The Committee,
- Having examined document LHE/21/16.COM/7.a,
- Recalling Chapter V of the Operational Directives and its Decisions COM 8.7 and 12.COM 8.c.12,
- Expresses its appreciation to Uganda for submitting, on time, its second report on the status of the element ‘Bigwala, gourd trumpet music and dance of the Busoga Kingdom in Uganda’, inscribed in 2012 on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding;
- Takes note of the continued efforts described in the report submitted by Uganda to safeguard the element, in particular through research, documentation and awareness raising, as well as by improving access to gourd seeds, providing training possibilities, enhancing Bigwala practice in groups, including among youth, and ensuring the commitment of stakeholders to a participatory safeguarding of the element;
- Invites the State Party to continue its cooperation between the government, the Busoga Kingdom, community leaders, research institutions and other stakeholders for documenting the element, ensuring access to the documented material and favouring its dissemination, integrating Bigwala into education programmes, strengthening its intergenerational transmission, and raising broader public awareness about the element;
- Encourages the State Party to enhance opportunities for musicians and dancers to perform Bigwala, to provide support to the bearers of the element for improving their livelihoods, to favour knowledge transmission on making Bigwala trumpets and growing gourds, and to respect in its safeguarding efforts the social and cultural functions of the element and the associated customary practices;
- Further takes note of the International Assistance granted in 2015 and its reported contribution to the safeguarding and promotion of the element, and further encourages the State Party to continue its fundraising efforts and develop synergies among various funding sources;
- Requests that the Secretariat inform the State Party at least nine months prior to the deadline of 15 December 2024 about the required submission of its next report on the status of this element.