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

Cambodia is reinforcing a community-based focus in its existing and new efforts to document and inventory living heritage. For this purpose and with generous funding from Japan, over 35 participants came together in Siem Reap from 14 to 21 February this year to build their knowledge and develop this new approach.
UNESCO provided the substantive support through two members of its certified facilitators’ network, Mr Rahul Goswami from India and Ms Suzanne Ogge from Australia. The programme included 8 days of intensive course work and field-based practicum carried out in the rural areas of Siem Reap and the town itself. Fieldwork included a visit to the School of Fine Arts and two local communities, with forms of ICH documented including traditional weaving processes, martial arts skills and techniques, and performing arts. Participants learned, through hands-on training, field-based techniques of interviewing and audio-visual recording. A visit was also conducted to the Eco-Global Museum (supported by UNESCO) located in the Preah Vihear Province, to learn about a concrete inventory project underway which combines audio-visual documentation of living heritage among a local indigenous community with the documentation of associated cultural objects.
So far, Cambodia’s Living Human Treasures programme has included documentation efforts, though its methods have not as yet been extended to community-based approaches recommended by the 2003 Convention. The capacity-building workshop on inventorying with a strong community focus thus provided participants - most of whom are provincial directors – with further skills and knowledge for their field practices. In addition, the training placed much emphasis on developing mutually supportive networks among cultural professionals and communities to support national efforts to document and inventory living heritage.
The participants included those who had attended the first capacity-building workshop on implementation held in 2012 August in Phnom Penh, and new part

How can Arab States effectively implement the 2003 Convention at the national level? What can be done to promote regional cooperation in the Arab world to strengthen the capacities of all concerned stakeholders? What are the best ways to raise people’s awareness and assure the involvement of concerned communities in the process of safeguarding?
These are amongst the issues that representatives of Ministries of Culture of all countries from the Arab region will discuss during the meeting on ‘The challenges of capacity building in the field of intangible cultural heritage’ in Doha from 14 to 17 January 2013.
Generously supported by Qatar and co-organized by the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Qatar, ALECSO and UNESCO, this meeting will be the occasion to plan increased cooperation within the region for the effective safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage.
The meeting will be co-facilitated by a group of experts from the Region, all members of a network of 77 experts trained to use the UNESCO curricula specifically designed to build capacity on implementing the Convention.

As the “Mediterranean Living Heritage” (MedLiHer) project, co-funded by the European Union (EU) and UNESCO, is going to be fully implemented by the end of December 2012, the final project evaluation meeting will be organized in Paris on 17 and 18 December 2012 at the “Maison des Cultures du Monde”, which has been a partner since the beginning of this project.

This meeting will be the occasion to review the project in light of its goals in order to draw conclusions from the lessons learnt and explore possible ways to build on project outcomes in the future. The discussions will be based on a final evaluation report. The programme furthermore foresees:

• a public round table on intangible cultural heritage in the region,
• a presentation of examples of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) from the region,
• the projection of the film developed by the MedLiHer project together with the digital photo exhibition.

At the end of the meeting, a second screening of the film and the digital photo exhibition will be organized at UNESCO Headquarters in the evening of 18 December with the participation of UNESCO Delegations.

For further information click here

Jamaica will host a national workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage from 10 to 14 December 2012. Organized by The African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica, Ministry of Youth and Culture, the Jamaican National Commission for UNESCO and the UNESCO Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean, the workshop will bring together government officials, non-governmental organizations and community practitioners to partake in the workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The official opening will take place on 10 December 2012 at the Courtleigh Hotel and Suites in Kingston with the presence of H.E. Yasuo Takase, Ambassador of Japan to Jamaica, Belize and The Bahamas, along with representatives from government and non-government institutions, universities, the diplomatic corps and the UN Agencies in Jamaica.

This workshop is part of a sub-regional project being implemented in Belize, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago within the context of UNESCO’s Global Strategy on capacity building on intangible cultural heritage. Funded by the government of Japan, this project includes an assessment of the intangible cultural heritage related policy development process in the respective countries and identification of their specific needs for safeguarding their living heritage. As a part of strengthening their safeguarding capacities, countries will also develop and implement a framework for community based inventory of the intangible cultural heritage in their territory, which will include pilot inventories.

A nomination workshop will be held from 10 to 14 December 2012 in Bagamoyo, United Republic of Tanzania. It will be organized by UNESCO Office in Dar es Salaam jointly with the Ministry of Information, Youth, Culture and Sports in Tanzania.

25 participants are expected, selected from the list of people trained on the community-based inventory workshop in February 2012. The participants should be able to identify an element and develop a sample file for nomination, including the strategy for the participation of the community and a safeguarding plan for the identified element.

The workshop will be facilitated by Julius Mwahunga and Silverse Anami, culture experts and UNESCO facilitators. Mr Anami is also member of the Intergovernemental committee for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage.

What has been achieved in the ratification, implementation, and capacity building processes related to intangible cultural heritage in your country?

This is the question that is going to be asked to an audience of Directors of Culture during a workshop organized in Nairobi, Kenya, from 25 to 28 November 2012. Burundi, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Djibouti, South Sudan, and Uganda will be represented.

The aim of the workshop is to have the participants understand more deeply the UNESCO 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage and its implementation at national level, as well as the role and tasks of the State Party in the implementation of the Convention at national level.

Documents

• Agenda of workshop: English
• List of participants: English

After its ratification of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2007 and the organization of a national workshop on its implementation in July 2012, Uzbekistan will be hosting a sub-regional workshop on “Elaborating nominations to the UNESCO Intangible Heritage Lists”. The workshop to be held in Samarkand from 21 to 24 November 2012 is organized by the UNESCO Office in Tashkent in close co-operation with the Ministry of Culture and Sport of the Republic of Uzbekistan and with the support of the authorities of Samarkand Province.

Conducted as part of UNESCO’s global strategy on the enhancement of capacities in the field of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, the workshop aims to provide thorough understanding of the nomination processes and transmit the know-how on how to elaborate nominations files for inscription onto the Intangible Heritage Lists.