Events and meetings on intangible cultural heritage (co-)organized by UNESCO

On 5 September, UNESCO Beijing Office and the International Training Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (CRIHAP) successfully concluded the second workshop on capacity-building for intangible cultural heritage (ICH) safeguarding for youths, as part of the joint three-year strategic plan that kickstarted in 2021. The workshop was participated by almost 150 young participants and observers aged between 18 and 28, coming from 32 universities in China, Japan, Mongolia and Republic of Korea.

Director of UNESCO Beijing and UNESCO Representative to China, DPRK, Mongolia, Japan and ROK, Professor Shahbaz Khan, and CRIHAP’s Director-General Liang Bin attended the opening session of the training workshop.

Prof. Shahbaz Khan emphasized the great importance that UNESCO has paid to youth in recent years, and recalled a number of youth-targeted programs that have been developed to encourage youth to play a role in fulfilling the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Mr. Liang Bin highlighted the rationale for the three-year training program to help youths explore ICH elements in their daily life and actively participate in ICH transmission and safeguarding.

Running between 1 August and 5 September, the workshop built upon the successful modality used last year. Following the online classes led by two UNESCO 2003 Convention accredited facilitators, Ms. Deirdre Prins-Solani (South Africa) and Ms. Linina Phuttitarn (Thailand), the participants conducted a two-week fieldwork to discover, select and record intangible cultural heritage elements, ICH-related events and personalities. The fieldwork component aimed to establish a connection between the youth and ICH, to deepen their understanding of ICH and to raise their awareness and enthusiasm to safeguard, promote and inherit intangible cultural heritages through various types of interaction. The participants benefited from technical guidance and expertise of international facilitators, as well as support fr

Call for proposals

The UNESCO Living Heritage Entity is looking for a team of experts/evaluators to carry out a renewal evaluation of the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe, a UNESCO Category 2 Centre based in Sofia, Republic of Bulgaria.

Proposals should reach UNESCO (ICH-capacity@unesco.org) by 31 July 2022.

More information in English

Extended deadline Call for expression of interest

In the context of the crisis in Ukraine, UNESCO is supporting the resilience of Ukrainian school children by enhancing awareness for their living heritage. In this context, UNESCO is looking for a qualified and experienced team/organization to carry out a series of activities to adapt the UNESCO resource kit on teaching and learning with living heritage to the Ukrainian contexts.

A response to the call should be sent to UNESCO (ich-capacity@unesco.org) by 20 July 2022. The starting date for this work should be as soon as possible and the work should be delivered by February 2023.

More information in English

Together with the UNESCO Offices in Apia and in Kingston, the Living Heritage Entity is organizing the Inter-regional inception workshop for the project ‘Capacity-building for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in emergencies in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Pacific and the Caribbean’, which is funded through the Japanese Funds-In-Trust. The workshop is held online with participants from different time zones:
3:30 pm – 5:30 pm (Belize, UTC-6) 7 April 2022
4:30 pm – 6:30 pm (Jamaica, UTC-5) 7 April 2022
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm (Bahamas, Jamaica UTC-4) 7 April 2022
11:30 pm – 01:30 am (France, UTC+2) 7/8 April 2022
8:30 am – 10:30 am (Vanuatu, UTC+11) 8 April 2022
9:30 am – 11:30 am (Fiji, UTC+12) 8 April 2022
10:30 am – 12:30 pm (Samoa, Tonga, UTC+13) 8 April 2022

The objective of the workshop is to launch this three-year project by bringing together key project actors from the five beneficiary SIDS - the Bahamas and Belize in the Caribbean, and Fiji, Tonga, and Vanuatu in the Pacific – and to build a shared understanding of the project, which aims to integrate intangible cultural heritage safeguarding into disaster risk reduction strategies through capacity-building approaches.

International Assistance is at the very core of the 2003 Convention, as it enables an effective and sustainable way for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH). The international assistance mechanism provides dedicated financial and technical resources to States Parties to implement a wide range of projects for safeguarding ICH.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the number of International Assistance requests has decreased over the last two years. Nevertheless, a large part of the ICH Fund remains dedicated to international assistance to enable States Parties to strengthen their safeguarding initiatives.
In this context, the Living Heritage Entity will organize three informative sessions to present the aim of the International Assistance mechanism, the modalities and the process of application.
During the same encounters, the Toolkit for requesting International Assistance from the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage will also be presented. This guideline introduces key concepts of the Convention and the eligibility and selection criteria of the ICH Fund and how to plan and monitor projects.
These three informative sessions will take place in March and are open to all stakeholders involved in the field of intangible cultural heritage and its safeguarding process, such as government officials, National Commissions, NGOs, universities, category II centres, civil society organizations and associations, among others.

To participate, please register here. The session will take place from 10:00 to 12:00 (Paris time) - African, Arab and Central and Eastern European regions. Interpretation will be available in French and English.

UNESCO Bangkok office is co-organizing with ICHCAP a side-event ‘Bringing Living Heritage to the Classroom in Asia-Pacific to Promote Transformative Education’, in the context of the 2022 Asia-Pacific Forum for Sustainable Development, which takes place online on 25 March between 8am and 9 am (Paris time).
If you are interested in following this event, kindly register here.

International Assistance is at the very core of the 2003 Convention, as it enables an effective and sustainable way for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH). The international assistance mechanism provides dedicated financial and technical resources to States Parties to implement a wide range of projects for safeguarding ICH.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the number of International Assistance requests has decreased over the last two years. Nevertheless, a large part of the ICH Fund remains dedicated to international assistance to enable States Parties to strengthen their safeguarding initiatives.
In this context, the Living Heritage Entity will organize three informative sessions to present the aim of the International Assistance mechanism, the modalities and the process of application.
During the same encounters, the Toolkit for requesting International Assistance from the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage will also be presented. This guideline introduces key concepts of the Convention and the eligibility and selection criteria of the ICH Fund and how to plan and monitor projects.
These three informative sessions will take place in March and are open to all stakeholders involved in the field of intangible cultural heritage and its safeguarding process, such as government officials, National Commissions, NGOs, universities, category II centres, civil society organizations and associations, among others.

To participate, please register here.

The session is taking place from from 15:30 to 17:30 (Paris time) - Latin America and the Caribbean. Interpretation will be available in English and Spanish.