Benefitting country(ies): Uganda

Overview:

In line with Uganda’s National Cultural Policy, which underscores the importance of intangible cultural heritage, the three-year project aimed at raising awareness of a core group of twenty management and academic staff from four universities in Gulu, Kampala, Nkozi and Fort Portal, on the relevance of intangible cultural heritage in Uganda’s current development context. For the moment, there are only isolated initiatives in some formal education programmes on African or Heritage studies, which are at best included in broader courses on sociology or rural development. With limited heritage education in academic institutions, there is a capacity gap in terms of skilled personnel that has led to a relatively low priority for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in policy-making and implementation. To begin to address this situation, the project produced various pedagogical materials and a higher education course on intangible cultural heritage and development, and that academic staff was trained in delivering such a course. Beyond the direct beneficiaries at these four universities, the project had an impact on a wider community through the organization of a symposium for universities across Uganda to publicize the course outline and the provision of a resource book for academic personnel involved in delivering the course. Coordinated by the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU), a non-governmental organization based in Kampala and accredited to act in an advisory capacity to the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the project was overseen by a Steering Committee composed of representatives of the four universities, including student representatives.

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