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

This workshop is part of the project “Community-based inventorying of intangible cultural heritage, related to traditional income-generating activities in Old Tbilisi” implemented by Georgian Heritage Crafts Association in the framework of UNESCO “Intangible Heritage and Creativity for Sustainable Cities” Programme. The project is supported with the generous contribution form Yong Xin Hua Yun Cultural Industrial Co.Ltd (China).

The project carried out from November 2020 till June 2021 included meetings with local community members, capacity-building activities led by International facilitators, community-based Inventory exercise of intangible cultural heritage particularly related to traditional income-generating activities in Old Tbilisi, which involved audio-visual and narrative documentation and production of promotional videos.

The wrap-up meeting aims to present and discuss the results, and lessons learned from the implementation of the project and put forward recommendations on safeguarding ICH related to income- generating activities in Tbilisi (crafts, performing arts, festivals and other traditional occupations in Old Tbilisi).

The meeting will be held in hybrid (virtual and physical) format.

The two-day workshop gathered national teams from four West African countries to create awareness of the immense potential for achieving SDG 4 and safeguarding intangible cultural heritage through the integration of living heritage in formal and non-formal education. At the same time, it built the capacities of relevant stakeholders in Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone to develop and implement policies that will support this initiative at all levels of the educational system in the target Member States. In doing so, this activity supports an accelerated achievement of SDG 4.7, and encourage the safeguarding of the living heritage by communities and authorities.

The Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe under the auspices of UNESCO, jointly with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports (Directorate of Modern Cultural Heritage), are organizing an online capacity building workshop dedicated to “Developing safeguarding plans for intangible cultural heritage in Greece” within the framework of the UNESCO GLOBAL CAPACITY BUILDING STRATEGY FOR THE INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE, between May 31st and June 4th, 2021.

The training at national level will be conducted by two experienced facilitators from the UNESCO’s facilitator’s global network, Ms Harriet Deacon and Ms Benedetta Ubertazzi, and will be tailored to the hosting country’s specific needs.

The topics to be developed in the training are: introduction to the UNESCO Convention and its relation to sustainable development; introduction to safeguarding under the 2003 ICH Convention; implementation of the Convention in Greece and requirements for safeguarding plans at a national level; challenges and opportunities for developing safeguarding plans in Greece; an overview step by step of developing safeguarding plans; working with representatives of communities to develop safeguarding plans: examples of approaches; examples of involving communities in safeguarding planning in Greece; developing safeguarding strategies integrating the sustainable development factor; ways of linking the development of safeguarding plans in Greece to the process of Periodic Reporting

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the facilitators have prepared a flexible programme. Apart from the foreseen significant group work in intriguing sub-topics, the programme also includes concrete examples from Greece, with the presentation of the participants. Finally, international guests are invited to participate and contribute on specific sub-topics. The training starts on Monday, May 31st 2021 in the Zoom platform.

Programme - English-

The city of Cremona, which is home to the ‘Traditional violin craftsmanship in Cremona’, inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, was one of the world’s most affected regions in the first wave of the COVID 19 pandemic. Due to containment measures, traditional violinmakers were not allowed to enter their workshops, thereby impairing the continuity and transmission of their traditional know how. In response to the existing safeguarding challenges, which were further worsened by the pandemic, the City of Cremona called upon the entire local heritage community to help identifying the best strategies to safeguard the traditional violin making. In close cooperation with UNESCO, the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Lombardy Region, the city developed a series of capacity-building activities, which will be launched during a webinar on 10 Mai 2021: ‘Developing safeguarding plans for the traditional violin craftsmanship in Cremona’.

The Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe under the auspices of UNESCO​ jointly wi​th the Cyprus National Commission for UNESCO, kind​ly support​ed by the Archeological Research Unit of University of Cyprus are organizing a​n online capacity building workshop dedicated to the “Developing safeguarding plans for living heritage in Cyprus” within the framework of the UNESCO Global Capacity Building Strategy for the Intangible Cultural Heritage between 10 ​and 14 of May, 2021.

The training at national level is conducted by the two experienced facilitators from the UNESCO’s facilitator’s global network, Ms Séverine Cachat and Ms Panayiota Andrianopoulou ​tailored to the needs of the specific Cyprus’s framework.

The topics to be developed in the training are: analysis of the key concepts of the ICH safeguarding; community participation, involvement of various stakeholders, intersectorial coordination, thus showing the degree of understanding required for the development of safeguarding plans; introduction on developing safeguarding plans in line with the 2003 Convention​ focusing on the role of inventorying in ICH safeguarding; interrelation of the ICH safeguarding to the Sustainable Development Goals, within the Overall Results Framework, to improve the participants relevant knowledge; introduction on the ethical principles to be taken into consideration while developing safeguarding plans for ICH; strategy development for capacity and competency building in the view of safeguarding planning; best safeguarding practices analysis through interactive methodology.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the facilitators have prepared a flexible program, it is also foreseen significant group work in intriguing sub-topics as well as have invited international guests to participate on specific sub-topics. The training starts on Monday, 10th of May in the Zoom platform.

For more information, please visit https://www.unesco-centerbg.org/en/2

On 30 April 2021, UNESCO is inviting stakeholders from Eastern Africa to an online conference to share case studies and review research results on the relationship between living heritage and biodiversity, climate change as well as disaster risk reduction.

The increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters such as floods, fires, droughts, earthquakes and pest outbreaks is a constant reminder of how rapidly changing climate conditions are already affecting our lives. To face the challenges caused by climate change, communities continue to mobilize their living heritage, which has helped them adapt to their natural environment for centuries. Living heritage plays a proactive role in building the resilience of communities, conserving biodiversity and mitigating the effects of climate change.

In 2021, UNESCO launched a pilot initiative in Eastern Africa, one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world. Coordinated by the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa in Nairobi, the initiative supports research and documentation of intangible cultural heritage and traditional knowledge systems. It focuses on biodiversity conservation, climate change and disaster risk reduction in seven Eastern African countries (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda). This initiative builds on the work carried out by UNESCO since 2016 on the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in emergency situations as well as the UNESCO Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS) programme. It was carried out in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM).

As the final activity undertaken in the framework of this project, national research teams will gather on 30 April 2021 for an international conference. They will present case studies, ranging from the role of traditional knowledge systems in com