The Committee,

1. Having examined document LHE/23/18.COM/10 and its annexes,
2. Recalling Articles 20(d) and 24.3 of the Convention,
3. Further recalling Resolution GA 9 as well as Decisions 17.COM 6.d and 17.COM 10,
4. Notes with satisfaction that States Parties from Electoral Group V(a) continue to be the main beneficiaries of International Assistance from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, in accordance with Global Priority Africa, and welcomes the increasing number of requests submitted by Small Island Developing States;
5. Congratulates the States Parties that have been granted International Assistance for the first time, and encourages States that have never received it to consider this mechanism of assistance in their efforts to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage present in their territories;
6. Thanks the beneficiary States for their timely submission of final or progress reports for projects benefiting from International Assistance under the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund, and requests that beneficiary States with projects whose implementation has been delayed take corrective measures to ensure the timely implementation of the projects and to respect their reporting obligations;
7. Expresses its appreciation for the variety of activities and scopes of the projects financed by the Fund as well as the impact that the assistance has had on the beneficiary States in terms of building their safeguarding capacities, and encourages these States to continue to ensure the sustainability and enhanced results of the projects;
8. Appreciates the work of the Secretariat in supporting the States Parties in the implementation and follow-up of International Assistance projects, and invites the Secretariat to pursue its efforts to strengthen, monitor and evaluate the mechanism;
9. Further encourages States Parties to continue to take advantage of the technical assistance arranged by the Secretariat, which is intended to improve the quality of International Assistance requests, in particular for States Parties facing recurring difficulties in revising requests referred by the Bureau;
10. Expresses its support for the continuous use of the modality for the provision of services, as provided by Article 21 (a) to (f) and as a complementary and alternative modality to the provision of grants;
11. Further notes the proposal to enlarge the scope of preparatory assistance in order to enable States Parties without a national inscribed element to apply to the Fund for assistance with preparing their first national nomination file to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and recommends that the General Assembly amend the Operational Directives, as annexed to this decision.

ANNEX: Proposed amendments to the Operational Directives for the implementation of the Convention