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

Training of trainers workshop for the European chapter of the global facilitators’ network

In the context of the global capacity-building programme for the effective implementation of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the workshop intends to expand the regional chapter of the programme’s facilitators’ network and strengthen its delivery capacity to respond to capacity-building needs in European and, in particular, Eastern European countries. UNESCO is organizing the workshop thanks to the generous support of the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe in Sofia, Bulgaria, and the funds from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.

The training content and methodology will take into account recommendations of the recent global programme strategy meeting held in Bangkok in March 2017. The strategy meeting highlighted the need for a stronger focus on strengthening institutional capacities at national level, the development of national networks of trainers and consideration of the changing role of facilitators, which has evolved from delivering training workshops to providing advisors, acting as mediators and as resource persons concerning all matters related to the implementation of the Convention.

Accordingly, the Sofia training workshop will: 1) analyse the lessons learned to date from implementing UNESCO’s global capacity-building programme in Europe; 2) strengthen participants’ knowledge and competencies required to be a facilitator in the network; 3) provide hands-on experience using the UNESCO capacity-building curriculum, including the recently developed materials on elaborating safeguarding plans.

Documents

• Background Note: English
• List of participants: English
• Programme: English
• Workshop objectives: English in preparation
• The UNESCO Capacity-Building Programme : English in preparation
• The Convention with a focus on the European context: English in preparation

From April 3rd to 13th 2017, a UNESCO led ‘Community-based Inventorying Training Workshop for Strengthening National Capacities for Implementing the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Eritrea’ was undertaken. Participants were from community members across the country, from the nine cultural groups and Director Generals or regional authorities on culture from the six administrative regions. The workshop, which was led by an international expert (Dr Lovemore Mazibuko) with support from a national expert (Dr Senait Bahta) enabled the participants to achieve the approaches and methods for inventorying ICH. After the workshop, the trainees were assigned the responsibility to train community members in the regions they represent.

Following the workshop, a work plan for fieldwork on inventorying ICH in all the nine cultural groups was drafted by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, an international expert and national expert. As per the advice of the international expert, it was appropriate to begin inventorying fieldwork with a few elements from each cultural group, rather than focus on only one group in order to allow all participants to practice the community based inventory techniques they had learned during the workshop. Two elements of ICH from each of the nine cultural groups were selected with the assistance of community members, Director Generals for Culture in each of the six zone administrative offices. The National expert formed Regional teams of at least five in a team to lead the inventorying work in each of the nine culture groups. The team formed consisted of a local language speaker, (who is the interviewer), a note taker, a sound recorder and audiovisual expert.

The 5th annual meeting of the category 2 centres active in the field of intangible cultural heritage will be held from 10 to 12 September in Shiraz, Islamic Republic of Iran. Hosted by the Iranian category 2 centre under the auspices of UNESCO, the Regional Research Centre for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in West and Central Asia, the meeting will follow up on the four previous annual meetings.

Working documents

• Agenda: English
• Report of the 5th annual coordination meeting: English
• List of participants: English

Presentations

• Recent developments for the 2003 Convention and UNESCO, and objectives of the meeting: English
• Audit of the UNESCO’s Management Framework for Category 2 Centres: English
• Workplan and updates from Tehran Centre: English
• Workplan and updates from Sofia Centre: English
• Workplan and updates from CRIHAP: English
• Workplan and updates from IRCI: English
• Workplan and updates from CRESPIAL: English
• Workplan and updates from ICHCAP: English

Reference documents

• General Information: English
• Integrated Comprehensive Strategy for Category 2 Institutes and Centres
  37 C/Resolution 93: English|French|Spanish|Russian|Arabic|Chinese

For further information:

• Category 2 centres under the auspices of UNESCO

The current report results from the needs assessment that was carried out in September-December 2017 on the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The assessment was guided by the intention to explore the legislative and policy documents in the sphere of ICH in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to analyze the institutional and administrative framework for the implementation of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention, and to study the situation of awareness-raising activities, inventorying procedures, and educational and training programs on ICH issues in the country. The goal was to outline the major challenges encountered in the implementation of the 2003 Convention on the national level, to identify the main needs in the field of ICH safeguarding, and to propose recommendations for improvement, with a special attention to aspects of urgency, sustainability, and long-terms effects. The needs assessment will enable to tailor further actions within the framework of UNESCO global capacity-building strategy for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, especially by using the opportunity to elaborate requests for international assistance from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, established under the 2003 Convention.

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.