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

A capacity-building workshop for the preparation of community-based inventories of intangible cultural heritage was organized by the UNESCO House for a Culture of Peace in Burundi in partnership with the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture. The workshop, which was held in the Bujumbura Community Centre, has trained 29 participants from the Ministry and representatives of cultural associations engaged in activities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, in the methodology for developing inventories with the participation of communities according to the principles of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The vast majority of participants had benefited in the past from training on the implementation of the Convention at the national level and were therefore already familiar with the key concepts and notions of the Convention. The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Domitien Nizigiyimana, expert of the World Network of UNESCO for the Intangible Cultural Heritage, and included a practical course of carrying out field inventory to apply the theory learned during the previous days.
This training was a real success in many respects. First by the active involvement of participants throughout the workshop, which particularly appreciated the practice through the practical course. The respect for gender equality and the presence of young people has diversified views and mobilize shared interest with regard to the intangible cultural heritage. Another lesson learned is that this kind of exercise helps to reassure communities that are very concerned about the uncertain future of their intangible cultural heritage which, according to them, was abandoned by the youth. Communities expressed great satisfaction of having been contacted prior to the workshop to gather their consent by asking to deliver their knowledge for the sake of the practice course and of having stayed together with the participants during the course which allowed a lot of exchange.

Documents

LIST_DOC:00466

A representative of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Leisure of Niger will open next Monday 10 November a five-days Training workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, with the participation of the Spanish Technical Bureau of Cooperation in Niger.
Organized together with the National Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums of Niger and the support of UNESCO, the workshop (held in Niamey from 10 to 14 November) is the first of three major training activities of the capacity-building programme implemented in Niger for the safeguarding of its living heritage. The training will provide participants with knowledge, tools and resources on the principles and mechanisms of the Convention and its Operational Directives. The aim is to help Niger to fulfil its national obligations under the Convention by developing a sufficient level of national capacity, both within public institutions and among the main actors of civil society and communities.
The workshop will be immediately followed by a consultation meeting on the national institutional and legislative framework of cultural heritage in order to discuss, propose and validate specific amendments to the law n  97-022 on national cultural heritage of Niger and the related decree for its application so as to ensure its applicability for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage in Niger. This consultation meeting takes place in the framework of the revision process of the law, an effort initiated by the national authorities in 2013.
The next step will be training on the preparation of community-based inventories of the intangible cultural heritage, followed by two pilot inventory projects in the field where the methodologies and tools conveyed during the training will be applied.

The Mozambican Institute for Socio-Cultural Research, Arquivo do Património Cultural (ARPAC), in cooperation with UNESCO organizes a workshop from 27 to 31 October 2014 in Manica and Maputo. The event will highlight how inventories of intangible cultural heritage are a key step for further safeguarding measures. It will further review the results of previous project activities to develop a national strategy for the promotion and safeguarding of Mozambique’s intangible cultural heritage. On 1 November, an extra day will be dedicated to the planning of future activities of the framework project serving Lusophone African countries, financed thanks to the generous contribution from Norway to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.

Documents

• Agenda of 1 November: Portuguese
• Agenda of 27-31 October: Portuguese
• List of participants: Portuguese

From 27 October to 3 November 2014, a workshops included in the project for strengthening the capacities of Myanmar for implementing the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage took place in Nyaung Shwe (Inle, Southern Shan State) and was dedicated to community-based inventorying. The workshop has been attended by 38 participants from different ministries and institutes including among others the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Transports, Myanmar Historical Commission, the National Library, Yangon University and the University of Culture of Mandalay. Several community members of the region participated also in the workshop as bearers of intangible cultural heritage expressions representative of the country’s cultural diversity.
Facilitated by two members of the network of UNESCO-trained experts, Noriko Aikawa-Faure from Japan and Paritta Koanantakool from Thailand, this training aimed at equipping participants with essential knowledge and skills to enable them to plan and facilitate the elaboration of inventories of intangible cultural heritage adapted to the characteristics of the communities who practise and transmit it. The workshop also included two days of field practice within local communities in Taunggi, Kyauk Tine and Inle Lake areas.

Documents

• Agenda: English
• List of participants: English

The mission to South Sudan to consult national authorities and other stakeholders on the needs of the country for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in its territory was undertaken from 21st October to 28th October 2014. The mission was part of the ADTCA funded project “Strengthening capacities to safeguard intangible cultural heritage for sustainable development.” The consultations which were held in Juba - the capital city in the Central Equatorial State and which was facilitated by Ms. Ellen Lekka, the Culture Specialist at the UNESCO Juba Office and Mr. Elfatih Atem of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport were with : a Deputy Minister(Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports), two Senior officers(Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports); five cultural officers(Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports); six leaders of non-government organizations; five academics at the University of Juba; three officials of UN agencies(UNESCO, UNEP and UNDP); one media organisation that covers cultural matters and one traditional leader. Ms Ellen Lekka and Mr.Elfatih Atem also facilitated a public Lecture at the French Institute at the University of Juba, jointly presented with Mr.Joseph Abuk on “Benefiting from our living heritage” and a radio interview about the mission on Radio Miraya of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan.

At the request of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO is organizing an expert meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, from 29 September to 1 October 2014, generously funded and hosted by the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO. The aim of the meeting is to draw up preliminary recommendations for a possible new chapter of the Operational Directives on safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and sustainable development at the national level.

Documents

• Background note and agenda
  ITH/14/EXP/1: English|French
• Concept note: Intangible cultural heritage and sustainable development
  ITH/14/EXP/2: English|French
• Draft Operational Directives on ‘Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and sustainable development at the national level’
  ITH/14/EXP/3: English|French
• List of participants
  ITH/14/EXP/4: English/French

After three years of implementation, time has come to take stock of UNESCO’s global capacity-building strategy for strengthening safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Central Asia and Europe. Therefore, the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe is hosting, a review meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 23 to 26 September 2014 co-organized with the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section of UNESCO. It will be the fourth review meeting of its kind after one in the Asia-Pacific region (Beijing, November 2012), another for Latin America and the Caribbean region (Cuzco, September 2013) and the third for the Arab region (Kuwait City, 9 to 10 May 2014).

These meetings provide an occasion to review the programme and upgrade knowledge on the most recent developments of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, while also introducing new training and guidance materials developed recently by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section.

A group of 20 participants will come together in Sofia, including UNESCO-trained facilitators involved in delivering the global capacity-building strategy in Europe and Central Asia, UNESCO Programme Specialists from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section and Field Offices and professional staff of the Centre. The important review and training exercise is possible thanks to the generous support of the Bulgarian authorities and funds from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.

Within the scope of a two-year project to strengthen the necessary safeguarding frameworks on the Dutch Caribbean islands and Suriname, the first joint training will take place in Phillipsburg, Sint Maarten from 8 to 12 September 2014, bringing together representatives from across six islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten) for training on the implementation of the Convention.

This training will be followed by a second joint training to be held in Curacao in March 2015, covering the processes and framework for community-based inventorying of intangible heritage and subsequent inventory field exercises to be conducted on the six islands. A national training on ratification and implementation of the Convention is also being organized to address the specific needs of Suriname.

As a part of UNESCO’s global capacity-building strategy and thanks to the contribution from the Government of the Netherlands to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, this project is being implemented by the UNESCO Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean with the support of National Commissions for UNESCO in the various countries, as well as national and local stakeholders.

A training workshop on community-based inventorying of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) took place at the National Museum of Bamako from 5 to 10 September 2014. This workshop is part of the first phase of a project called ‘Inventory of intangible cultural heritage in Mali with a view to its urgent safeguarding’. It is the first project to be funded by the emergency international assistance mechanism of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund for a total of more than 300 000 Dollars.

The workshop was organized by the Directorate for Heritage and Culture of Mali (DNPC) in partnership with UNESCO, the opening ceremony was presided over by the Minister of Culture, Ms N’Diaye Ramatoulaye Diallo, Mr Lazare Eloundou of the UNESCO Office in Bamako and representatives of various technical and financial partners, including those of the MINUSMA and the French Embassy in Mali, were in attendance.

The training is the first of a series of workshops on community-based inventorying that will take place at local level. It brought together 20 participants, including members of the local offices in Gao, Kidal, Mopti and Tombouctou and agents from the DNPC. It was facilitated by two experts from the UNESCO network from Burundi and Burkina Faso. Thanks to the logistical support of MINUSMA, participants from the north regions were able to travel to Bamako and take part in the different training module.

Mali’s intangible heritage: a national source of wealth to be preserved

‘Understanding the intangible cultural heritage of different communities contributes to intercultural dialogue and encourages mutual respect for other ways of living. It contributes to social cohesion and helps people to feel a sense of belonging to a community and to society as a whole’ declared Mr Lazare Eloundou, from the UNESCO Office in Bamako, in his welcoming address.
The socio-cultural and security crisis between April 2012 and January 2013 in Mali particularly touched the intangible cultural heritage in the north regions. The urge

The current report results from the needs-assessment survey that was carried out in September-November 2014 on the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Albania. The survey was guided by the intention to explore the legislative and policy documents in the sphere of ICH in Albania, 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. In accordance with the formulated expectations, the needs assessment pursued the development of a multi-year action plan, which includes practical proposals for capacity-building and for enhancing the safeguarding policies in the country. The current needs assessment will enable to tailor the efforts of UNESCO within the framework of its global capacity-building strategy for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage

What can we learn from other programmes and organizations to refine UNESCO’s approach to policy advice in the field of intangible cultural heritage? How can we create synergies with the policy work undertaken under the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005)? These are key questions of a one-day workshop that the Intangible Heritage Section is organizing on 25 June 2014 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris with the participation of its own staff and colleagues working on the diversity of cultural expressions. Development experts from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), UNESCO’s Education Sector and the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) are guest speakers. The work of conceptualizing appropriate approaches and formats to support countries in developing relevant legislation and policies for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage benefits from the support of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund and is urgently needed, as confirmed by the recent evaluation by the Internal Oversight Service of UNESCO’s standard-setting work of the Culture Sector.

• : English
• List of participants: English
• Programme: English