Decision of the Bureau: 7.COM 3.BUR 4.1

The Bureau,

  1. Recalling Chapter V of the Convention and Chapter I of the Operational Directives, concerning the approval of international assistance requests,
  2. Having examined Document ITH/12/7.COM 3.BUR/4 as well as the international assistance request 00591 from Viet Nam,
  3. Takes note that Viet Nam has requested international assistance for the project entitled ‘Capacity building in designing, implementing, and evaluating intangible cultural heritage projects in Viet Nam’ described as follows:

The project seeks to develop a toolkit that will help all levels of cultural managers and practitioners in local communities to improve their abilities to design, implement and evaluate safeguarding projects, thereby facilitating the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the 2009 amended Vietnam Law on Cultural Heritage. The toolkit is to include the guiding principles of safeguarding and promotion activities, as well as a set of checklists with concrete indicators for users to apply those principles in the design, implementation and evaluation process. Indicators will be linked to a national inventory system that is currently being developed. The project will be implemented under the direction of the Vietnam Institute of Culture and Art Studies (VICAS), the leading governmental agency on safeguarding and promoting the intangible cultural heritage of Viet Nam, with the collaboration of the Department of Cultural Heritage (DCH) under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Institute of Cultural Studies (ICS) of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences. Within the scope of twelve months, experts from the collaborating parties will produce the toolkit for a nation-wide training programme for cultural managers and officers as well as any organizations, communities and individuals working in the area of intangible cultural heritage. In the end, 1,000 copies of a toolkit will be distributed and institutionalized for use throughout Viet Nam.

  1. Decides that, from the information provided in file 00591, Capacity building in designing, implementing and evaluating intangible cultural heritage projects in Viet Nam responds as follows to the criteria for international assistance in Paragraph 12 of the Operational Directives and to the additional considerations in Paragraph 10:
A.1    There is adequate evidence that cultural managers, local officers and a focus group of practitioners and community members were involved in the preparation of the request and will continue to participate in carrying out proposed activities to design and produce an effective toolkit to be used in evaluating future intangible cultural heritage safeguarding projects;

A.2    The budget is well conceived and clearly structured with an overview of individual activities and shares of costs; the amount of assistance appears to be appropriate;

A.3    The proposed activities are well conceived, methodical and feasible, presented in a logical step-by-step procedure, and there is consistency between the activities planned, the timetable and the budget; monitoring and evaluation of the programme are built in;

A.4    There is clear verification that the project will have lasting results as it will produce 1,000 copies of a toolkit to be distributed and institutionalized by provincial Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Vestige Management Boards, museums, relevant organizations, communities, workshop trainers, and individuals in an effort to equip them to better design, implement, and evaluate ICH projects in Viet Nam;

A.5    The support requested from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund constitutes 62.5 % of the total, with the remaining costs (37.5%) to be borne by the Viet Nam Institute of Culture and Art Studies (VICAS), the leading governmental agency on safeguarding and promoting the intangible cultural heritage of Viet Nam;

A.6    Financial assistance will be used expressly for building the capacity of various organizations, groups and individuals to expand and enhance their capacities to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage of Viet Nam;

A.7    The submitting State has previously received preparatory assistance from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund for the elaboration of two nominations to the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding for ‘Ca trù singing’ (inscribed in 2009) and ‘Xoan singing of Phú Thọ Province’ (inscribed in 2011); Viet Nam provided the work stipulated by the terms of reference of the respective contracts and, following UNESCO’s regulations, these contracts were duly completed;

10(a) The project will be carried out at the national and sub-national level;

10(b) The proposal alludes to the project having a multiplier effect through its potential to raise awareness of social and economic contributions of intangible cultural although it does not does not go into details of possible financial and technical contributions that might be stimulated.

  1. Approves, as authorized body, the international assistance request from Viet Nam for ‘Capacity building in designing, implementing, and evaluating intangible cultural heritage projects in Viet Nam’ for an amount of US$25,000;
  2. Requests the Secretariat to reach agreement with the requesting party on the technical details and the calendar of the assistance.

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