With its 150 million population and some 450 cultural groups, Nigeria has an immense and diverse canvas of intangible cultural heritage in need of safeguarding. The workshop entitled “Domestication of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage” which took place from June 1-3, 2011, in Enugu, aimed at building the capacity of national stakeholders in doing so, through a better understanding of the concepts and institutional mechanisms set up in of this instrument.

The workshop was organized by the UNESCO Country Office in Abuja, with the active support of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), and Enugu State Government. A total of 42 participants were trained on this occasion, including Directors of Culture representing the 6 Geo-political regions of Nigeria, UNESCO accredited cultural and community-based NGOs, personnel from cultural agencies under the Federal Ministry of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Ministry of Culture officials at the Federal level (national level) and the media.

The workshop was conducted by Mr Silverse Anami from Kenya and Mr Denja Abdullahi from Nigeria, two UNESCO-trained facilitators. They used the modules and training methods contained in the implementation materials developed by UNESCO in strengthening national capacities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, while integrating local examples as much as possible to suit the context.

At the end of the workshop, participants released a communiqué (English) which included some resolutions on follow-up measures to be undertaken.

Documents

• Agenda and Timetable : English
• Article: English