The Committee,

1. Having examined document ITH/18/13.COM/7.c,
2. Recalling Article 24.3 of the Convention,
3. Expresses its satisfaction that countries from Electoral Group V(a) continue to be the main beneficiaries of International Assistance from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund in line with Global Priority Africa, congratulates the States that have been granted International Assistance for the first time and encourages States that have not benefitted from the Fund to consider this mechanism of assistance in their efforts to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage present in their territory;
4. Thanks the beneficiary States for their timely submission of final or progress reports for projects benefitting from International Assistance under the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, and at the same time requests that those beneficiary States with projects whose implementation has been experiencing delays take corrective measures to ensure the timely implementation of the projects and to respect their reporting obligations;
5. Appreciates the broadened scope of activities and themes of the projects funded by the Fund as well as the impact that the assistance has had on the beneficiary States for building their safeguarding capacities and further encourages them to continue to ensure the sustainability and enhancement of the results of the projects;
6. Notes with satisfaction the ongoing support for emergency International Assistance provided through the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund and also encourages ongoing projects in Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire and Niger to continue their efforts to integrate peace and cohesion among communities through intangible cultural heritage;
7. Expresses its support for the establishment of the modality for the provision of services, as provided by Article 21 (a) to (f) and as an alternative modality to the mere provision of financial grants;
8. Further requests that the Secretariat ensure, whenever possible, that contracts established with beneficiary States provide for the submission of final or progress reports, as appropriate, by 30 June so that it may take note of the use made of the assistance provided in a timely manner and invites current and future beneficiary States to respect the deadlines for the submission of reports as established under their respective contracts;
9. Welcomes the approval by the seventh session of the General Assembly of the proposal for the creation of a dedicated team to operationalize the implementation of the International Assistance mechanism and further expresses its satisfaction that the human capacities of the Secretariat will be reinforced in order to provide more substantive support to beneficiary States in the implementation of projects and their effective monitoring.