The Committee,
- Having examined document LHE/21/16.COM/7.a,
- Recalling Chapter V of the Operational Directives and its Decisions COM 8.1 and 12.COM 8.c.1,
- Expresses its appreciation to Botswana for submitting, on time, its second report on the status of the element ‘Earthenware pottery-making skills in Botswana’s Kgatleng District’, inscribed in 2012 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding;
- Takes note of the continued efforts described in the report submitted by Botswana to safeguard the element, in particular through research and promotion of the element as part of the creative industries, empowering its bearers and developing training opportunities for its transmission, as well as advancing its integration into educational curricula;
- Invites the State Party to pursue its efforts to integrate the element into education programmes, provide training opportunities for youth, identify soil resources needed for the continuity of the element and support bearers’ access to those resources;
- Encourages the State Party to continue empowering its practitioners through the establishment of a National Network of Earthenware Potters, the development of appropriate measures to ensure that practitioners are the primary beneficiariesof economic activities resulting from their living heritage, and the creation and sustained functioning of the Pottery Making Skills Academy;
- Further takes note of the International Assistance granted in 2016 and its reported contribution to the transmission and promotion of the element, and further encourages the State Party to continue its fundraising efforts and develop synergies among various funding sources;
- Requests that the Secretariat inform the State Party at least nine months prior to the deadline of 15 December 2024 about the required submission of its next report on the status of this element.