in association with the Centre for Research and Sociological Studies (CRES), is behind this initiative. The idea is to pursue the capacity-building exercise started in 2010, by providing the communities with the methodological tools and techniques required to inventory their intangible cultural heritage.

Claudine-Augée Angoué, an anthropologist and member of the UNESCO network of facilitators, will facilitate the workshop, the content of which will be adopted from the training materials developed by the Organization as part of its capacity building strategy for the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The four workshops will take place over a period of six weeks in the localities of Lambarene, Koula-Moutou, Mouila and Oyem, and will conclude on 10 August 2012.

Funded by the regular program of UNESCO, the activity will be implemented with the assistance of departmental officers in charge of Culture and with logistical support from the Ministry of Interior in charge of municipalities of Gabon.

Link for direct access 

The National Commission for UNESCO in St. Kitts and Nevis organized a workshop on the ratification of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage on May 31, 2012 in Basseterre.

This workshop brought together national policymakers and aimed at providing the participants with knowledge about the 2003 Convention that the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis hopes to ratify soon.

Kris Rampersad, Cultural Consultant for UNESCO, facilitated the exchange between the participants while insisting on the advantages that would come from signing the Convention.

Link for direct access 

Even before it ratified the 2003 Convention in 2005, Mongolia has been very active in safeguarding its intangible cultural heritage. It established a National Centre for ICH in 1997 and had two traditions proclaimed as Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

At the same time, despite various efforts already made in safeguarding its ICH, Mongolia needs to meet the increasing impact of social changes, globalization and rampant urbanization affecting traditional nomadic lifestyle of its people. UNESCO/Japan FIT supports this further endeavour with a series of better tailored capacity building activities starting with a two-day workshop organized from 28-29 May 2012 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to consult with primary stakeholders, assess existing government policies relating to ICH, investigate the roles of involved institutions and identify training needs on ICH. UNESCO certified trainer Ms Noriko Aikawa-Faure assisted this process with facilitating the need assessment workshop. Two other capacity building workshops lined up for Mongolia are a Community-Based Inventorying Workshop planned to be organized in October 2012 and a Workshop on the Preparation of Nomination Files in early 2013.

Link for direct access 

A national capacity building workshop on community-based inventorying of intangible cultural heritage will be organized by UNESCO (Venice Office/Sarajevo Antenna Office), in close cooperation with the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Commission for UNESCO of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo from 21 to 27 Mai 2012.

The event will bring together experts, NGOs, community members, local authorities, government officials, and actors at the heart of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The objective is to build capacity of all relevant stakeholders to inventory intangible cultural heritage following a community-based approach.

The workshop will provide participants with the necessary knowledge, skills and tools for effective documentation and inventorying of intangible cultural heritage under the 2003 Convention and will also include a fieldwork practicum at the end of the workshop. The event will be facilitated by Rieks Smeets, linguist and former chief of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage section, and Sasha Sreckovic, Ethnographer from the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade (Serbia).

This workshop is a direct follow-up to the regional training on “Strengthening national capacities for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Europe”, organized by UNESCO in Sofia, Bulgaria (14-18 March 2011). The 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was ratified by Bosnia and Herzegovina in February 2009.

Link for direct access 

A capacity building workshop dedicated to the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Ecuador was held on 17 and 18 May 2012 in Quito.

The workshop was organized by UNESCO Quito Office in close cooperation with the National Institute for Cultural Heritage (INPC) with the objective to strengthen capacities of those INPC civil servants who are not specialized or directly involved in intangible cultural heritage activities. The two days seminar provided them with a better understanding of the specificities of ICH, the basic concepts and methods as presented by the 2003 Convention, with the aim to improve coordination with ICH-related activities within the INPC.

The workshop addressed issues such as the differences between the 1972, 2003 and 2005 Conventions, the benefits and obligations and opportunities of the 2003 Convention, safeguarding measures and the roles of the different stakeholders involved in the management of ICH, as well as issues related to sustainable development and the Convention’s lists.

Mr Domingo Carranza, president of the weavers community of Pile, known for his expertise in elaboration of traditional woven straw hats in Montecristi shared the experience in elaborating a nomination file for the Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

The training session was facilitated by Mr Fabian Bedón from Ecuador.

Link for direct access 

The first capacity building activity in Bhutan – a training workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level – was organized from 14-18 May 2012 in Paro, Bhutan, in partnership with the National Archive and Library of the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs, the government agency responsible for intangible cuiltural heritage. The 28 participants included culture officers from the 12 districts of Bhutan and representatives from the National Library and Archives, the Department of Culture, Folk Heritage Museum, the Institute of language and Cultural Studies and Helvetas, an NGO involved mapping ICH.

After Bhutan ratified the 2003 Convention in 2005, the Dramtse Ngacham (Dance of Drum of Dramtse) was proclaimed as one of UNESCO Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2005 and subsequently included in the Representative List of the 2003 Convention. It is currently preparing a preliminary survey and development of an inventory of ICH in partnership with the Intangible Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and Pacific (ICHCAP), the Category II Centre in Korea.

The implementation workshop, facilitated by UNESCO certified trainers, Ms. Shubha Chaudhuri and Ms. Paritta Chalermpow Koanantakool, will be be followed by a training workshop on the ICH inventoring in 2013.

As one of the eight beneficiary countries under the regional capacity building programme funded under UNESCO-Japan Funds In Trust, UNESCO’s intervention in Bhutan aims to strengthen the capacities of Bhutan to meet its national obligation to safeguard its intangible cultural heritage particularly in inventory-making and to enable Bhutan to have a sustainable framework for safeguarding ICH and in implementing the 2003 Convention.

Link for direct access 

A capacity building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention was successfully organized in Port Moresby from 14-18 May 2012 by the UNESCO Apia Office in partnership with the National Cultural Commission of Papua New Guinea. Facilitated by Ms Noriko Aikawa-Faure and Mr Setoki Qalubao the five-day workshop was attended by forty-three representatives from concerned national government agencies, provincial government units, academic institutions and key stakeholders. Honorable Benjamin Philip, the Minister for Culture and Tourism welcomed the participants during the opening ceremony on 15 May 2012.

Papua New Guinea, a State Party to the 2003 Convention, is one of the most culturally diverse countries on Earth, with some 850 indigenous languages spoken by different cultural groups having their own sets of cultural expressions in a country with a population of 6 million. To assist in mitigating the negative impact of globalization and social transformations that endanger its rich intangible cultural heritage, Papua New Guinea was selected as one of the eight beneficiary countries under the regional capacity building programme in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage under the UNESCO-Japanese Funds-In-Trust Cooperation.

The next capacity building workshop on the inventory of ICH elements will be held in October 2012 in Goroka, Papua New Guinea which hosts the famous Sing-Sing Festival, a tribal gathering and cultural event held every two years.

Link for direct access 

The UNESCO Venice Office, in cooperation with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Hellenic National Commission for UNESCO, organized the sixth edition of the annual regional meeting of experts from South-East Europe on Intangible Cultural Heritage “Promoting a shared vision of intangible cultural heritage in South-East Europe”. This regional meeting has been an opportunity to present and discuss the implementation of the UNESCO 2003 Convention and national measures for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage.

The meeting also allowed for a presentation of best practices in the promotion of shared heritage (multinational candidature files, common research projects, etc) and discussed future joint activities in the area of training and capacity-building, to be developed in conjunction with the new Category II Regional Center on intangible cultural heritage, officially inaugurated in Sofia, Bulgaria, in February 2012.

The conference comprised experts from: Albania; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria, Croatia; Cyprus; Greece; Italy; Montenegro; Republic of Moldova; Romania; Serbia; Slovenia; The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Turkey.

• Final Declaration: English
• Final Programme: English
• List of participants: English

Link for direct access 

As another step to strengthen its capacity to safeguard its living heritage, community members and representatives from various institutions of Botswana, including university professionals, Departments of Culture, National Arts Councils, National Museums and Monuments and the National ICH Committees came together to participate in a capacity-building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 convention, held from the 16th to 20th of April, 2012 in Gaborone.

The major focus of the workshops was on familiarising participants with the Intangible Heritage Convention, its basic concepts, measures and mechanisms, recognizing that effective implementation depends upon profound knowledge and understanding of all the people involved in the safeguarding of living heritage.

The workshop was a part of a series of national workshops rolled out by the UNESCO Harare Cluster Office, organised within the framework of the UNESCO/Flanders Funds-in-Trust Project to strengthen national capacities for the implementation of the 2003 Convention in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

It was facilitated by Mr. Stephen Chifunyise and Mr. Lovemore Mazibuko, two of the network of experts trained in UNESCO’s “Training of Trainers Workshop.”

For more information please contact: c.mapfumo@unesco.org

Link for direct access 

With the support of the UNESCO/Japan Fund-in-Trust, UNESCO initiates on 16 April 2012 its efforts on the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Nepal, who ratified the Convention in 2010. A series of workshops will be organized to strengthen the national capacities in Nepal to implement the Convention more effectively for over the next 18 months. Among them, the first five-day workshop was held on 16-20 April 2012 in the capital city, Kathmandu, mainly focusing on building capacity for Nepal to meet its obligation as a State Party to the Convention.

UNESCO Office in Kathmandu works in close cooperation with the Ministry of Federal Affairs, Constituant Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture for this first joint initiative, which attracted some 40 participants from government departments, communities and groups that create and transmit the intangible cultural heritages. The other workshops to follow are on Community-based inventorying of intangible cultural heritage and elaborating nominations to the Lists of the Convention. These series of initiatives is implemented within the framework of a global capacity building strategy that UNESCO put in place since 2011.

Link for direct access 

UNESCO is planning a workshop to introduce to the staff of the School for African Heritage (EPA) in Benin (11 to 17 April) the new pedagogical tools developed by UNESCO to help the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The training material emphasizes the role of the States in taking the necessary measures to ensure the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage on their territories, such as adopting a general policy, designating competent bodies, fostering scientific studies and putting in place appropriate legal, technical, and administrative measures. The role of communities in identifying and transmitting intangible cultural heritage is also highlighted, as the importance of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage for sustainable development and social cohesion.

This training workshop, supported by the International Fund for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, will offer the staff of the School for African Heritage new opportunities to help future heritage managers in African countries.

Documents

• Background document: French
• Agenda: French
• List of participants: French

Link for direct access  A three-day Capacity Building Workshop on the Implementation of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) was held on 10-12 April 2012 at Hotel Timor in Dili, Timor-Leste. The workshop was jointly organised by the State Secretariat of Culture of the Ministry of Education of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste and UNESCO with the support from the Government of Japan through UNESCO Japanese Funds-In-Trust for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

This workshop followed a previously organised workshop on the ratification of the 2003 UNESCO Convention, which took place in November 2011 in Timor-Leste. This supplementary workshop gathered some 60 participants, including national and district Culture officials, governmental officials from other relevant ministries, academics, NGO representatives and community members. Facilitated by Rahul Gioswami (a member of the Consultative Body of the 2003 ICH Convention), Masanori Nagaoka (Head of Culture unit of UNESCO Office, Jakarta) and Wieske Sapardan (Programme Assistant of UNESCO Office, Jakarta), the fourteen sessions of this workshop was intended to help participants gain a broad understanding of the possible activities involved in implementing UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

During the opening ceremony, H.E. Mr. Virgilio Simith, the Secretary of State for Culture of the Ministry of Education of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste and H.E. Mr. Yoshitaka Hanada, the Ambassador of Japan to Timor-Leste highlighted the importance of joint efforts among governments, civil societies and communities to ensure that Timor-Leste’s precious intangible cultural heritage is safeguarded and passed on to the next generations. They underlined that the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage should play a key role for ensuring mutual respect and promoting peace in Timor-Leste and beyond.

The opening ceremony was followed by the launch of a publication entitled ‘the Ai To’os Collection’ which was produced by the State Secretariat of Culture of the Ministry of Education of Timor-Leste. Financially supported through UNESCO’s programme of CapEFA (Capacity Development for Education For All), the publication introduces – in Tetun, Portuguese and English – historical cultural objects in order to raise people’s awareness of their own rich cultural heritage while promoting literacy rates in the country. Mr Anwar Alsaid, Head of Education of UNESCO Office, Jakarta who was present at the launching ceremony emphasised that UNESCO stands ready to assist the government and people of Timor-Leste through an intersectoral approach in the fields of education and culture, ie. in promoting and preserving Timor-Leste’s rich cultural heritage and to ensure that this heritage is documented.

The three day capacity building workshop was followed by a visit to Suai, the capital of Cova Lima District in Timor-Leste which will be a pilot site for the Community-based Inventorying workshop, which shall be held in September 2012. During the visit, the members of the State Secretariat of Culture of the Ministry of Education of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste and UNESCO staff met the leaders of the traditional community in Suai and had the opportunity to observe the vernacular architecture settlements, traditional dance, performed by the local community group members, and a tais traditional textile weaving workshop in Cova Lima District.

Link for direct access 

A five-day training workshop on the Implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage at the national level was organized from 6 to 10 April 2012 in Astana, Kazakhstan. It was only a few weeks after Kazakhstan officially became the 142nd State Party to the 2003 Convention.

About 25 representatives from the Ministry of Culture and Information, the Agency for Tourism and Sport, representatives of leading universities in Kazakhstan, members of the National Committee for the Safeguarding of ICH, experts from the UNESCO Observatory on Central Asia, as well as ICH bearers - artisans, musicians, storytellers and representatives from youth NGOs - took part in the training.

The workshop is the first of a series of activities aiming at building the know-how and institutional capacity for the implementation of the 2003 Convention in four Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was developed through the generous support of Norway to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund and organized by the UNESCO Cluster Office in Almaty in cooperation with the National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ISESCO and the Kazakhstan National Federation of UNESCO Clubs.

Link for direct access 

UNESCO’s key partners, steadfast in their support over recent years to the effective implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, met with the Secretariat on 30 March 2012 to take stock of recent achievements and lessons learnt and share information on future priorities and the overall strategy for utilizing available resources.

Thanks to the support of generous donors including Azerbaijan, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, the European Union, Flanders (Belgium), Italy, Japan, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Spain and the United Arab Emirates, more than $US11 million have been mobilized for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage through a global capacity-building effort.
Since 2008 UNESCO has striven to align the programmes funded by voluntary contributions to its Complementary Additional Programme with the priorities and strategies of the Regular Programme funded by the assessed contributions of all UNESCO’s Member States.

In line with these efforts, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section has focused its resource mobilization strategy very strictly during the past three years on a two-pronged approach: i) to support a global capacity-building programme to accompany States in building human and institutional capacities for the successful implementation of the Convention; ii) to enhance its own capacities to respond better to the demands of States and assist the Intergovernmental Committee in fulfilling its work.

The meeting provided an opportunity to consolidate a network of faithful donors to the 2003 Convention, to build synergies and discuss possible avenues for future collaboration to allow the best possible use of the complementary contributions and assets of our donors and partners.

• List of participants: English

Link for direct access 

In Zambia, community members and representatives from various institutions including university professionals, Departments of Culture, National Arts Councils, National Museums and Monuments and the National ICH Committees, came together to participate in a capacity-building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 convention, held from the 26th to 30th of March, 2012 in Lusaka.

The workshop, which will help to strengthen Zambia’s capacity to safeguard its living heritage, was part of a series of national workshops rolled out by the UNESCO Harare Cluster Office. It was organised within the framework of the UNESCO/Flanders Funds-in-Trust Project to strengthen national capacities for the implementation of the 2003 Convention in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In her opening remarks, the Minister of Chiefs and Traditional Affairs, the Honourable Everine Kabanshi, highlighted Zambia’s commitment to the safeguarding of ICH and the importance for the Government to domesticate the convention, fully involving communities and traditional leaders in the process.

The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Stephen Chifunyise and Mr. Lovemore Mazibuko, two of the network of experts trained in UNESCO’s “Training of Trainers Workshop.”

For more information please contact: c.mapfumo@unesco.org

Link for direct access 

What are inventories of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and why are they essential to safeguarding efforts? How to draw up these inventories with the widest participation of communities, considering the specific context of each country? These were the main issues raised at the workshop on upgrading competencies on community-based inventorying of intangible cultural heritage, held from March 23 to 25 in Paris in the framework of the MEDLIHER project with the teams of the three beneficiary countries (Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan).

The meeting enabled participants to gain a thorough understanding of the training materials developed by UNESCO on the theme of community-based inventorying. It was also an opportunity for them to discuss the adaptation of these tools according to the particularities of each country and the focus of their national safeguarding projects. Egypt chose inventorying the intangible cultural heritage of Damietta, which forms part of the river Nile regions; Jordan chose the region of Madaba, which is characterized by great cultural diversity. Lebanon decided to focus on inventorying the specific element of the Zajal, which is a cultural practice to be found all over the country. Planned to be launched in April 2012, these national projects will start with capacity-building workshops, followed by fieldwork.

In addition to significant advances in the planning of the national projects, participants have developed during this workshop a shared vision of the regional MEDLIHER movie, which will increase the visibility of the ICH of partner countries in the Mediterranean world and internationally.

Document

• Agenda and background document: (English)
• Summary: (French)

Link for direct access 

In Zimbabwe, community members and traditional chiefs, representatives from various institutions including university professionals, Departments of Culture, National Arts Councils, National Museums and Monuments and the National ICH Committees, came together to participate in a capacity-building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 convention, held from the 19th to 23rd of March, 2012 in Harare.

In his official remarks, the Deputy Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Honourable Lazarus Dokora, emphasised the critical role that traditional leaders can play in implementing the 2003 Convention. The workshop was attended by four traditional chiefs including the President of the Chiefs’ Council, Chief Fortune Charumbira.

According to the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Great Zimbabwe University and member of the National ICH Committee, the workshop has resulted in a trained group of people who will now become pioneers in implementing the 2003 Convention, thus significantly contributing towards the safeguarding of ICH in Zimbabwe.

The workshop was part of a series of national workshops rolled out by the UNESCO Harare Cluster Office, organised within the framework of the UNESCO/Flanders Funds-in-Trust Project to strengthen national capacities for the implementation of the 2003 Convention in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was facilitated by Mr. Stephen Chifunyise and Mr. Lovemore Mazibuko, two of the network of experts trained in UNESCO’s “Training of Trainers Workshop.”

For more information please contact: c.mapfumo@unesco.org

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Malawi opened its doors on March 12 to 16 to host a workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention in order to strengthen its capacity to safeguard its living heritage.

The workshop, attended by community members and representatives from various institutions including university professionals, Departments of Culture, National Arts Councils, National Museums and Monuments and the National ICH Committees, was part of a series of national workshops rolled out by the UNESCO Harare Cluster Office. It was organised within the framework of the UNESCO/Flanders Funds-in-Trust Project to strengthen national capacities for the implementation of the 2003 Convention in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In her opening remarks, the Director of Culture, Dr. Elizabeth Gomani-Chindebvu echoed the importance of implementing the Convention and coming up with appropriate policies and legal instruments that provide for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage.

The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Stephen Chifunyise and Mr. Lovemore Mazibuko, two of the network of experts trained in UNESCO’s “Training of Trainers Workshop.”

For more information please contact: c.mapfumo@unesco.org