Document: ITH/17/12.COM/8.a Decision: 12.COM 8.a
205. The Chairperson introduced a set of sub-items under agenda item 8 on the examination of reports submitted by States Parties, beginning with item 8.a: Reports of States Parties on the use of International Assistance from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund. He invited the Secretary to present the item.
206. The Secretary referred to Article 24.3, which stipulates ‘The beneficiary State Party shall submit to the Committee a report on the use made of the assistance provided for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage’. He noted that following Decision 11.COM 9.c, the Secretariat had made efforts to match reporting periods as closely as possible with the submission date of 30 June 2016, which meant that eleven reports would be presented at the present session, having been submitted between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2017. The working document had hyperlinks to the final reports on completed projects and projects that were still being implemented. The document also provided direct access to these reports, which were available in both English and French. Summary data on all the reports were also attached. The Secretary reminded the Committee that these reports represented only part of the current projects. The working document also included a list of all the projects in progress, representing a total of twenty-four projects for a total amount of US$2.2 million. The Secretary recalled that under agenda item 7, he had presented in detail the issues and challenges related to the implementation of the International Assistance mechanism. In this respect, the Committee's potential decision to accept the proposal to create three fixed-term posts financed with extrabudgetary funds would be highly appreciated and should allow for a better implementation of the International Assistance mechanism.
207. With no forthcoming comments, the Chairperson turned to the adoption of the draft decision on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis, and paragraphs 1–8 were duly adopted. The Chairperson declared Decision 12.COM 8.a adopted.
208. The Chairperson noted that a number of countries having benefited from International Assistance and having completed their projects wished to share their experiences with the Committee. Côte d’Ivoire also wished to take the floor to share some initial achievements in the implementation of its ongoing emergency International Assistance project.
209. The delegation of Burkina Faso spoke of its honour in sharing its experience regarding the implementation of the project ‘Inventory and Promotion of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Burkina Faso’, for which it had benefited from financial assistance from UNESCO. The delegation expressed thanks to the authorities of Burkina Faso for their invaluable support, given their limited means. Burkina Faso had benefited from US$262,080, for which it was very grateful. One of the benefits gained from the implementation of this project was that it made it possible to better approach communities and to discover a number of concerns. It had also made it possible, with the active participation of communities, to collect 1,492 intangible cultural heritage elements during the twenty months of work required. The database would now allow for the activation of new actions thanks to the learnings on the state of viability of the inventoried elements; one of the major objectives from the outset. In addition, the capacities of the administrators, members of the communities and NGOs had been strengthened in terms of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, which was a very important outcome. Burkina Faso had learned that nothing could be achieved without the communities, but also that approaching the communities was a delicate matter. Future actions would now be better prepared with the lessons learned from the field. It had also learned that fieldwork was needed to anticipate a number of difficulties in accessing the elements, as evidently communities were understandably not always willing to open up or provide information. The delegation also stressed the importance of informing the communities, while taking into account a number of financial conditions. It had also learned that many actions, even governmental ones, could have negative repercussions for the cultural life of the communities, but if development policies took these cultural aspects into account, this offered a higher chance of success. The delegation explained that the project had not been easy, as a change of political regime in 2014 had complicated matters when more than three months passed without state authorities in place. During the preparation for the launch of the pilot phase, a military coup had occurred, which had complicated matters even further. The financial conditions had changed in the meantime and the project had been taken over by the State, which proved to be a difficult situation. Concluding, the delegation wished to show a short film that invited the communities to share their intangible cultural heritage, once again thanking all those that had made this project possible, particularly the staff at UNESCO for their work.
[A short film was projected]
210. The delegation of Togo congratulated Korea for hosting and organizing the Committee session. Togo had benefited from the Fund for a project to undertake an inventory and an evaluation of the know-how and practice of the traditional musical instruments of Togo. The pilot phase took place from December 2015 to January 2017 in the maritime region of southern Togo with financial support from UNESCO amounting to US$25,000. The project brought together three flagship activities, including an inventory, workshops related to making and practice of the instruments, and an exhibition-type presentation. There were three main lessons learned from the pilot phase. The first lesson is that the inventory revealed the importance of know-how, the bearer communities, and the involvement of young people in its promotion. The second lesson came about from the method of duplication or training workshops. Originally, the workshops were planned with one set up for the making and one for the practice of the instruments. However, together with the bearers, the project team devised a common strategy whereby the workshops were duplicated: three sessions for the making and three sessions for practice in three different
villages. This method resulted in strong involvement by the trainers from the communities, especially among the learners who attended the training sessions at the community level.
This approach is therefore a model for a traditional school in Africa, which – beyond the knowledge acquired – is a space for the socialization of young people. The last lesson learned concerned sharing the results, which was organized with the communities based on a particular model. Exhibitions were linked with educational and cultural events organized by the trainers who came from the communities, the experts who participated and developed the inventory, and mostly young people from the school environment. More than 6,000 people participated in these exhibitions over two weeks. In the content of this exhibition, some rediscovered the dances and instrumental practices of their origins, as already at secondary school the pupil is removed from her/his environment, and at university, they no longer identify with these practices found at the village level. The project thus nurtured cooperation between the cultural administration (at central and local levels) and the school administration, leading up to a more promising phase. The delegation reiterated its thanks to UNESCO, which also strengthened the capacity of the project team for the implementation of this pilot phase. It hoped to continue to benefit from its support in financial as well as material resources for the full implementation of the project.
[A short film was projected]
211. The delegation of Uganda congratulated the Chairperson on his election and for his excellent leadership. It thanked the Republic of Korea and the self-governing region of Jeju for their hospitality and excellent organization, and congratulated the Secretariat for its excellent service in the implementation of the Convention. Bigwala, gourd trumpet music and dance of the Busoga people in Uganda, is an element of intangible cultural heritage that was inscribed in 2012 [on the Urgent Safeguarding List]. Uganda received assistance from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund to revitalize its cultural practice, and the project was completed in April 2017. As a result of the revitalization project, Bigwala, which was on the verge of extinction, is played on Busoga’s best radios, and fifty selected new players performed at the second coronation anniversary of the King on 13 October 2016. Bigwala was recently performed at ten community functions in the Busoga region. Seven new groups of Bigwala players, including forty-five instrumentalists and fifty dancers, have been created. These groups include men, women and the youth who play Bigwala, but trained was also provided in Bigwala-making skills. Before the intervention, gourds that were used to make Bigwala were not available in Busoga. Communities have now been provided with seeds and currently gourds are available in the communities. In conclusion, the International Assistance had contributed to the viability of the element immensely, and Uganda was now on the right path to achieving the complete revitalization of the element.
The State Party, together with the communities concerned, would continue with its safeguarding efforts, including awareness creation, the implementation of all the processes involved, and transferring skills to the younger generation through continuous performances. The delegation would notify the Secretariat at the appropriate time of its readiness to apply for the transfer of the element to the Representative List. It sincerely thanked UNESCO for the International Assistance provided and for the technical support and guidance it had received throughout the implementation process.
[A short film was projected]
212. The delegation of Zambia presented a brief review of two projects that were funded for about US$25,000. A progress report had been submitted for one of the projects. During the reporting period (1 July 2016 to 3 June 2017), Zambia implemented two projects under the International Assistance mechanism. The projects were carried out in two out of ten provinces in the country: the Central Province and the Western Province. The project, the final report of which had been submitted, involved the inventorying of the music and dance of the Lozi and Nkoya people of Kaoma District. This project period went from 12 August 2016 to 3 June 2017. It involved the inventorying of music and dance, and at the end of the
project there were two main outcomes. An exhibition of the inventoried elements was held in the form of a video and photographs that were displayed at two different locations within the Western Province. The displays motivated a number of people to want to undertake intangible cultural heritage safeguarding activities. Even the traditional leadership mobilized themselves to spearhead the establishment of community committees aimed at safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in their chiefdom. The second project involved inventorying proverbs of the Lala community of the Luano District of Zambia, which ran from 20 September 2016 until 29 September 2017, for which the final report was pending.
However, the project itself was successfully carried out and, as a result, a number of communities within Luano are now interested in undertaking activities aimed at safeguarding living heritage. For example, two communities have now begun to prepare proposals for International Assistance to carry out an inventory within their community. The projects ran smoothly. The only challenge experienced in both projects was the inability to get two international intangible cultural heritage experts to collaborate, as the two experts in the southern part of Africa were already conducting activities outside the continent. So, the two projects involved two national intangible cultural heritage experts instead, who did a good job. The delegation thanked UNESCO, which had enabled the two activities to take place under the International Assistance mechanism. The delegation wished to present a short film on the inventorying of the Lozi and Nkoya music and dance, which showed dances from the Lozi ethnic group and a funeral rite for the Nkoya people.
[A short film was projected]
213. The delegation of Côte d’Ivoire reported that International Assistance had made it possible to start the process of inventorying the intangible cultural heritage present in the country since December 2015, with a view to its urgent safeguarding. The inventorying process had given rise to two phases: the first phase had been completed, while the second one was ongoing. Phase 1 covered six regions. The activities in this phase included: i) national coordination training on the 2003 Convention and participatory inventory work; ii) the methodological framework of phase 1; iii) an awareness-raising mission among the national coordinators in the chief towns of the six regions; iv) the training of six regional coordinators; v) the awareness-raising missions of the regional coordinators in other localities of their respective regions; vi) the training of twelve inventory teams from phase 1;
vii) the collection of data by these teams; viii) regional workshops; ix) the training of officers of the Directorate of Cultural Heritage in the management of the database; x) a national workshop for reporting and the validation of results; and xi) the external evaluation of phase 1 by an expert member of the UNESCO network. The delegation further reported that the operation had also resulted in three related activities: i) a reflection workshop on strategies for integrating intangible cultural heritage into educational programmes; ii) a workshop to validate the draft of the new law for the creation of national cultural heritage with a view to incorporating the notion of intangible cultural heritage; and iii) a validation workshop on the preliminary draft decree establishing the National Commission for the Selection of Living Human Treasures. Phase 2 would cover the remaining twenty-six regions, in agreement with the Convention’s Secretariat. This phase was split into two parts. The first part, which had been ongoing since the beginning of the second half of 2017, was defined by the framework of Phase 2, which consists of awareness-raising missions by national coordination in the chief towns of the first thirteen regions, the creation and coordination of information for the thirteen regions, as well as the set-up and training of the corresponding inventorying teams, who were already on the ground; the completion of this part was scheduled for February 2018. The achievements of Phase 1 included the training of more than 100 people, including cultural professionals, local government officials, community members and NGOs on intangible cultural heritage, the 2003 Convention, and participatory inventory work. In terms of achievements, they include data collection for more than 200 elements, of which 150 had been validated and 50 remained to be consolidated.
214. The delegation of Côte d’Ivoire noted, however, that some financial and operational difficulties had emerged in the implementation of the project. Protocol costs that were not
included in the initial budget had proved to be essential for awareness-raising and information-gathering missions. The transport and subsistence costs of the inventory teams had proved insufficient in the face of realities on the ground, as well as the difficulties encountered in the coordination between the Ministries of Culture and Finance. Finally, the outcome of the training by the regional coordinators in the regions to the benefit of the inventory teams had revealed shortcomings in the application of the principles of participatory inventory work. To counter these difficulties, some solutions had been proposed, notably the organization of several working sessions between the Directorate of Cultural Heritage and officials of the Ministry of Economy and Finance involved in the management of the operation. In addition, Phase 2 was divided into two parts. Thirteen regions were covered in 2017, ensuring that the budget allocated by the State in 2017 not only covered the expenses initially planned for the thirteen regions but also took into account the expenses revealed to be indispensable. In agreement with the Secretariat, the training of the inventory teams was supervised to ensure its high quality, as provided by the national coordination. These actions would ensure better results under Phase 2. The delegation would therefore have the opportunity to present the results of Phase 2 at the end of the project’s implementation. Concluding, the delegation thanked UNESCO for its assistance, and the Secretariat for its ongoing monitoring of the implementation of this inventory, which meant that Côte d'Ivoire would now have a searchable database.
[A short film was projected]
215. The Chairperson thanked the delegations for kindly sharing their experiences. He then turned to the next agenda item 8.b: Examination of the reports of States Parties on the implementation of the Convention and on the current status of elements inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
ITEM 8.b OF THE AGENDA
EXAMINATION OF THE REPORTS OF STATES PARTIES ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF