From 3 to 6 December representatives from governmental and non-governmental institutions from Timor-Leste are meeting to receive intensive training on the nomination process, from preparation to evaluation and examination. These sessions are mainly practical and participative and will rely on mock nominations that participants will need to analyse and improve in accordance with the criteria set out in the Operational Directives for the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Conducted by the UNESCO-trained facilitators, Rahul Goswami from India and Suzanne Ogge from Australia, this workshop on the preparation of nominations of intangible cultural heritage elements for inscription on the Urgent Safeguarding List and the Representative List will complement the training that Timor-Leste has already received on the implementation of the Convention at the national level and community-based inventorying.

Community practitioners, non-governmental organizations in the field of crafts, traditional music and dance, leading universities and museums of the country as well as government officials came together for a workshop on inventorying of intangible cultural heritage which is held from 22 to 29 November 2013 in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

Organized by the UNESCO Almaty Office in cooperation with the National Commission of the Republic of Kazakhstan for UNESCO and ISESCO and the Kazakhstan National Federation of UNESCO Clubs, the workshop marks a significant step in safeguarding the living heritage of Kazakhstan. It focuses on community participation in the identification and inventory of intangible cultural heritage, organization and management of information, and hands-on experience in preparing field work.

Funded by the Government of Norway, the workshop is the third and last in a series of workshops organized in Kazakhstan in the framework of a sub-regional project being implemented in Central Asia within the context of UNESCO’s global strategy on capacity building to safeguard intangible cultural heritage. It is conducted by two experts from the UNESCO facilitators’ network: Ms. Sabira Soltongeldieva and Mr. Illya Fetysov.

For more information, please see the webpage of Almaty Cluster Office for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The UNESCO Office in Rabat is organizing a training workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Kaédi, Mauritania, from 22-26 October, 2013.

The workshop is part of the project ‘Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage through strengthening national capacities in Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia’ funded by the contribution of the Government of Norway to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund. It will be facilitated by Mr Ahmed Skounti and Mr Mohamed Ould Mohamed Lemine Beijeu, both members of the UNESCO facilitators network in the field of intangible heritage, and will bring together approximately 20 participants including representatives from the Ministry of Culture, NGO’s and representatives from the local communities involved.

The objective of this first activity is to make sure that the key concepts of the Convention have been well understood and integrated by all the stakeholders involved in the safeguarding of living heritage in Mauritania. It will be followed by a series of other specific activities during the next months.

This Community-based Inventorying of Intangible Cultural Heritage Workshop is the 3rd activity hosted by Samoa within the framework of the regional capacity building project in the Asia-Pacific Region and is funded by the Japan Funds-in-Trust for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The Workshop will bring together some 50 participants ranging from ICH custodians, traditional leaders, senior officials responsible for ICH safeguarding, NGOs, community-based organisations, to faith-based organisations. The Workshop will provide stakeholders with training in community-based ICH inventorying with hands-on exercise at Gataivai Village in Savaii Island.

This workshop on the preparation of nomination files to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists will be held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 21 to 25 October 2013. Conducted by the UNESCO-trained facilitators, Suzanne Ogge from Australia and Rahul Goswani from India, the event is the final of a series of three capacity building events over the last 18 months aimed at the safeguarding of the manifestations of Cambodia’s living heritage. The training workshop, which the UNESCO Phnom Penh Office is organizing in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, will provide training on how to prepare nomination files for the Urgent Safeguarding List and Representative List, as well as proposals for the Register of Best Practices and requests for international assistance. The training strategy will provide the participants with the knowledge of preparing complete nomination files by understanding how they will later be evaluated and examined. The expert trainers will lead around 30 participants from concerned government agencies, members of the academy, ICH practitioners and community members.

Documents

• Draft agenda of the meeting: English
• List of participants: English in preparation

From 14 to 22 October 2013, capacity-building sessions on preparing nominations to the Lists of UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage take place in Argentina, first in Santiago del Estero, in the Gran Chaco Region, and then in Buenos Aires. At their end, about 70 participants, including government officials and members of non-governmental organizations involved in safeguarding cultural heritage from Argentina, but also from Paraguay and Uruguay, will have received theoretical and practical training on the nomination process understood as a planning process of community-based safeguarding measures.

Facilitated by two UNESCO-trained experts, Adriana Molano Arenas from Colombia and Mónica Lacarrieu from Argentina, these workshops bring to a close a capacity-building programme on the Convention supported by UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust which for more than one year has provided to its beneficiaries substantial training on the implementation of the Convention at the national level and community-based inventorying of intangible cultural heritage.

Documents

• Agenda: Spanish
• List of participants: Spanish

From 7 to 11 October, the Regional Bureau for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean is organizing a capacity-building workshop on preparing nominations to the Lists of UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The workshop will bring together about twenty participants from Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic who already benefited in their respective countries from an intensive training on the implementation of the Convention at the national level, within the regional project for strengthening national capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, funded through the generous contribution of Norway to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.

Facilitated by two UNESCO-trained experts, Adriana Molano Arenas from Colombia and Fabián Bedón Samaniego from Ecuador, this workshop is to provide participants with additional training on the preparation of nominations as processes of mobilization of the wide range of stakeholders involved in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage - and first and foremost communities - as well as of design of safeguarding plans tailored to the specific contexts and conditions for practising a given intangible cultural heritage element.

Documents

• Agenda: Spanish
• List of Participants: Spanish

Experts from South-East Europe will meet in Belgrade, Serbia, on 5 October, within the framework of the 22nd edition of the International Festival of Ethnological Film, to discuss how documentary films and other audio-visual productions may contribute to the safeguarding and viability of intangible cultural heritage.
The meeting, organized by the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, in cooperation with the Sofia Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe (Bulgaria) and the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe, Venice (Italy), will include a round table on the realization of a possible regional audiovisual production on intangible cultural heritage in South-East Europe – challenges and opportunities. Participating experts will include representatives of heritage safeguarding agencies, anthropologists, film makers and other individual practitioners. The event is open to the public.

The Belgrade International Festival of Ethnological Film focuses on creative ethnographic documentaries with strong ethnological sensibility. Its concept is to encourage and inspire wide audience, anthropologists and filmmakers to contribute to impact and use of ethnographic film. This year’s edition of the festival will screen from 4-8 October 2013, in Belgrade, documentary films on the subject of ethnology and anthropology, also including a variety of events, meetings with filmmakers and social gatherings.

More information is available here

A national workshop on Community-based Inventorying of Intangible Cultural Heritage will be held in Orange Walk district in Belize from 1 to 9 October 2013. This is organized by The National Institute of Culture and History in collaboration with the Belize National Commission for UNESCO and the UNESCO Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean.

The 8-day workshop will focus on i) community involvement in identifying and inventorying in accordance with/as advocated by UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage Convention, ii) information gathering with communities, iii) organizing, accessing and updating information in inventories and iv) a hands-on experience in preparing field work. The workshop will be facilitated by UNESCO trained facilitators, Harriet Deacon and Kris Rampersad.

Various stakeholders such as government officials, non-governmental organizations and community practitioners will come together to partake in the workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The official opening ceremony will take place on Tuesday, 1 October 2013 in the presence of invited guests including government officials, diplomatic corps, Heads of UN Agencies and the media.

Funded by the Government of Japan, the workshop is part of a sub-regional project being implemented in Belize, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago within the context of UNESCO’s Global Strategy on capacity building on safeguarding intangible cultural heritage.

After having had a first community-based inventory workshop (INV) in October 2012 in Goroka, Papua New Guinea will benefit from an additional workshop in another part of the country, the Milne Bay Province. Anthony Parak will facilitate this workshop.

The second review meeting on UNESCO’s global strategy for strengthening national capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage will be convened by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section in Cusco, Peru, from 17 to 19 September 2013, following the first such meeting in Beijing, China, in November 2012.

The Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Latin America (CRESPIAL), a category 2 centre under the auspices of UNESCO, will host the meeting that aims to assess the implementation of the strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The meeting brings together eleven facilitators from the global network, established two years ago following a cycle of training of trainers workshops all over the world, who have now conducted capacity-building activities in the refion. Colleagues responsible for the Culture Programme in UNESCO’s field offices and CRESPIAL will also participate.

The meeting’s agenda covers the range of conceptual and practical problems encountered along the way. By inviting key actors involved in the implementation of this programme to share their experiences, the challenges they faced and the ways they found to overcome them, the meeting will improve the effectiveness of the capacity-building strategy so it can respond more adequately to the specific needs of States.

Documents

• Participants List: English/Spanish
• Programme: English|Spanish
• Summary records: English|Spanish

UNESCO continues its initiative to help safeguard Nepal’s intangible heritage with a workshop on preparing nominations to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List in Kathmandu from 16 to 20 September 2013. The workshop is the last of three Japan funded events to build capacity to protect the manifestations of Nepal’s intangible – or living – heritage.

These living traditions in the form of traditions, performing arts, festive events and skills of people to produce traditional crafts are a central part of the country’s collective heritage.
The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage adopted by UNESCO in 2003, and ratified by Nepal in 2010, is an excellent framework to give continuity to these living traditions. However, the national capacity to safeguard this heritage needs to be enhanced.

The forthcoming seminar, which UNESCO Kathmandu organizes jointly with the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, will provide knowledge about inscribing elements in the intangible cultural heritage list and enhance skills to prepare a nomination file. It will also train experts, representatives from community and concerned institutions on how to prepare files for the Urgent Safeguarding List and Representative List and proposals for the Register of Best Practices, and how to formulate requests for international assistance.

Conducted by the UNESCO-trained facilitators, Suzanne Ogge from Australia and Shubha Chaudhuri from India, the event is the final of a series of three capacity building events over the last 18 months. The first workshop, held in April 2012 in Kathmandu, addressed the key principles and definitions of intangible cultural heritage; the second workshop, which took place in January 2013 in the Jiri-Sikri valley, focused on the process and guidelines for community-based inventorying of these living traditions.
The national capacity building events are part of the regional capacity building project “Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage through the Strengthening of National Capacities in Asia and the Pacific”, funded by the Government of Japan.

UNESCO expects around 30 participants from communities and groups creating, maintaining and transmitting intangible heritage as well as institution.

For more information: website of UNESCO Office in Kathmandu

UNESCO has partnered with the School for African Heritage (EPA) to help Member States by providing them with knowledge about the concepts, mechanisms and measures offered by the Convention. To make the initiative real, a workshop for the training of trainers on community-based inventorying of intangible cultural heritage will take place from 16 to 23 September 2013 in the EPA in Porto Novo, Benin thanks to funding from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund. During this training, participants will have the opportunity to become familiar with the materials elaborated by the Secretariat of the Convention.

The workshop will be facilitated by two expert facilitators, Claudine-Augée Angoué (Gabon) and Sidi Traoré (Burkina Faso) in partnership with EPA director, Baba Keita. It will focus on four principal topics: (1) community-based inventorying in the framework of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, (2) a framework of community-based inventorying, ethics and responsibilities, (3) methods and technics to produce information and (4) community-based inventorying projects.

A field exercise is also planned to allow the 30 participants that include officials from the EPA, the International Traditions and Languages Research Centre (CERDETOLA) and experts form Burkina Faso and Senegal to apply community-based techniques in the field. The workshop will benefit from EPA’s rich experience in the field of training for safeguarding of cultural heritage. The workshop will be coordinated by the EPA who will also organize the field work, building on the solid contacts it has with the communities of the Porto Novo region (the provisory program is being prepared).

Less than a year after hosting a foundational workshop on the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage at the national level and the development of a plan of action to this effect, Jamaica is mobilising community practitioners and representatives of its governmental and non-governmental organisations to push forward with the inventorying of its living heritage.

Organized by the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica/Jamaica Memory Bank in collaboration with the Jamaica National Commission for UNESCO and the UNESCO Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean, a national workshop on community-based inventorying of intangible cultural heritage will take place in Kingston from 4 to 13 September 2013.

A significant step in the safeguarding of living heritage in Jamaica, the workshop will focus on community participation in the identification and inventorying of intangible cultural heritage, data collection, organization and management, and hands-on experience in preparing field work. The workshop along with the field exercise will set the stage for a pilot inventory activity to follow in proceeding months.

Funded by the Government of Japan, the 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 to safeguard intangible cultural heritage. It will be facilitated by UNESCO trained experts Dr. Harriet Deacon and Dr. Kris Rampersad.

This training workshop is aimed at enhancing the national capacities in the field for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH), in particular ICH inventorying under the 2003 Convention including the practical technical skills in inventory-making.

Experts from Kyrgyzstan will be trained in identifying, defining, inventorying and documenting the ICH. They are in charge of implementing concrete safeguarding activities and conducting training in the management and appropriate transmission of ICH, while undertaking and/or coordinating ICH-related scientific, technical, legal, economic and other studies. The purpose of this session is to raise awareness about the value and diversity of the ICH and ensure community participation and consent in all activities concerning their ICH.

Participants will be from governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), communities, institutions and individual experts. The preference will be given to local communities. During the training the participants will be provided with text materials developed by UNESCO. The materials are translated into the Russian language and partially into Kyrgyz.

Within the framework of the global capacity building strategy for the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, a workshop will be organized in Mozambique from 12 to 21 August 2013 that aim to reinforce national capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage.

Through this workshop, officials from ARPAC (the National Institute for Socio-cultural Research), the Ministry of Culture as well as representatives of the local authorities, civil society and community leaders of the Monica District will familiarize themselves with principles and methods of community based inventorying of living heritage (Monica, 12 to 21 August 2013). It is hoped that some of the participants will become facilitators who then will provide further training in Mozambique and in other Portuguese speaking countries in Africa.

This workshop, organized thanks to a generous voluntary supplementary contribution from Norway to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, forms part of a project that targets Portuguese speaking countries in Africa. The same participants will first receive training on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level, (Maputo 5 to 9 August 2013) organized through the project.

Documents

• Agenda: Portuguese

Within the framework of the global capacity building strategy for the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, a workshop will be organized in Mozambique from 5 to 9 August 2013 that aim to reinforce national capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage.

The first workshop will provide training on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level to officials from ARPAC (the National Institute for Socio-cultural Research), the Ministry of Culture as well as representatives of the local authorities, civil society and community leaders of the Monica District (Maputo, 5 to 9 August 2013).

This workshop, organized thanks to a generous voluntary supplementary contribution from Norway to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, forms part of a project that targets Portuguese speaking countries in Africa. The same participants will receive further training on the community-based inventorying of intangible cultural heritage (Monica, 12 to 21 August 2013), organized through the project.

Documents

• Agenda: Portuguese

From 29 July to 2 August, about thirty participants from governmental and non-governmental institutions from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua are meeting in Managua, Nicaragua, to receive intensive training on the nomination process, from preparation to evaluation and examination. These sessions are mainly practical and participative and will rely on mock nominations that participants will need to analyse and improve in accordance with the criteria set out in the Operational Directives for the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Conducted by the UNESCO-trained facilitators, María Ismenia Toledo from Venezuela and Enrique López from Mexico, this is the first workshop on the preparation of nominations of intangible cultural heritage elements for inscription on the Urgent Safeguarding List and the Representative List that will take place in Latin America. It complements the training that these same participants have already received on the implementation of the Convention at the national level and community-based inventorying.

These sessions are part of the regional capacity-building project funded by the generous contribution of Spain to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in Central America which is being implemented throughout 2013. As such, this activity benefits from the support of the Central American Educational and Cultural Coordination (CECC/SICA) and the Institute of Culture of Nicaragua.

Documents

• List of participants: Spanish
• Provisional agenda: Spanish

From 24 to 26 July, UNESCO and the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe will organize a global meeting of category 2 centres active in the field of intangible cultural heritage at Sozopol, a beautiful town situated at Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast.

The meeting will be an excellent opportunity for the participants to take stock of the recent developments in the life of the Convention and the larger trends underway at UNESCO concerning category 2 centres. It will also facilitate joint efforts for the integration of the Organization’s medium-term strategy (37 C/4) and programme and budget for the coming quadrennium (37 C/5) into the medium-term and short-term planning of the respective centres, enabling them to continue to contribute effectively to UNESCO’s work.

Documents

• Agenda: English
• First annual meeting of category 2 centres active in the field of intangible cultural heritage: Report of the UNESCO Section for Intangible Cultural Heritage: English
• Participant List: English

Reference documents

• Approaches to governance - PowerPoint presentation by Frank Proschan: English
• Context of our cooperation - PowerPoint presentation by Cecile Duvelle: English
• Culture sector strategy for category 2 centres: English
• Draft Medium-term Strategy, 2014-2021
  37 C/4: English|French|Spanish|Russian|Chinese|Arabic
• Excerpt from the draft 37 C/5 revised as of 22 July 2013: English
• Guidelines for the formulation of 36 C/5 (2012‐2013 biennium) regular programme work plans (Activity/Office 5)
  BSP/RBM/2012/2 REV.8: English|French
• Improving UNESCO’s Category 2 Centre network: English|French
• Presentation of the Sofia centre - PowerPoint presentation by Mila Santova: English
• RBM Monitoring and Reporting guidelines
  BSP/RBM/2012/4 REV.1: English|French
• Results-Based Management (RBM) approach Presentation for Intangible Cultural Heritage Category 2 Institutes - PowerPoint presentation by Othilie du Souich: English
• Results-Based Management (RBM) approach Presentation for Intangible Cultural Heritage Category 2 Institutes - PowerPoint presentation by Othilie du Souich (smaller PDF version): English
• Results‐Based Programming, Management and Monitoring (RBM) approach as applied at UNESCO: Guiding Principles
  BSP/RBM/2008/1.REV.5: English|French|Spanish|Russian|Chinese|Arabic
• Review of the Management Framework for UNESCO Category 2 Institutes/Centres
  IOS/AUD/EVS/2011/14 Rev.: English

Executive Board/General Conference documents

• Category 2 institutes and centres
  190 EX/18 PART I: English|French|Spanish|Russian|Chinese|Arabic
• Category 2 institutes and centres
  190 EX/Decision 18 Part I: English|French|Spanish|Russian|Chinese|Arabic
• Category 2 institutes and centres
  191 EX/14.INF (+ Corr. only in Fre): English|French
• Category 2 institutes and centres: guidance note on the renewal assessment procedures of category 2 institutes/centres
  190 EX/INF.16: English|French
• Follow-up to the independent external evaluation of UNESCO, Policy framework for strategic partnerships: a comprehensive partnership strategy; Separate strategies for engagement with individual categories and partners
  191 EX/16.INF.3: English|French
• Implementation of the guidelines and criteria for category 2 institutes and centres approved in 33 C/Resolution 90
  35 C/Resolution 103: English|French|Spanish|Russian|Chinese|Arabic
• Implementation of the guidelines and criteria for category 2 institutes and centres approved in 33 C/Resolution 90
  35 C/22 + CORR.: English|French|Spanish|Russian|Chinese|Arabic
• Report on the full cost of category 2 institutes and centres
  191 EX/14 Part I: English|French|Spanish|Russian|Chinese|Arabic

For further information:

• Category 2 centres under the auspices of UNESCO

A national workshop on the implementation of the Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage is taking place from 16 to 20 July 2013 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The workshop, organized by UNESCO Dhaka Office in collaboration with the Department of Archaeology of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs of Bangladesh, aims at providing a broad overview of the Convention and its Operational Directives, the obligations of the State Party and possible ways to safeguard and inventory the intangible cultural heritage with the full participation of the communities concerned.

More than twenty representatives from government and non-governmental organizations, communities, institutions and individual experts will try to analyse the challenges facing the safeguarding intangible heritage in Bangladesh, and should be equipped with new tools and knowledge to ensure a better dissemination and promotion of such heritage.

The workshop will be conducted by Harriet Deacon and Amareswar Galla, two UNESCO trained experts in the field of intangible cultural heritage.

Community practitioners, government officials and members of non-governmental organizations are mobilizing themselves for a national workshop on inventorying of intangible cultural heritage to be held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago from 22 June to 1 July 2013.

Organized by the Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for UNESCO, the Ministry of the Arts & Multiculturalism of Trinidad and Tobago and the UNESCO Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean, the workshop marks a significant step in safeguarding the living heritage of Trinidad and Tobago. It will focus on community participation in the identification and inventory of intangible cultural heritage, organization and management of information, and hands-on experience in preparing field work. The field activity will be reinforced by a pilot inventory activity to follow in proceeding months.

Funded by the Government of Japan, the 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 to safeguard intangible cultural heritage. It will be facilitated by UNESCO trained experts Harriet Deacon and Rieks Smeets.

Thirty participants from government institutions and civil society organizations as well as community representatives meet in El Salvador from 17 to 25 June to attend the first workshop on inventorying intangible cultural heritage. Following an initial theoretical session in San Salvador aimed to equip participants with essential knowledge and skills to enable them to plan and facilitate this task, the team will move to the town of Conchagua, in the department of La Union on the Pacific coast, about 200 km from the capital.

A field practice will be conducted in Conchagua which will enable participants to gain first-hand experience in inventory-making and put into practice some of the knowledge acquired during the theoretical sessions in areas such as building communication relationships with the community, obtaining their free, prior and informed consent, applying a particular method, preparing questions or generating information for an inventorying framework and testing it.

Conducted by the UNESCO-trained facilitators, María Ismenia Toledo from Venezuela and Enrique López from Mexico, these sessions are part of the regional capacity-building project funded by the generous contribution of Spain to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in Central America which is being implemented throughout 2013. As such, this activity not only benefits from the support of the Central American Educational and Cultural Coordination (CECC/SICA) and the Secretariat of Culture of El Salvador but also welcomes the focal points of the project in Honduras and Nicaragua.

Documents

• Provisional agenda: Spanish
• Provisional list of participants: Spanish

Chengdu International Conference on Intangible Cultural Heritage in Celebration of the Tenth Anniversary of UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage

Chengdu, China, 14 to 16 June 2013

Practical information
The Conference will be held at the Shangri-La Hotel in Chengdu. It will take place in conjunction with the Fourth International Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Chengdu. Languages of the Conference will be English, French and Chinese.

Ten years have passed since the adoption of the 2003 Convention, including seven years of actual implementation at the international level. This high-level conference will look back on that decade in order to reflect on the Convention’s function, role and value while also looking forward to its future. The aim is to reflect profoundly on the life of the 2003 Convention so far, providing a strategic opportunity to discuss the intentions of its framers, to identify its achievements thus far and to define priorities for the future.

Scientific and legal experts and States Parties officials who took part actively in the preparation of the 2003 Convention will participate in a series of plenary round-table panels seeking to look backward and forward at the same time, focussing particularly on the challenges facing the Convention today:

• Achievements of the Convention: changing the discourse of ICH and implanting new concepts
• Inventorying and listing
• Parallel universes: intellectual property, world heritage and cultural goods and services
• Safeguarding experiences in the States Parties
• Open questions and future directions

Working Documents

• Programme
  ITH/13/EXP/1 Rev.: English|French|Chinese in preparation
• Concept note: the Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention: its first decade
  ITH/13/EXP/2: English|French|Chinese
• Round-table 1: Achievements of the Convention: changing the discourse of intangible cultural heritage and implanting new concepts
  ITH/13/EXP/3: English|French|Chinese
• Round-table 2: Inventorying and listing
  ITH/13/EXP/4: English|French|Chinese
• Round-table 3: Parallel universes: intellectual property, world heritage and cultural goods and services
  ITH/13/EXP/5 Rev.: English|French|Chinese
• Round-table 4: Safeguarding experiences in the States Parties
  ITH/13/EXP/6: English|French|Chinese
• Round-table 5: Open questions and future directions
  ITH/13/EXP/7: English|French|Chinese
• Chengdu recommendations
  ITH/13/EXP/8: English|French|Chinese

Information Documents

• List of documents
  ITH/13/EXP/INF.1.1: English|French|Chinese in preparation
• Practical information
  ITH/13/EXP/INF.1.2: English|Chinese
• List of participants
  ITH/13/EXP/INF.1.3: English in preparation|French in preparation|Chinese in preparation

Do you want to learn more about the history of the 2003 Convention?

Please see the following meetings between 1973 and 2003 that led up to the Convention:

• History and precursors 1973-2000
• Drafting the text of the Convention 2001-2003

The Conference will be held under the patronage of the Chinese Ministry of Culture, Sichuan Provincial People’s Government, Chinese National Commission for UNESCO and UNESCO, and will be organized by the Chengdu Municipal People’s Government, China National Centre for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage, Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture, International Training Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (CRIHAP) and UNESCO Section for Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Contacts

• Beate Strøm
  Section for Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO
  7, place du Fontenoy
  75352 Paris 07, France
  Tel: +33 (0)1 45 68 47 39
  e-mail: b.strom@unesco.org

• Yuan Jie
  International Training Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the Auspices of UNESCO (CRIHAP)
  Jia 1 Huixin Beili, 100029 Chaoyang District, Beijing, P.R. China
  Tel: +86-10-6496-6526 ; fax: +86-10-6496-9281
  e-mail: benyuanjie@126.com

Lao’s national capacities to safeguard its intangible heritage are increasing, thanks to an eight-day workshop organized from 11 to 18 June 2013 within the UNESCO capacity building strategy for the effective safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage. Made possible by a generous contribution from the Republic of Korea, the workshop is part of a project that specifically aims at enhancing the national capacity of Lao PDR, both in government institutions and in civil society to safeguard its intangible cultural heritage through the effective implementation of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage on a long-term basis. The workshop will be facilitated by UNESCO trained experts Shubha Chaudhuri and Paritta Koanantakool.

The Heritage Department of the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, in coordination with the UNESCO Office in Bangkok, has been very active in the organization of the forthcoming workshop in order to maximize the participation of local community members and practitioners. To accomplish this, some key village officials and practitioners will participate in the workshop that will be held in Thalat, Vientiane Province near the Pakkayong Village where also two days of field documentation and inventorying will be conducted.

A new step in a series of training activities for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage will take place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan from 28 to 31 May 2013. A workshop will bring together participants from governmental, academic and educational institutions as well as communities to improve their knowledge and skills for developing nominations to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. They will also learn how to apply for international assistance and how to elaborate proposals for the Register of Best Safeguarding Practices.

Made possible by a generous contribution from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, the workshop is part of a two-year collaboration between UNESCO and Kyrgyzstan aimed at equipping public institutions and civil society with a solid foundation for safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage within the country. The workshop is organized by the UNESCO Office in Almaty and the National Commission for UNESCO of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Participants will also discuss current safeguarding measures in all administrative areas of the Republic and will agree on future activities.

The workshop will be facilitated by Mr Ilya Fetisov from Ukraine and Ms Sabira Soltongeldieva from Kyrgyzstan.

© UNESCO

The seventh annual regional meeting of experts on Intangible Cultural Heritage in South East Europe will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 27-28 May 2013. The event, organized by the Sofia Regional Center on Intangible cultural heritage in South-East Europe, with the support of the UNESCO Regional Office for Culture and Science in Europe (Venice, Italy).

The regional encounter is a follow-up to the previous meetings (Arbanassi, Bulgaria, June 2007; Safranbolu, Turkey, May 2008; Zagreb, Croatia, April 2009, Râmnicu-Vâlcea, Romania, May 2010; Belgrade, Serbia, May 2011; Athens, Greece, May 2012) which have been organized to enhance a common understanding of opportunities and challenges linked to the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage in the region, such as: national inventory policies, the process of revitalization, the management of sustainable cultural tourism, the role and involvement of the local communities, the transnational dimension of intangible cultural heritage, as well as training and capacity-building.

The annual meetings serve as a regional platform for sharing knowledge and good practices, and stimulating a collective reflection on the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage as a key asset of South-East European cultural diversity.

The meeting in Sofia will focus its debates on three topics: the status of implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the respective countries of the region; cases and best practices in promoting intangible cultural heritage as a driver for local sustainable development (tourism, private/public partnerships); and proposals for common action in the areas of training and capacity-building. The meeting will also allow experts to discuss, more specifically, the various ways of integrating intangible heritage in tourism and development policies, while fostering the responsible and ethical use of these living assets and forms of expressions.

Documents

• Draft agenda: English
• List of participants: English

For more information, click here.

A capacity-building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level is being held in Cap Haïtien (Haiti) from 13 to 17 May. These sessions are organized within the framework of a regional capacity-building programme in the Caribbean funded by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund thanks to the generous contributions of Norway and count with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Haitian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO and the National Bureau of Ethnology.

For five days, about twenty participants from the North Department of Haiti will be receiving intensive training on the objectives, key concepts and international mechanisms of the 2003 Convention as well as on the national obligations of States Parties. Conducted by two members of the network of UNESCO-trained experts, Ms Soledad Mujica (Peru) and Ms Claudine Augée Angoué (Gabon), the workshop also aims at stimulating greater coordination of the different stakeholders working in this field, both at the institutional and the civil society level, by emphasizing the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage as a means through which development can find appropriate and sustainable ways.

Documents

• Agenda: French
• List of participants: French

A capacity-building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level is being organized in Les Cayes (Haiti) from 6 to 10 May. This is the first activity specifically benefiting Haiti within the regional capacity building project in the Caribbean, supported by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund thanks to the generous voluntary contribution of Norway.

For four days, about twenty participants from the South Department of Haiti will be receiving intensive training on the objectives, key concepts and international mechanisms of the 2003 Convention as well as on the national obligations of States Parties. Conducted by two members of the network of UNESCO-trained experts, Ms Soledad Mujica (Peru) and Ms Claudine Augée Angoué (Gabon), the workshop also aims at stimulating greater coordination of the different stakeholders working in this field, both at the institutional and the civil society level, by emphasizing the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage as a means through which development can find appropriate and sustainable ways.

Documents

• Agenda: French
• List of participants: French

Results achieved in the field of ICH safeguarding in Southern Africa since 2009, revolve primarily around to specific extrabudgetary programmes financed by Flanders, notably:

• A series of pilot projects in community-based intangible heritage inventorying on a grassroots-level in six selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia and Uganda), completed in 2011; and
• Strengthening national capacities for implementing the Convention for the Safeguarding of ICH in 4 selected Southern African countries (Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe) completed in 2012.

Based on the results achieved through these projects as well as the specific ICH component of MDGF Culture and Development Programme implemented in Namibia, the Southern African ICH experts experimented with the development of the specific national ICH “trainers” expertise in a workshop held in Waterberg, Namibia from 8 to 19 April 2013 .

As an immediate follow up, the Southern African ICH experts in cooperation with the UNESCO offices in Harare and Windhoek, agreed on conducting a consultation meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe from 30 April to 2 May. The objective of this meeting is twofold:
1. Develop a sub-regional ICH strategy for Southern Africa;
2. Discuss the concept of national capacity development based on the model of the April workshop held in Namibia and seek the possibility of its replication in all Southern African States Parties to the Convention.

Documents

• List of participants: English

For detailed information on this activity, please click here.

This Second Community-based Inventorying of Intangible Cultural Heritage Workshop is organized within the framework of the project entitled ‘Strengthening capacity building for the promotion and implementation of intangible cultural heritage in Timor-Leste’. This project is part of the regional capacity building efforts in the Asia-Pacific Region and is funded by the Japan Funds-in-Trust for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The workshop is intended to equip community members and key stakeholders from Timor-Leste with the basic knowledge and skills to design, facilitate and implement a community-based inventorying process tailored to their particular circumstances.

For more info, click here.

A capacity-building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level is being organized in Guatemala from 15 to 17 April. This is the first activity specifically benefiting Guatemala within the regional capacity building project in Central America, supported by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund thanks to the generous voluntary contribution of Spain.

For three days, representatives from the Ministry of Culture and Sport and cultural managers from different areas will be receiving intensive training on the objectives, key concepts and international mechanisms of the 2003 Convention as well as on the national obligations of States Parties. Conducted by two members of the network of UNESCO-trained experts, Ms Soledad Mujica (Peru) and Ms Eva Martínez (Honduras), these sessions will provide a comprehensive overview of this international normative instrument and the operational directives for its application which may serve as a framework to reflect on a national strategy for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage which integrates the views and aspirations of the different Guatemalan actors involved in this field.

Documents

• Agenda: Spanish
• List of participants: Spanish

© UNESCO Almaty Office

Three years after ratifying the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, Tajikistan is moving forward to strengthen its capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. Implemented within UNESCO’s global capacity-building strategy, a two-year project was launched in 2012 thanks to the generous support of Norway. The aim is to build a critical mass of experience and knowledge, both in government institutions and in civil society, so that Tajikistan will be equipped with an appropriate sustainable framework for safeguarding intangible heritage and implementing the Convention on a long-term basis.

The project entails a long-term, multi-faceted approach including the revision of policies and legislation, the strengthening of institutional infrastructures, the development of inventory frameworks and methods that fully involve the communities concerned, and the reinforcement of technical skills required to safeguard intangible cultural heritage. Its first stage focused on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level, and a five-day workshop held in August 2012 focused on core concepts of the Convention, while providing the participants with a thorough understanding of the obligations of all stakeholders at the national level.

The international mechanisms of the Convention are at the core of the current stage of the project. Governmental, academic and educational institutions, representatives from craft and traditional music communities, and members of civil society have met in a workshop organised by UNESCO Almaty and the Tajik National Commission for UNESCO from 10 to 13 April 2013 in Dushanbe to acquire the knowledge required to elaborate nominations for inscription on the Lists of the Convention, proposals for Best Safeguarding Practices and requests for International Assistance. The workshop was facilitated by Ms Sabira Soltongeldieva and Mr Ilya Fetisov.

Documents

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

For more information, please consult the webpage of UNESCO Almaty.

A seminar entitled ‘UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention’ was organized by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport of Brunei Darussalam and UNESCO on 10 April, 2013. The Forum brought together representatives from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Law, along with district officials, local representatives, academics from the University of Brunei Darussalam, local NGOs, and experts and policy makers in the field of culture, in order to discuss the ways for the safeguarding and promoting of the country’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). The forum also provided further information on UNESCO’s implementation strategy for the ICH Convention and efforts to strengthen internal networks amongst different levels of stakeholders.

For more information, click here.

The implementation of the capacity building strategy for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Namibia is moving to its second phase. After a series of successful community-based ICH inventorying exercises carried out within the broader framework of the MDGF Culture and Development programme, the UNESCO Office in Windhoek and the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sports and Culture (MYNSSC) trained a group of 20 local trainers to ensure sustainability of the ICH inventorying and safeguarding efforts. A national Training of Trainers workshop was held from 8 to 19 April 2013 at Waterberg, Namibia.

20 participants, selected from different parts of the country, focused on specific aspects of ICH identification, inventorying and community interactions. In addition, a component on participatory training methods has been a part of the workshop programme, facilitated by two Southern African intangible cultural heritage training experts, Mr Stephen Chifunyise of Zimbabwe and Mr Lovemore Mazibuko of Malawi.

The experience of this pilot workshop in Namibia and its possible replication within the region will be discussed during the upcoming workshop “Southern African Regional ICH strategy, focus on the national Training of Trainers processes” to be organised by UNESCO Windhoek Office in Harare, Zimbabwe from 30 April to 2 May 2013.

A Workshop on Community-based Inventorying of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) was held in Phuntsholing, a border town in southern Bhutan, from 2 to 9 April 2013. Funded the Japanese Funds-in-Trust, this Workshop focused on; i) community involvement in inventorying cultural resources, ii) importance of cultural protocol in community-based inventorying, iii) a hands-on experience in preparing field work.

For more information, please click here.

An intensive five-day capacity-building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level is being held in Tegucigalpa, Honduras from 18 to 22 March. The meeting inaugurates the regional project for strengthening capacities in this field that will be implemented in Central America throughout 2013 by UNESCO’s Offices in San José and Guatemala, thanks to the generous contribution of Spain to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.

This first activity, which benefits from the support of the Central American Educational and Cultural Coordination (CECC/SICA), will bring together key Honduran stakeholders involved in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, in particular from the Department of Culture, Arts and Sports as well as representatives of the Nicaraguan Institute of Culture and the Secretariat of Culture of the Salvadoran Presidency. Conducted by two members of the UNESCO-certified experts network, Mr Enrique Pérez López (Mexico) and Ms María Ismenia Toledo (Venezuela), these sessions are designed to provide the focal points of the project in each of the recipient countries with an overview of the objectives, the key concepts and international mechanisms of the 2003 Convention as well as the national obligations of States Parties.

Documents

• Agenda: Spanish
• Preliminary list of participants: Spanish

More than 25 specialists from governmental and non-governmental institutions, universities and community representatives of different regions of the Dominican Republic will participate in the first workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage that will be held in Santo Domingo from 11 to 15 March.

Conducted by the UNESCO-trained facilitators, Ms Adriana Molano from Colombia and Mr Edis Sánchez from Dominican Republic, the workshop intends to provide an overview of the objectives and key safeguarding concepts of the 2003 Convention as well as the national obligations of States Parties and the mechanisms for international cooperation. Its goal is to create a critical mass of both governmental and civil society actors to lay the first foundations of a sustainable framework for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage in the long term.

With this activity, the Regional Office for Culture for Latin America and the Caribbean of UNESCO, with the collaboration of the Dominican National Commission for UNESCO, launch in Dominican Republic 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.

Documents

• Agenda: Spanish
• List of participants: Spanish

Following the workshop on drawing up inventories of intangible cultural heritage held last November in the province of Matanzas, from 31 January to 3 February a preparatory mission was organized to obtain the consent of the community of Majagua, in the very centre of Cuba, to embark on an inventory exercise.

The manifestation selected by the community to undertake this first field exercise was the rural festivities of Red and Blue bands of Majagua, known throughout the island as an enduring social institution that brings residents from different generations into one or the other camp for friendly rivalry and competitions. The exercise will take place from 28 February to 5 March under the supervision of the UNESCO-trained facilitators, María Ismenia Toledo from Venezuela and Enrique López from Mexico. This activity is supported not only by the community of Majagua but also by the provincial authorities in the field of cultural heritage and the Houses of Culture of Ciego de Ávila. The team in charge of the exercise consists of five community members, experts from the provinces of Guantanamo, Camaguey, Ciego de Ávila and Matanzas and two representatives of the National Commission for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is the first field activity of a UNESCO capacity-building project, made possible with the generous support of Norway through the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.

Documents

• Majagua community consent: Spanish

From 25 February 25 to 1 March 2013, governments and civil society representatives of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay will continue the capacity-building programme which was launched in October 2012 with the generous support of the UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust. This time, an intensive training will be delivered on drawing up inventories of intangible cultural heritage. Again, Mónica Lacarrieu and Francisco López Morales will be in charge of this training which will emphasize the key role that the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage grants to communities in the identification and definition of their heritage.

These sessions aim to equip participants with the fundamental knowledge and techniques to design and facilitate an inventorying process with the participation of communities and tailored to their particular circumstances. They will lay the groundwork for the field exercise that the tango community in Buenos Aires will carry out during five months.

Documents

• List of participants: Spanish
• Programme: Spanish

Cambodia is reinforcing a community-based focus in its existing and new efforts to document and inventory living heritage. For this purpose and with generous funding from Japan, over 35 participants came together in Siem Reap from 14 to 21 February this year to build their knowledge and develop this new approach.
UNESCO provided the substantive support through two members of its certified facilitators’ network, Mr Rahul Goswami from India and Ms Suzanne Ogge from Australia. The programme included 8 days of intensive course work and field-based practicum carried out in the rural areas of Siem Reap and the town itself. Fieldwork included a visit to the School of Fine Arts and two local communities, with forms of ICH documented including traditional weaving processes, martial arts skills and techniques, and performing arts. Participants learned, through hands-on training, field-based techniques of interviewing and audio-visual recording. A visit was also conducted to the Eco-Global Museum (supported by UNESCO) located in the Preah Vihear Province, to learn about a concrete inventory project underway which combines audio-visual documentation of living heritage among a local indigenous community with the documentation of associated cultural objects.
So far, Cambodia’s Living Human Treasures programme has included documentation efforts, though its methods have not as yet been extended to community-based approaches recommended by the 2003 Convention. The capacity-building workshop on inventorying with a strong community focus thus provided participants - most of whom are provincial directors – with further skills and knowledge for their field practices. In addition, the training placed much emphasis on developing mutually supportive networks among cultural professionals and communities to support national efforts to document and inventory living heritage.
The participants included those who had attended the first capacity-building workshop on implementation held in 2012 August in Phnom Penh, and new participants. Among them were representatives of civil society organizations. While several mentioned the need for long-term and reliable financial support and stability for safeguarding, all participants confirmed that the training was extremely useful and they would integrate the new approach in their current work and future programmes.

How can Arab States effectively implement the 2003 Convention at the national level? What can be done to promote regional cooperation in the Arab world to strengthen the capacities of all concerned stakeholders? What are the best ways to raise people’s awareness and assure the involvement of concerned communities in the process of safeguarding?
These are amongst the issues that representatives of Ministries of Culture of all countries from the Arab region will discuss during the meeting on ‘The challenges of capacity building in the field of intangible cultural heritage’ in Doha from 14 to 17 January 2013.
Generously supported by Qatar and co-organized by the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Qatar, ALECSO and UNESCO, this meeting will be the occasion to plan increased cooperation within the region for the effective safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage.
The meeting will be co-facilitated by a group of experts from the Region, all members of a network of 77 experts trained to use the UNESCO curricula specifically designed to build capacity on implementing the Convention.