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

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 9:00 to 11:00 (Paris time) - Asia and Pacific region. Interpretation will be available in French and English.

The Arab States is the third region to develop country reports on the implementation of the 2003 Convention under the reformed periodic reporting mechanism. Based on the successful implementation of the capacity building for periodic reporting in Latin America and the Caribbean (2020), and Europe (2021), UNESCO has further innovated this training course and is delivering it for the first time in a hybrid format in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (21-25 March). This was made possible thanks to the generous support provided by the Sharjah Institute for Heritage.

His Excellency, Dr Abdulaziz Al Musallam, Chairperson of the Sharkah Institute for Heritage, inaugurated this important gathering of focal points for periodic reporting from 18 Arab States.

The focal points will discuss the 2003 Convention’s periodic reporting mechanism, strengthen their knowledge and skills to design and implement results-based participatory reporting, and become familiar with the new online periodic reporting tool. The workshop will provide an occasion for peer learning, networking, and strategic discussions amongst participants, with the participation of the UNESCO programme specialists for Culture in the region. Thanks to the hybrid format team members of each focal point are joining online thus further enriching the discussions. The course will be led by senior members of UNESCO network of facilitators for the 2003 Convention.

After the five-day training workshop, the focal points will be accompanied by UNESCO facilitators to carry out regional exercises throughout the year to better prepare their national report.

The periodic reports of Arab countries are to be submitted by 15 December of 2022 for examination by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2023.

In the wake of the growing importance of technology in our societies, physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic and the multiple resistance and resilience mechanisms developed by communities, artists, cultures and carriers cultural heritage, today’s information and communication technologies (TIC) they have played a protagonist role in efforts to safeguard the PCI and the future of cultural policies. We invite you to participate in this dialogue that seeks to dig into the possibilities offered by TIC as tools for the safety and transmission of the PCI in an exchange of experiences and knowledge with organizations and experts of the region.

Just follow the stream through our Facebook page or sign up on Zoom.

The Secretariat of the Convention organizes an online information and exchange session for the members of the Intergovernmental Committee on Friday, 10 December 2021 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. (Paris time).

The purpose of this meeting is to present the provisional agenda and timetable of the sixteenth session of the Committee and provide details on the online meeting modality. This meeting is also open to interested States that are not members of the Committee. Please note that this meeting will use the Zoom platform and interpretation will be provided in English and French.

You will find all the documents and relevant information on the 16.COM webpage.

Information will soon be provided in order to register for this meeting.

On October 26-27 Kazakhstan ICH National Committee in cooperation with the Uly Tagzum accredited NGO has conducted the first online ICH Forum in Ulytau, Kazakhstan - the first medieval capital of Kazakhs. Public forum, which was supported by the UNESCO National Commission, was aimed on preservation and development of intangible cultural heritage. Kazakhstan joined the Convention (2003) in December, 2011. The intangible heritage of Kazakhstan had been recognized worldwide for last decade. Eleven elements of cultural heritage were inscribed to the UNESCO Representative List, including: Nauryz, Kazakh kuresu (traditional wrestling), traditional hunting with falcons, Heritageof Dede Korkyt, assembilng of a yurta, traditional playing of Kazakh kyi, spring holiday of horse breeders. Last year the list was amended with an ancient Kazakh game toguz-kumalak.
Academician Myrzatay Zholdasbekov, Chairman of National ICH Committee, and poet and ambassador Olzhas Suleimenov, Head of the International Center of Rapprochement of Cultures addressed forum participants. The forum was welcomed by Mr Zhenis Kasymbek, Akim (Governor) of the Karaganda Province and Ms Aliya Baysabayeva, Secretary General of the National Commission for UNESCO and ISESCO. Ms Ayzhan Bekkulova, President of the Craftsmen Union, presented recent activities of artisans and informed the forthcoming annual national Sheber contest. Representatives of UNESCO Almaty Office and the UNESCO-ICHCAP Center in Seoul shared the examples of support and cultural heritage promotion activities within the framework of global and regional projects in school and informal education and modern information technologies.
The forum compiled of more than about 70 artisans, directors of the local historic and ethnographic museums, ICH researchers and experts. It reviewed the issues of development and support of the Kazakhstan craftsmen, related trends of the local museums’ activities and the dimensions of a new UNESCO-ICHCAP project ‘Festivals on the Great Silk Way’.

The General Assembly of State Parties to the 2003 Convention at its seventh session (June 2018) approved the amendments to the Operational Directives on periodic reporting, thus transitioning towards a regional cycle of reporting on the implementation of the Convention. Following the regions of Latin America and the Caribbean (2020) and Europe (2021), the Arab States will be the third region to implement the new periodic reporting mechanism in 2022.
The new process of periodic reporting is linked to the overall results framework for the Convention which assists with a more accurate assessment of the implementation of the Convention as well as with ICH safeguarding at the national level.
In this context, UNESCO is undertaking a training for facilitators of the 2003 Convention from the Arab States region to support in building a group of resource persons available to help the roll out of the periodic reporting as well as assist Member States undertake and complete the periodic reporting exercise. More concretely, the training would aim to introduce and familiarize the facilitators with results-based reporting and the new online periodic reporting mechanism while also aiming to allow knowledge sharing and insights to design the programme for training the country focal points on periodic reporting scheduled for next year.
By the end of the training, participating facilitators will be better equipped to use the online reporting system and the overall results framework. They will also have an understanding of the benefits for countries to be gained from using this new online reporting system, and how the overall results framework may be applied at the national level for internal planning, monitoring and evaluation purposes.
The objectives of the training are the following:
1. Introduce the new periodic reporting system and the associated overall results framework;
2. Strengthen competencies and skillsets of facilitators to use the online reporting form as well as on how to produce participatory results-based repo

UNESCO’s Living Heritage Entity and the Section of Global Citizenship and Peace Education is organizing the second edition of the online Training of trainers on living heritage and education in the spirit of SDG 4, Target 4.7. Bringing together UNESCO’s Culture and Education Sectors, and in the framework of the intersectoral thematic programme on safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in formal and non-formal education, the online training will strengthen the capacities of individual specialists from across the world to act as resource persons able to support and promote the convergence of education programmes and the safeguarding of living heritage.