Benefitting country(ies): Fiji, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mongolia, Samoa, Sri Lanka

Overview:

With the successful completion of Phase I, thanks to the continued generous contribution of the Government of Japan, it was possible to implement the second phase of the regional programme for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage through the strengthening of national capacities from April 2015 to October 2017. The principal aims of the second phase were the following:

• Reinforce the human and institutional capacities for the development of sustainable safeguarding measures, building on the inventorying work carried out under the initial phase of the regional capacity building programme. To that extent, activities focused in particular on safeguarding plans – with workshops based on a new module, and policy development – through the set-up of policy missions and consultations at the national level.
• Initiate a comprehensive first phase project to strengthen national capacities in Fiji, a new beneficiary country;
• Provide individualized support to the development of policy and legal frameworks for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in the beneficiary countries

Over the 30-month implementation period, the programme has completed the planned activities and accomplished its objectives. Institutional partners have been identified in each of the beneficiary countries, with the close cooperation of UNESCO Field Offices. Almost 300 stakeholders in different domains were trained and their capacity was strengthened by a series of 11 workshop and different activities, including 4 pilot field inventorying in Fiji, Lao PDR, Mongolia and Samoa. Experts facilitated the planned workshops using the updated content and guidance available on the online repository of materials. The newly-developed module on Developing Safeguarding Plans for intangible cultural heritage was tested in all five countries using different formats and case studies. Participants had the opportunity to strengthen their community-based inventory skills during the pilot fieldwork. Policy missions, which is a new component experimented during Phase II, were conducted in Lao PDR, Samoa and Sri Lanka, resulting in a revised cultural policy for Samoa and new strategic directions for Lao PDR and Sri Lanka. In general, the workshops and activities were well received, despite difficulties inherent to the time gap between the 2 phases and related staff turnover in the participating countries.

A final report covering both phases of the Project financed by the Government of Japan (2011-2017) is available in English in this same webpage.

News and activities:

• 2017-07-24 – Laos reflects on the linkages between intangible cultural heritage and development
• 2017-06-01 – Community based Inventorying in Mongolia
• 2017-04-01 – Field survey and inventorying of ICH elements in Fiji
• 2017-02-20 – Training on the use of the mechanisms of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Fiji
• 2017-01-23 – Policy Advisory Mission Sri Lanka
• 2016-12-05 – Workshop on elaborating safeguarding plans in Lao People's Democratic Republic
• 2016-10-24 – Workshop on elaborating safeguarding plans for ICH
• 2016-10-17 – Workshop on elaborating safeguarding plans in Fiji
• 2016-09-12 – Workshop on elaborating safeguarding plans in Samoa
• 2016-06-20 – Policy Advisory Mission Lao PDR
• 2016-05-23 – Workshop on elaborating safeguarding plans in Mongolia
• 2016-05-23 – Capacity-building efforts continue in Mongolia for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage
• 2016-05-02 – Policy Advisory mission in Samoa
• 2016-02-03 – Workshop on community-based inventorying in Fiji
• 2015-11-16 – Training on the use of the mechanisms of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage
• 2015-10-05 – Training on the use of the mechanisms of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage
• 2015-10-05 – Capacity-building efforts continue in Asia and the Pacific
• 2015-09-24 – Training on the implementation of the 2003 Convention at the national level in Fiji
• 2015-07-20 – Field survey and inventory in pilot communities Samoa

01/09/2015 - 01/12/2017 – Inventory and promotion of the intangible cultural heritage of the Pygmy populations of Gabon01/09/2015 - 31/08/2017 – Safeguarding and promotion of Bigwala, gourd trumpet music and dance of Busoga Kingdom in Uganda