After three years of implementation, time has come to take stock of UNESCO’s global capacity-building strategy for strengthening safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Central Asia and Europe. Therefore, the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe is hosting, a review meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 23 to 26 September 2014 co-organized with the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section of UNESCO. It will be the fourth review meeting of its kind after one in the Asia-Pacific region (Beijing, November 2012), another for Latin America and the Caribbean region (Cuzco, September 2013) and the third for the Arab region (Kuwait City, 9 to 10 May 2014).

These meetings provide an occasion to review the programme and upgrade knowledge on the most recent developments of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, while also introducing new training and guidance materials developed recently by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section.

A group of 20 participants will come together in Sofia, including UNESCO-trained facilitators involved in delivering the global capacity-building strategy in Europe and Central Asia, UNESCO Programme Specialists from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section and Field Offices and professional staff of the Centre. The important review and training exercise is possible thanks to the generous support of the Bulgarian authorities and funds from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.