Events and meetings on intangible cultural heritage (co-)organized by UNESCO

From 9 to 13 November, an online training of trainers led by two UNESCO-trained facilitators was organized by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in the Philippines and UNESCO with support from CRIHAP. Thirty-nine participants from various cultural and indigenous communities, government agencies and units, civil society organizations, and academia came together online over the five days to discuss the following topics:

• Intangible cultural heritage in emergencies: Facilitators covered the new Operational principles and modalities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in emergencies; how ICH in the Philippines has been affected by natural and human-induced disasters and conflict; and how ICH has contributed to resilience and resolution of conflict during emergencies.
• Living heritage and the COVID-19 pandemic: Discussions covered case studies from around the world drawn from UNESCO global survey of living heritage and the Covid-19 pandemic online resources as well as specific cases from Thailand and the Philippines.
• Intangible cultural heritage and sustainable development: Under this topic, participants examined case studies on ICH and sustainable development and went further in depth into the topic of sustainable developing in the context of the Philippines.
• Intangible cultural heritage and education: In this final topic, participants looked at case studies and then focused in on the specific case of ICH and education in the Philippines.
  

For the final task, participants developed safeguarding plans with a view to sustainable development and emergency preparedness which could be further refined and continued after the workshop.

As a result of the deep effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the cultural sphere and on the living conditions of art and culture workers, UNESCO created the global ResiliArt movement, which promotes a series of virtual debates with various actors in the cultural sector, seeking to make visible the impacts of this crisis, its importance and the multiple resilience strategies that have arisen from the sector.

In order to address and reflect on the differential effects of the crisis impacts on diverse communities, the UNESCO Office in Quito is developing the series of ResiliArt debates titled “Resistance/Re-existence during the crisis”. This cycle aims at constituting a platform to make visible and strengthen the resilience strategies and cultural heritage of the communities that were most affected by the crisis in the Latin American context, focusing on the experiences of afro-descendant women who are community and cultural leaders.

Following the first debate, which took place on June 3, 2020, three ResiliArt debates were scheduled for October and early November, with the aim of continuing to reflect on the responses that afro-descendant women have implemented to address the effects of the crisis, through community organization focusing specifically on the role that culture and Intangible Cultural Heritage play in local recovery and resilience strategies.
These meetings seek to explore the links between education and cultural heritage through ethno-education and technical and vocational education and training (TVET), giving visibility to the strategies implemented by local educational systems in order to guarantee an inclusive, culturally relevant and quality education based on local socio-cultural contexts.

Participants
Afro-descendant women dedicated to the safeguarding of cultural heritage.
1. Escuela Canalón: Colombia
Marimba music and oral tradition school of the Colombian Pacific Coast.
2. Ana Felicien and Meyby Ugueto-Ponce: Venezuela
Afro-Venezuelan researchers, leading the project “S

On 28 October, 2020, the UNESCO Office in Quito held an online resiliart debate on the topic of ‘Re (ex) sistence in the face of the crisis: ethno-education, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and intangible cultural heritage of Afro-descendant communities in the context of the pandemic in Latin America’.

The recording of the debate can be found online at: https://www.facebook.com/UNESCOQuito/videos/793823724495014/

After the previous three workshops in Bishkek (2017), Almaty (2018) and Tashkent (2019), this fourth ICH Training of Trainers for Central Asia is held online from 24 to 28 August 2020. Co-organized by UNESCO and the International Training Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (CRIHAP), it is an opportunity for participants from four Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan) to deepen their knowledge about the 2003 Convention and strengthen capacities around several themes, including living heritage in the context of emergencies, as well as the mechanisms of international cooperation foreseen under the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.