The Living Heritage Entity is organizing the workshop in close collaboration with the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe (Venice) and the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe (Sofia), which is generously hosting the training in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from 1 to 3 October 2019.

The workshop will focus on the theme of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and sustainable development with reference to the dedicated chapter of the Operational Directives on this topic and in light of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It will be structured as follows:

• Introduction of the topic of living heritage and sustainable development/UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
  
• Presentation of the ‘ICH and sustainable development toolbox’ - a set of new materials demonstrating the relationships between safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and sustainable development, developed under the global capacity-building programme;
  
• Discussion of case studies and exchange experiences in implementing projects, teaching, facilitating and advising on policies and strategies related to ICH and stainable development in Europe.
  

The workshop will also be an occasion to share the information on the latest developments in the life of the 2003 Convention.

Within the framework of the project “Strengthening national capacities for safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Egypt for sustainable development”, generously funded by Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, UNESCO Office in Cairo organizes the training on preparation of nomination files and international assistance requests. This activity will consist of a 5 day workshop on the preparation of nominations files, including national and multinational files for the Representative List, and national files for the Urgent Safeguarding List, and the identification of ICH elements for future nominations. Another important focus of this workshop will be on the elaboration of international assistance requests.

The Living Heritage Entity within UNESCO’s Culture Sector will organize in collaboration with the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Africa (CRESPIAF), a training for trainers’ workshop in order to strengthen UNESCO’s global network of facilitators in Africa. This workshop will take place from 9 to 13 July 2019 in Algiers, Algeria.
The workshop is part of the Global capacity-building programme for the effective implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. For five days, new network members, accompanied by experienced members, will be prepared for their role as facilitators and familiarized with training materials, so that they can in turn provide training and advisory services to States and communities.
Today, the network is composed of 135 facilitators around the world, of which 47 are in Africa. By including new facilitators, this workshop will not only serve to meet the high demand for capacity-building in Africa but also respond to the challenges in the implementation of the Convention.

The workshop ‘Safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage and community-based inventorying’ was held on 24 – 28 June 2019, at the Ministry of Culture of Albania, the National History Museum, Tirana, and the Ethnographic Museum and Old Bazaar of Kruja. The workshop was organized jointly by the Ministry of Culture of Albania, and the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe under the auspices of UNESCO, based in Sofia, Bulgaria.
This was the second capacity building activity on intangible cultural heritage safeguarding organized in Albania in cooperation with the Sofia Center and it followed up on the workshop ‘Implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level’, which was held in Tirana, Albania in September 2015.
This workshop was led by two UNESCO trained facilitators, Mr Sasa Sreckovic from the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, Serbia and Ms Meri Kumbe from the University of Arts of Tirana, Albania and it used an interactive methodology mixing lectures with case studies, role plays and field work exercises. The working language was English
After completing the workshop participants who were representatives from government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), communities, institutions, students and individual experts felt more aware and better equipped to be engaged in designing and conducting community-based inventorying in their respective communities.

The Republic of Comoros ratified the 2003 Convention on 20/11/2013. The Comoros do not yet have elements on the ICH lists. National authorities of Comoros and other stakeholders are committed to safeguarding the country’s living heritage. 2015 as part of a mission to assess the country’s needs for building various capacities parties involved in the implementation of an agreement quietly 2003 project Capacity building has been developed and a National Heritage Committee intangible cultural heritage which has been an encouraging sign of the country’s willingness to implement the ICH

This workshop is part and parcel of an ongoing 24-month project with the aim of strengthening capacities to safeguard ICH in Egypt for sustainable development. The project is the result a of needs assessment in the field of intangible cultural heritage that was made possible thanks to the financial contribution of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (ADTCA).
Funded also by ADTCA, this project intends to support Egypt in its efforts to safeguard its living heritage, in accordance with the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. In partnership with the Ministry of Culture of Egypt, UNESCO Cairo has already provided policy advisory services and capacity-building activities based on needs previously identified in consultation with national partners through the sector assessment, conducted in April-August 2015.