Fortalecimiento de capacidades

The Cultural Heritage Institute of Cabo Verde, in cooperation with UNESCO HQ and the UNESCO Office in Dakar, organizes a workshop on the implementation of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage at national level. The workshop, which will take place from 27 to 31 July 2015 in the capital of Cabo Verde, will discuss the scope and objectives as well as the obligations of the State Parties under this international legal instrument.

As part of UNESCO’s global strategy aiming to enhance national capacity for safeguarding of living heritage in the Portuguese speaking countries in Africa (PALOP), the workshop will gather some 30 Cabo Verdean participants, including stakeholders from local to national levels. With the aim to strengthen regional cooperation among PALOP countries, the training will be co-facilitated by a Brazilian and a Mozambican expert who have been previously trained through the same programme. Moreover, culture officers from Angola and Guinea-Bissau will attend the training.

This workshop is made possible thanks to the generous contribution from the Government of Norway to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.

Documents

• Agenda: portugués
• Lista de participantes: portugués

As Suriname moves closer towards the ratification of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, it is timely for community members, policy-makers, and governmental and non-governmental representatives to come together to chart the way forward in the safeguarding of their living heritage.

From 27 to 31 July 2015, a five-day workshop will be held in Paramaribo aiming to clarify the process and mechanisms for successful ratification and implementation of the 2003 Convention, including an overview of its objectives and key concepts and principles. The workshop will also provide a platform for participants to reflect collectively on experiences and challenges in safeguarding their intangible cultural heritage.

Organized by the UNESCO Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean in close cooperation with the Directorate of Culture (Suriname) and the Suriname National Commission for UNESCO, this workshop is a part of a capacity-building project to reinforce the safeguarding of living heritage in the Dutch Caribbean and Suriname. It is made possible thanks to the generous contribution from the Government of the Netherlands to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.

International Assistance is at the very core of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Regrettably, however, it has not yet been utilized to the full extend envisaged when the Convention was drafted, with few requests submitted by States Parties and even fewer of sufficient quality to warrant approval by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. In order to face this challenge, technical assistance has been provided by experts to a number of States Parties on an experimental basis for the past year.

In an effort to galvanize further the option of International Assistance for State Parties, a pool of experts, who have conducted technical assistance or may be invited to do so in the future, will join UNESCO staff for a 3-day workshop in Paris from 20 to 22 July 2015 to assess the experiences to date implementing technical assistance. This workshop will provide the opportunity to review the latest advice of the Committee concerning International Assistance, examine other informational materials developed by the Secretariat to support States Parties and technical experts, and provide guidance concerning the development of future capacity-building curriculum materials on International Assistance.

Documents

• Annotated Timetable
  ITH/15/WOR/2: inglés|francés
• List of participants: inglés
• Summary Report
  ITH/15/WOR/3: inglés

A needs assessment activity has been carried out in the Gambia in 2015 during which national stakeholders addressed the importance of promoting local cultures and the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage. These activities allowed to point out the need to raise awareness and support national institutions to reinforce their knowledge of the 2003 Convention and its implementation mechanisms. The importance of building a national strategy to safeguard intangible heritage and to review current strategy documents on culture in general was also underlined. This activity aimed also do develop a project proposal based on the identified needs.

Sint Maarten focused its field exercise on their national dance, the Ponum dance which dates to the 19th century from the days of slavery and emancipation. This element was chosen because only a few practitioners and or performers are directly involved in the enactment or practice of the element. There were also recognizable threats to its continued enactment and transmission, hence its safeguarding was considered extremely important. Two training sessions were held with youth from various youth organizations and discussions were held on the purpose of the inventorying exercise. A total of 17 youth (9 females and 8 males) were trained in the inventorying activity, and worked along with the ICH Committee and 9 practitioners.

Tras la firma del Plan de Operaciones entre la UNESCO y el Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural del Ecuador (INPC) hace unos meses, representantes de comunidades de portadores de patrimonio, municipios y expertos gubernamentales y no gubernamentales, se movilizaron plenamente dar lanzar otro paso significativo en la salvaguardia de su patrimonio vivo.
Con el objetivo de desarrollar un inventario del patrimonio inmaterial enla provincia ecuatoriana de Manabí, los representantes se reunieron para en un taller sobre la confección de inventarios del patrimonio cultural inmaterial con la participación de las comunidades en la ciudad de Portoviejo del 24 al 29 de junio de 2015.

Primero de una serie de medidas realizadas en el marco de un proyecto de fortalecimiento de capacidades para mejorar la salvaguardia del patrimonio vivo en Ecuador, el taller se centró en la identificación y definición del patrimonio cultural inmaterial, la recopilación de datos, el consentimiento libre, previo e informado, y la organización de datos. A continuación, se organizó un ejercicio práctico de inventario en Machalilla, durante la fiesta de San Pedro y San Pablo y la reunión de Presidentes de los Gobiernos de Castilla y Guinea.
Organizado por la Oficina de la UNESCO en Quito y el INPC, el taller fue posible gracias a la generosa contribución del Gobierno de Japón.

Documentos

• Lista de participantes: español
• Programa: español

From 8 to 12 June, the Lombardy region (Italy) and the canton of Graubünden (Switzerland) hosted a training workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Tirano (province of Sondrio, Italy) and Valposchiavo (Switzerland), demonstrating the increasing awareness in Europe of the need for capacity-building to better safeguard living heritage.

Bringing together 25 participants, including representatives of the local administration, civil society, tradition bearers, academia and professionals from the tourism and environment sectors, the workshop introduced fundamental objectives and concepts of the 2003 Convention and enhanced the understanding of participants about obligations and safeguarding activities involved in implementing the Convention at national and local levels. Combining four days of presentations, discussions and exercises, as well as one day of fieldwork in the terraced vineyards of Valtellina, the workshop also addressed linkages between the 2003 Convention, the Convention concerning the protection of the World cultural and natural heritage (World Heritage Convention, 1972) and the Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions (2005).

The workshop specifically highlighted the importance of cross-border cooperation in the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage and of cooperation across sectors directly and indirectly impacting the viability of living heritage.

Funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and its INTERREG mechanism supporting interregional cooperation and sustainable regional development across Europe, the training workshop was held within the framework of the project ‘Italo-Swiss Ethnography for the Promotion of Intangible Heritage’ initiated by the region of Lombardy. Conducted in Italian by a UNESCO-trained facilitator and an international law expert, and based on UNESCO’s global capacity-building programme and training materials, the activity w

UNESCO put in place since 2009 a global capacity-building programme to assist countries in building the institutional and professional environment required for the effective safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage. The programme is part of global and national efforts to attain long-term development goals. It intends to assist beneficiary countries with making development more sustainable, ensuring the viability of the intangible cultural heritage present in their territories and strengthening relations within and between communities, through the effective implementation of the Convention. However, stakeholders interviewed stressed the importance of capacity building for its successful implementation and many considered the capacity-building programme to be the most important of all mechanisms established so far. A systematic monitoring mechanism would allow UNESCO to follow up several months and years after the results and impact of these capacity-building interventions at the country level. While some information on project results, strengths and weaknesses is available in reports on project implementation, review meetings and facilitators’ assessments at the end of training delivery, no longer term analysis exists yet on any sustained behaviour or structural change (different approaches or practices used) and on the ultimate impact resulting from UNESCO’s intervention through capacity-building activities: improved inventories, better policy and legislative environment, increased community involvement, successful participation in international mechanisms, etc.
Supported by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO has embarked on the establishment of a follow-up and evaluation mechanism for activities implemented within the context of the global capacity-building strategy.
Such mechanism is challenging and will require creative thinking and commitment from key constituents. The involvement of all constituents — national counterparts, includi

This activity took place in May and June 2015 with a total of 22 participants (14 females and 8 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. Additional expertise was provided by the Bonaire UNESCO Work group (ICH Committee) who had all attended previous workshops (IMP and INV), and Rose Mary Allen, an anthropologist from Curaçao. Bonaire focussed its inventorying exercise on practitioners of traditional Bonaire music, haladó (traditional healing) and maskarada. Participants represented cultural foundations, the Ministry of Culture and migrant communities in Bonaire (Venezuelan and Colombian).

A stakeholder’s workshop on Eritrean Cultural and Natural Heritage Legislation took place on 26 and 27 May 2015 in Asmara organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau and the Asmara Heritage Project in coordination with UNESCO Nairobi Office. Workshop participants were Eritrean experts who represented stakeholder institutions such as the National Museum of Eritrea, National Commission of Eritrea for UNESCO, Research and Documentation Centre, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Energy and Mines, Department of Religious Affairs, Eritrean Institute of Technology, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Eritrean Police and the School of Law.

Prior to the workshop, a local expert was contracted to collect information on existing legal, policy and institutional frameworks. The workshop was facilitated by Mr Silverse Anami, a UNESCO trained facilitator.

The workshop was supported by the Kingdom of Norway voluntary supplementary contribution to the UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.