The thirteenth annual coordination meeting of the Category 2 Centres active in the field of intangible cultural heritage took place online on 16 July 2025. During the meeting, the participating centres shared updates on recent activities and upcoming plans.
They shared their work in fields ranging from capacity building for the implementation of the Convention at national level, leveraging digital tools to amplify the impact, and fostering networking among different stakeholder groups, such as universities, researchers, and non-governmental organizations, around shared priorities. They highlighted specific initiatives aimed at strengthening youth engagement, conducting innovative research, and contribute to various thematic areas under the 2003 Convention. These included climate change and safeguarding living heritage in emergency contexts, enhancing livelihoods, empowering women, and fostering synergies between tangible and intangible heritage. Notably, the valuable support to capacity building for periodic reporting during the last cycle came through as one of the main contributions.
Building on past engagement, a key focus of this year’s global meeting was the current reform of the periodic reporting mechanism which aims at transitioning towards a single global submission system common to all UNESCO culture conventions and recommendations. In this context, the Secretariat presented updates on progress towards the global submission system, shared preliminary outcomes of the regional consultation meetings held between April and May 2025, and initiated a reflection on the enhanced role that Category 2 Centres could play in the future implementation of the reporting mechanism under the 2003 Convention.
The next coordination meeting will be held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, back-to-back with the eleventh session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention (mid-2026).
Learn more about the Category 2 Centres
Meeting:
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Thirteenth annual coordination meeting of category 2 centres active in the field of intangible cultural heritage (16 July 2025 – 16 July 2025)