Benefitting country(ies): Georgia, Jamaica, Jordan, Malaysia, Peru, Zimbabwe

Overview:

Over the past few years, UNESCO has been leading the initiative to develop new strategies for integrating culture and creativity in urban contexts. Together with its partners, UNESCO supports advocacy, builds and disseminates knowledge and develops the necessary evidence base to promote culture-engaged, people-centered urban development models.

The project ‘Intangible heritage and creativity for sustainable cities’ aims to promote the role of culture in sustainable urban development, and more specifically, address the role that living heritage and creativity can play in building sustainable cities.

The Living Heritage Entity is implementing its first component titled” Community-based inventorying of intangible heritage in urban areas” with the objectives to:

• Identify and better understand the key issues related to intangible heritage safeguarding in urban contexts;
  
• develop appropriate inventory methodologies and materials for urban contexts, and
  
• formulate possible recommendations for policymakers and practitioners.

Pilot projects on inventorying of intangible cultural heritage in urban contexts will be conducted in nine selected cities from different regions of the world. They will in particular focus on identifying living heritage practices, which are based on economic mechanisms and that are key to the sustainable development of the communities, such as traditional crafts, performing arts as well as construction-related practices and traditional occupations.

Accompanied by UNESCO trained facilitators, the trained communities will conduct pilot inventories over a period of about 4-6 months to test the existing methodologies of community-based inventorying in urban contexts, and thereby develop their capacity to continue this work in the future.

The first phase pilot cities: George Town (Malaysia), Harare (Zimbabwe) and Kingston (Jamaica).

The second phase pilot cities: Ayacucho (Peru), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Irbid (Jordan)

News and activities:

• 2021-10-28 – Irbid (Jordan) is the next pilot city for a project on safeguarding intangible heritage in urban areas
• 2021-06-18 – Wrap-up workshop for the project' Community-based inventorying of ICH in Tbilisi, Georgia'
• 2021-06-15 – 19 June: enjoy ICH stories from the Old Tbilisi by joining the public presentation
• 2020-12-10 – Community based inventorying of intangible cultural heritage in the urban context of Old Tbilisi
• 2020-11-27 – UNESCO and the Georgian Heritage Crafts Association to explore the rich living heritage of Old Tbilisi
• 2020-08-05 – Amid COVID 19, UNESCO Peru defines new ways to inventory living heritage with communities in Ayacucho
• 2019-08-13 – Intangible Heritage and Sustainable Cities: Wrap-up workshop in Kingston
• 2019-08-12 – George Town’s urban communities inventorying their living heritage with the support of UNESCO
• 2018-10-22 – UNESCO to explore the role of living heritage in the cities of George Town (Malaysia), Harare (Zimbabwe) and Kingston (Jamaica)

03/07/2017 - 01/12/2021 – Support to the development of a safeguarding and valorization strategy for knowledge and know-how linked to craftsmanship in Morocco01/01/2020 - 01/12/2021 – A systemic approach to advancing SDGs by supporting citizenship and social protection for hard-to-reach populations in Gabon