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

The global facilitators’ network: How can it support countries to implement the Convention

At the thirteenth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Port Louis, Mauritius, a side event to raise awareness about the global network of facilitators was organized by UNESCO to encourage States Parties to use the network to support their work in implementing the Convention.

View the video recording of the event here

“The global network of facilitators was created to support UNESCO in building human and institutional capacities for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH)”, said the Assistant Director-General for Culture, Ernesto Ottone R., who opened the side event. “Now in its seventh year, the network has grown into a respected and resourceful player for implementing the Convention. In some respects, it embodies the living memory of the Convention during its first decade.”

Then, moderator Deirdre Prins Solani (Africa) welcomed the four facilitators to give attendees to the side event firsthand perspectives of being facilitators on the global network. The diverse group of facilitators on the roundtable were Subha Chaudhuri (Asia and the Pacific), Harriet Deacon (Africa), Lucas Dos Santos Roque (Latin America and the Caribbean) and Hani Hayajneh (Arab States).

The role of the facilitator has evolved since the global capacity building programme started in 2011, going beyond the role of trainer.

Key to effective facilitation is good communication and understanding of the local context and stakeholders. “We have to understand the context in multidimensional lens and consider the local context. Communication with States Parties is invaluable for planning from the beginning so we can convey the message of the Convention properly to workshop participants,” Hayajneh commented.

Facilitators are managing a delicate balancing act the

In the framework of the project, ‘Strengthening capacities in the Comoros for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage for sustainable development’ a national workshop on reinforcing the institutional and legal framework in Comoros will take place in Moroni in September 2018.
Around 20 participants including national authorities for culture, representatives, lawyers, researchers from the University of Comoros, the CNDRS (National Center for Documentation and Scientific Research), the Comoros Collective for Heritage, national experts, civil society, and media will participate in the workshop. These activities are funded by the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority and organized by the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa, in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Professional Integration, Handcraft, Arts and Culture in the Comoros.

On 11 November 2018, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture Ernesto Ottone, and H. E. Mr Iván Duque, President of Colombia, inaugurated the UNESCO-Colombia stand on “Living heritage for a common future” at the Paris Peace Forum, at the Grande halle de la Villette, in Paris.

UNESCO and Colombia are showcased an innovative project that, in Colombia’s post-conflict context, is using living heritage to bring local communities and ex-combatants together to build a common future. Entitled “Intangible cultural heritage as a basis for resilience, reconciliation and construction of peace environments in Colombia’s post-agreements”, the project benefits from Emergency International Assistance through UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund. It began in June 2018 and is already generating positive results.

The project aims to empower communities to carry out inventories of intangible cultural heritage and safeguard their living heritage, which was notably affected by the armed conflict. Another set of activities focuses on revitalizing shared cultural identity within the post-conflict territory. This is a concrete example of a community-led approach to using culture for peacebuilding.

Workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention in Georgia

Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage through technical and vocational education and training (TVET)

Virtual conference on the UNESCO-UNEVOC TVeT Forum from 29 October to 7 November 2018

Moderated by Panas Karampampas and Wouter de Regt

• When: 29 October to 7 November 2018
• Where: UNESCO-UNEVOC TVeT Forum

From 29 October to 7 November, 2018 the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section and UNESCO-UNEVOC will co-host a virtual conference on ‘Integrating the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in technical and vocational education and training (TVET)’. The conference, which comes under the new programme on ‘Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in formal and non-formal education’, will explore the links between ICH and TVET.

The conference will be held on the UNESCO-UNEVOC TVeT Forum: an online discussion board where people from around the world can share information and knowledge about different aspects of TVET. Participants in the conference can read and post comments on the discussion boards—over the 10 days of the conference they can participate as much or as little as they like, logging in whenever suites their schedule.

Intended outcomes

At the end of this virtual conference, participants will be able to:

• Understand what intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is and the roles of the communities, groups and individuals in designing and delivering TVET programmes on ICH
• Recognize the links between ICH and TVET and the role of different TVET stakeholders in integrating ICH safeguarding into TVET
• Identify the opportunities and challenges safeguarding ICH presents to TVET and ICH stakeholders

Structure and sequencing

The virtual conference is founded on five topics. These topics will be ‘opened’ for discussion on the following days:

• Monday, 29 October - Topic 1: Understanding intangible cultural heritage

On 26 October, 2018, the Living Heritage Entity, in partnership with the Education Sector at UNESCO Headquarters, held a webinar for the education for sustainable development (ESD) key partners. The one-hour webinar introduced the ESD key partners to intangible cultural heritage, looked at a the relationship between intangible cultural heritage and education, and provoked discussion on how existing ESD activities relate to safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. The webinar revealed a clear interest from the ESD key partners in intangible cultural heritage and identified ideas for possible future collaborations with the Education Sector.

Objectives:
With a view to contribute to the international debate on safeguarding living heritage in urban contexts with links to sustainable development, the project intends to:
• identify key issues related to ICH and its safeguarding in urban contexts, including the potential contribution of intangible cultural heritage and its safeguarding to sustainable development of urban areas;
• develop a methodology for inventorying living heritage in urban contexts and update the existing/develop new materials for inventorying, including a specific guidance note, if relevant, based on the lessons learnt from the nine pilot projects;
• develop policy oriented recommendations related to ICH safeguarding in urban contexts.

Implementation strategy:
Within the framework of the overall project, and in line with approaches and conceptual tools of the 2003 Convention, nine pilot inventories of intangible cultural heritage in urban contexts will be conducted in selected cities from different regions of the world.
The inventories will target in particular practices, which are based on economic mechanisms that are key to sustainable development of communities, with a particular focus on practices where the economic base has been eroded and could be revitalized. The project will specifically focus on traditional crafts, performing arts, including festivals The pilot cities will be selected based on interest expressed by communities and in synergy with ongoing activities and strategies as part of the implementation of the 2003 Convention.
To facilitate the active participation of tradition bearers and practitioners in the design and implementation of the inventories, capacity building workshops on community based inventorying will be delivered by UNESCO trained facilitators. The workshops and their training materials will be developed based on the existing training materials, developed by UNESCO under the 2003 Conventions’ Global capacity-building programme. Accompanied by the facilitators, the communities

The Directorate of Cultural Heritage and the UNESCO Regional Office for West Africa (Sahel) in Dakar organized from 15 to 22 October 2018 in Dakar, a workshop on community-based inventorying of intangible cultural heritage. For this purpose, 20 participants were selected, including directors of regional cultural centers, heritage experts and national focal points who will be in charge of providing a similar training at the local level. This workshop is part of the project ‘Strengthening national capacities for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage in Senegal’, financed by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, which mainly aims to support the implementation of a national inventorying strategy and of safeguarding plans for living heritage.