Intangible Heritage: it’s time for mid-term review in the Maghreb

1 March 2015

A mid-term project meeting of representatives of the ministries of culture of Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia was held from 23 to 25 February 2015 in Casablanca, the purpose of which was to review the half way results of an ongoing capacity building project in the field of intangible cultural heritage funded by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund through a contribution from Norway. The project aims to assist these three countries of the Maghreb sub-region in safeguarding their intangible cultural heritage through the effective implementation of the Convention.
Among the positive results stressed by the participants was the training of the 100 officials of ministries, NGOs and communities (40% women) on the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, as well as on methodologies participatory inventory. These trainings allowed the Tunisian Ministry of Culture to organize in turn 24 workshops across the country, run by people who had benefited from training workshops organized in the framework of the project.
Measures to improve the quality of the remaining activities, for example ensuring the proper functioning of the national committees of intangible cultural heritage and strengthen the relations among all project stakeholders, were also at the center of the discussions.
Participants are already thinking about sustainability measures for the results in the long-term for better safeguarding intangible heritage: identify priority topics and methods of cooperation for the countries of the Maghreb. The preparation of financial assistance requests to the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund to increase training workshops on the Convention and its tools is also among them.

• Morocco, Mauritania, Tunisia,