The Portuguese National Commission for UNESCO organized, following an application to the UNESCO Participation Programme, the 5 days workshop “Capacity Building for UNESCO National Commissions of Portuguese speaking countries – Africa and Timor-Leste”, from 11th to 15th December.

The workshop had representatives from the UNESCO National Commissions of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe and Timor-Leste, as well as from the Portuguese National Commission.

This initiative aimed to promote a better mutual knowledge by the different National Commissions involved, share good practices and experiences, improve technical knowledge especially in the areas of the UNESCO Cultural Conventions and the UNESCO Associated Schools Network, in order to empower UNESCO National Commissions and promote a more active and better informed participation.

Besides classroom training, the workshop included visits to World Heritage sites in Portugal – the Historic Centre of Évora and the Cultural Landscape of Sintra – and to Viana do Alentejo, where cultural elements inscribed on the UNESCO Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage – Cante Alentejano and Manufacture of Cowbells – were presented. Furthermore, a school from the Portuguese UNESCO Associated Schools Network was visited, and several examples of good practices within the scope of the work developed by this institution were shown.

The workshop finished with the open-access Conference “Cultural Heritage, Creative Cities, Learning Cities and Sustainable Tourism”, where several personalities participated , among which the Minister of Culture and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, in representation of Portugal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.