Niger launches a capacity-building programme for the safeguarding of its living heritage

7 November 2014

A representative of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Leisure of Niger will open today next Monday 10 November a five-days Training workshop on the implementation of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, with the participation of the Spanish Technical Bureau of Cooperation in Niger.

Organized together with the National Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums of Niger and the support of UNESCO, the workshop (held in Niamey from 10 to 14 November) is the first of three major training activities of the capacity-building programme implemented in Niger for the safeguarding of its living heritage. The training will provide participants with knowledge, tools and resources on the principles and mechanisms of the Convention and its Operational Directives. The aim is to help Niger to fulfil its national obligations under the Convention by developing a sufficient level of national capacity, both within public institutions and among the main actors of civil society and communities.

The workshop will be immediately followed by a consultation meeting on the national institutional and legislative framework of cultural heritage in order to discuss, propose and validate specific amendments to the law n  97-022 on national cultural heritage of Niger and the related decree for its application so as to ensure its applicability for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage in Niger. This consultation meeting takes place in the framework of the revision process of the law, an effort initiated by the national authorities in 2013.

The next step will be training on the preparation of community-based inventories of the intangible cultural heritage, followed by two pilot inventory projects in the field where the methodologies and tools conveyed during the training will be applied.

• Niger,