Meetings on intangible cultural heritage (co-)organized by UNESCO

The Capacity Building Workshop on the Implementation of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and Community-based ICH Inventorying in Tuvalu took place at the Conference Room of the Government Building in Funafuti from 24 to 29 July 2017 and was the first of its kind to be held in-country. The Workshop was organized by the Tuvalu Ministry of Home Affairs and Rural Development (MHARD) and the Tuvalu National Commission for UNESCO (NATCOM) with funding from the Rei Foundation via UNESCO (Apia) Office. The Workshop brought together 40 participants (23 male and 17 female, including 11 youth 15 – 24 years old). They are from government (14), community leaders (7), representatives of the Women’s’ Council and the Youth Council of 8 islands that make up Tuvalu. The Workshop was facilitated by Mr. Sipiriano Nemani, Director of the Fiji Museum and UNESCO accredited ICH trainer and Ms. Akatsuki Takahashi, Programme Specialist for Culture, UNESCO Office for the Pacific States.

This workshop is related to the development of safeguarding plans and aims at developing and strengthening the capacities of representatives of different governmental and non-governmental organizations, institutions, communities and other specialists to ensure that these stakeholders are able to master this issue. central aspect of the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. At the end of this workshop, participants will have gained in-depth knowledge of the Convention oriented towards safeguarding and a good understanding of the concept of safeguarding ICH, as advocated by the Convention and its Operational Guidelines. They will also know why and how the communities, groups and individuals involved should be the main actors involved in the design and implementation of all ICH safeguarding activities and understand how to prepare coherent and good safeguarding plans. quality, taking into account the interests of each other. They will also be able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the ICH safeguarding plans and will have the basic techniques and methodologies for carrying out safeguarding plans that can meet the needs of their ICH. This will undoubtedly help the State Party and the communities concerned to better manage the various aspects related to the implementation of the Convention.

As part of the project “Support to the Effective Implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Nigeria” UNESCO’s Abuja Regional office in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture is organizing a workshop on the preparation of nomination files to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Participants will be selected from the Nigeria’s Ministry of Information and Culture. They will be equipped with the capacity to prepare nomination files for inscription on the Urgent Safeguarding List (USL) and the Representative List (RL) as well as the preparation of requests for international assistance for safeguarding purposes.

The forthcoming capacity building workshop is part of UNESCO’s extrabudgetary projects generously supported by Japan Fund-in-Trust (J-FIT), in view to contribute to the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Nigeria.

Strengthening the implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage: sub-regional training workshop for facilitators from Central Asia

This training workshop is designed to equip a group of resource persons from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan with the knowledge and tools required to conduct training workshops for the effective implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Central Asia. UNESCO is organizing the training in the context of the Convention’s global capacity-building programme and as a follow-up to a previous three-year capacity-building project implemented by UNESCO in the four above-mentioned countries. The training workshop is made possible thanks to the generous support of the International Training Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (CRIHAP) and collaboration with the National Commission of the Kyrgyz Republic for UNESCO.

The workshop intends to familiarise a core group of resource persons from the benefitting countries with the content and pedagogic approaches of some of the themes covered in the capacity-building curriculum developed by UNESCO on the implementation of the Convention at national level. It will also provide an opportunity for participants to interact with experienced facilitators on lessons learnt so far from implementing UNESCO’s global strategy, specifically with regard to Central Asia.

Documents

• Programme/ Программа: English|Russian
• Workshop Note/ Информационная записка: English|Russian
• Overview of participants answers to survey / Обзор ответов участников на опрос: English|Russian
• Introduction of the 2003 Convention and its capacity-building programme/ Представление Конвенции 2003 года и его программы по укреплению потенциала: English|Russian
• Key concepts of the Convention/ Основные понятия Конвенции: English|Russian
• Capacity-building curriculum – contents, pedagogy and the role of facilitators/ Учебная программа по укреплению потенциала - содержание, педагогика и фасилитация: English|Russian
• Identification and inventorying/ Идентификация и инвентаризация : English|Russian
• Gender and intangible cultural heritage/ Гендер и нематериальное культурное наследие: English|Russian
• Introduction of the workshop on developing safeguarding plans/ Введение в семинар по разработке планов охраны: English|Russian
• Nominations in the capacity-building curriculum/ Номинации в учебной программе по укреплению потенциала: English|Russian
• International assistance requests in the capacity-building curriculum/ Заявки на международную помощь в учебной программе по укреплению потенциала: English|Russian
• ICH and sustainable development/ НКН и устойчивое развитие: English|Russian

This activity is a continuation of the work carried out in the inventory workshop. In July and August, four working groups composed of community youth and municipal officials from Santa Apolonia, undertook fieldwork with artisanal communities. They gathered information, carried out the mapping process and established a registry of the different pottery techniques as well as associated sociocultural practices. The Municipality of Santa Apolonia submitted the final report for the Santa Apolonia pottery pilot inventory to the Ministry of Culture and Sport in August.

The capacity-building project to safeguard Guatemala’s intangible cultural heritage (ICH) continued with a training workshop on community-based inventorying that took place in Guatemala City and in Santa Apolonia from 5 to 11 June.

Organized in cooperation with Guatemala’s Vice Ministry of Natural and Cultural Heritage, the two main objectives of the workshop were to strengthen the institutional and human capacities of the western municipalities to define and identify the intangible cultural heritage present in their territory and to establish the technical capacities required to implement a pilot project on inventorying, with the participation of the local communities and non-governmental organizations.

Divided into two sections, one theoretical and one practical, the training on the basic concepts of inventorying was held in Guatemala, while the practical exercises in the field took place in the municipality of Santa Apolonia, Chimaltenango. Participants had the opportunity to perform participatory observations of local ICH elements and record them, such as the ´Torito´s dance´, local culinary traditions, weaving techniques and ceramic production.

In the National Database for Information, Registration and Documentation of Mongolia in overall number are registered 8066 ICH practitioners and 177 ICH elements. The practitioners number in above mentioned database from Eastern Region or namely from Khentii, Dornod and Sukhbaatar provinces are in total 580, which means it covers only 7.2%. Besides, there are very few number of ICH practitioners and ICH elements, which are belongs to certain ethnic groups who are settled in Khentii, Dornod and Sukhbaatar provinces, namely from ethnic groups such as Uzemchin, Barga, Khamnigan, Buriad and Dariganga.
Therefore, with a view to ensuring bottom-up approaches (notably the active participation of practitioner communities) to safeguarding and inventorying ICH we aimed to carry out a pilot inventory in Eastern area of Mongolia. In these are, namely Khentii, Dornod, Sukhbaatar provinces, where the ICH research and inventorying is respectively not so strong and settled by several ethnic groups as a minorities and diverse ICH, such as Khamnigan, Buriad, Bargut (Barga), Uzemchin, Dariganga.
In framework of ICH inventorying was undertaken on following programmes:
A. Organize methodological training for the local officers and practitioners on ICH Safeguarding and Inventorying ICH.
B. Field ICH Elements Inventorying and Documentation of Buriad, Bargut (Barga), Uzemchin, Dariganga and Khamnigan ethnic groups.
C. Promote knowledge and practice of community-based approaches in ICH inventorying.

The training workshop was organized from 26 to 28 May 2017 in Beni Mellal with the participation of 23 people. As at the Tabarka workshop (Tunisia), it was necessary to add an introductory presentation on the Convention and its key concepts to enable participants who had not taken part in previous workshops to become acquainted with the main lines of this instrument. normative and the requirements of its implementation. Due to the large number of these, questions and clarifications have been asked, especially by academics and NGO members. On the other hand, those who participated in all or part of the four workshops (IMP, INV, NOM and AI) were able to have a partial or global idea, as the case may be, of the process of safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage. The big challenge they highlighted is related to the participatory process of implementation. It can be said that participants gained (i) knowledge of the 2003 Convention, (ii) an overview of a failed international assistance request, and (iii) the methodology for assessing requests for international assistance. All have understood that good demand is expressed in a straightforward and straightforward language, that coherence should govern all sections, that the balance between activities / budget / timetable should be ensured and that, above all, it must have been prepared with the participation of the largest number of stakeholders, the most important of which are the communities, groups and individuals concerned.

The Intangible Cultural Heritage Section is developing new partnerships with relevant educational institutions in the context of the next quadrennial UNESCO programme (2018–2021). To this end it organized an intersectoral meeting on ‘Integrating intangible cultural heritage in education’ from 17 to 19 May 2017 at UNESCO Headquarters, which brought together 40 colleagues working in education and in intangible cultural heritage at the UNESCO Education Institutes, in Field Offices and at Headquarters.

Participants discussed the interface between intangible cultural heritage and education with special reference to the Sustainable Development Goal, Target 4.7 on learning for the ‘promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development’ to achieve Goal 4 on quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.

They shared concrete project experiences from Latina America, Africa and Asia and the Pacific on how to promote transmission and safeguarding of integrating intangible cultural heritage through all forms of education (formal, non-formal and informal). Collectively, they generated ideas for future action, including operational projects, the joint development of conceptual frameworks, policy guidance and monitoring.

The meeting was a milestone in building new partnerships between the Education and Culture Sectors.

Documents

• Meeting report: English|French
• Provisional meeting agenda: English in preparation

L’atelier de formation a été organisé à Tabarka du 16 au 18 mai 2017.Il a été inauguré par la directrice générale des services communs au Ministère des affaires culturelles et le Représentant de l’UNESCO pour le Maghreb. 20 personnes ont participé, à différents niveaux, aux débats qui suivirent les présentations faites par les facilitateurs ainsi que lors des présentations des résultats des groupes de travail. Plusieurs points saillants peuvent être retenus, sur la Convention : les notions de « communautés», « groupes » et « individus » , sur l’évaluation de l’assistance internationale : la question de savoir si l’UNESCO procède au suivi et au contrôle de la mise en œuvre des projets financés au titre de l’assistance internationale, sur l’octroi de l’assistance internationale : une question a été posée de savoir si une répartition géographique équitable était adoptée en matière d’octroi de l’assistance internationale et si une différence de traitement a lieu lorsqu’une différence de taille démographique ou de superficie géographique existe entre deux pays candidats. La présentation introductive sur la Convention et ses concepts-clés ont permis aux participants qui n’avaient pas pris part aux ateliers précédents de prendre connaissance des principes de cet instrument normatif et des exigences de sa mise en œuvre. Ceux qui ont participé à tout ou partie des quatre ateliers (IMP, INV, NOM et AI) ont pu avoir une idée partielle ou globale, selon le cas, du processus de sauvegarde du patrimoine culturel immatériel. Les participants ont acquis (i) une connaissance de la Convention de 2003, (ii) une vue d’ensemble d’une demande d’assistance internationale considérée comme inadéquate, et (iii) la méthodologie d’évaluation de demandes d’assistance internationale. Au terme de la formation, ils ont tous semblé enthousiastes à l’idée de se lancer dans l’élaboration d’une demande même si certains ont exprimé leurs appréhensions quant au caractère participatif du processus

This field exercise was organized in May 2017 by the National Commission for UNESCO with the support of the Biblioteca National de Aruba and Stichting Rancho. Aruba chose to focus on the traditional craftsmanship behind the making of miniature boats. Those trained (20 persons – 13 females and 7 males) represented a  cross-section of researchers from state agencies responsible for documenting Aruban heritage, academia, community associations and the Ministry of Culture. 

This activity took place in May and June 2017 with a total of 19 participants (13 females and 6 males). The exercise was organised by the Bonaire UNESCO Work group in collaboration with the NGO Fundashon Historiko Kultural di Boneiru (FUHIKUBO) which has been documenting the intangible heritage of Bonaire and the Dutch  Caribbean. Bonaire chose to continue more in‐depth inventorying of the traditional healing practice of haladó and the use of herbs. A booklet to build awareness of the intangible heritage of Bonaire will also be developed  for the general public and use in schools. 

The ICH Committee, through the Sint Eustatius Historical Foundation, again focused its reinforcement field exercise on Sint Eustatius (Statia) string band music, specifically the traditional making of the various musical instruments. By continuing to focus on Statia string band music, but another component, the Committee hoped to build on the awareness generated from the previous field exercise. Youth were again an important component of this, and carpentry students were brought on board to learn the traditional way of making these  instruments. 25 females and 10 males took part in this activity. 

Through the Directorate of Culture, representatives from all the umbrella cultural organizations were invited to this activity. The activity focussed on the Use of the Bita as a medicinal plant. Participants were introduced to the ICH Convention and the importance of inventorying. Suriname is also developing a strategy, which will  see these persons who were recently trained, to work in their own local communities to inventory ICH and to train others in their community to do the same. Participants included 4 males and 19 females.

In April 2017, a joint training involving the Dutch Caribbean islands and Suriname was delivered on mechanisms for international cooperation under the 2003 Convention, focusing on preparing nominations to the various Lists of the Convention, regional cooperation and preparing requests to the ICH Fund. Twenty‐three participants were present from all territories. The occasion was presented for the various territories to discuss how they could deepen collaboration with each other and Suriname indicated its wish to ensure a deepening of collaboration, particularly as it relates to inventorying of shared elements. 

This workshop will provide fundamental principles and practical information on community-based inventorying, using UNESCO’s capacity-building material as a guide. The first 6 days will be ‘classroom’ style training activities aimed at conveying the essential features of inventorying under the 2003 Convention as well as developing inventory framework, and technical skills in identification and documentation. The last 4 days will be field-based practicum, carrying out inventorying work in small groups in three or four field locations. Participants will then return to the classroom to focus on organizing the data collected from the field work and to exchange experiences and consolidate their newly acquired skills.

A minimum of 25 participants is expected to participate in the workshop; five national cultural officers, five district cultural officers and 15 community members who are themselves the bearers of heritage.

The training workshop will be facilitated by one UNESCO-trained international facilitator and supported by a national expert with some knowledge of intangible heritage who will have participated in previous training workshops on safeguarding cultural heritage.

A new capacity-building project has been launched, thanks to the generous contribution of the Government of Azerbaijan. The project continues the efforts to implement the main principles of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Guatemala´s institutional structures and local social organizations.

A capacity-building workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level was held in Guatemala City from 3 to 7 April 2017. This marked the beginning of a series of activities being organized in close cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Guatemala throughout 2017.
The workshop involved municipal personnel from several localities of Guatemala, personnel from the Ministry, as well as representatives of civil society and communities that act as the bearers of intangible cultural heritage.

This first activity aimed to raise awareness among local and national actors about the principles, scope and objectives of the Convention, with a view to highlighting its effectiveness as a tool to guarantee the continuity of living heritage.