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

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 appréhe

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.