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UNESCO 2003 Convention
ICH Materials 3
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Engaging the Community to Safeguard Singapore’s ICHIntangible cultural heritage (ICH) as defined by the 2003 UNESCO Convention encompasses the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, and skills, which communities recognize as part of their cultural heritage. In the case of Singapore, ICH is important as it represents the diverse practices, knowledge, and living traditions of Singapore’s multicultural society.\n\nIn recent years, the National Heritage Board of Singapore (NHB) has embarked on a concerted drive to document and safeguard Singapore’s ICH elements as well as to work with public and private sector partners to facilitate the transmission of ICH elements.\n\nPrior to these efforts, NHB studied the best ICH safeguarding practices in various countries, including Hong Kong, South Korea, France, Japan, and Malaysia (Penang). NHB noted that effective ICH safeguarding requires the community involvement and that ICH elements should be allowed to evolve or even disappear with time.\n\nNHB also noted that effective ICH safeguarding involves measures such as research and documentation efforts, recognition schemes for ICH practitioners, the creation of a national inventory, education, and outreach programs, as well as financial grants.\n\nIn November 2016, NHB launched its first nationwide ICH survey to identify key elements of Singapore’s ICH. The survey will be completed by the end of 2018. It will document more than a hundred ICH elements through oral history interviews, research, photography, and videography.\n\nMore recently, NHB announced the development of Our SG Heritage Plan, which is the first masterplan for Singapore’s heritage and museum sector. The masterplan outlines the broad strategies and initiatives for the sector over the next five years (2018 to 2022) and beyond.\n\nOne of the key strategic pillars for Our SG Heritage Plan focuses on ICH and presents the following recommendations:\n\nNHB will develop an ICH inventory to promote public awareness and facilitate public access to ICH information. The inventory will be updated with input from heritage experts and community groups.\nNHB will introduce a new scheme to recognize ICH practitioners who are dedicated to promoting and transmitting different aspects of Singapore’s ICH.\nNHB will step up efforts to research and document Singapore’s ICH and continue to promote research in ICH through research grants.\nNHB will leverage on museum exhibitions, festivals, and programs such as talks, workshops, and showcases to create greater public awareness and appreciation of Singapore’s ICH and ICH practitioners.\nNHB will work with the relevant agencies to ratify the 2003 UNESCO Convention in 2018 and explore possible ICH inscription onto the UNESCO Representative List.\nIn developing the ICH strategies and initiatives, NHB conducted eight engagement sessions involving close to 190 ICH practitioners between November 2016 and September 2017 to solicit views and seek feedback.\n\nAs part of NHB’s public engagement efforts for Our SG Heritage Plan,1. the institution is presently consulting the wider public about the ICH strategies and initiatives through a dedicated website (oursgheritage.sg) and traveling exhibitions.\n\nFrom December 2017 to February 2018, close to 20,000 people have visited the exhibition, and the website has received more than 14,000 visitors. In addition, more than 5,500 people have submitted their views through onsite and online polls.\n\nThrough its efforts to document, safeguard, and facilitate the transmission of Singapore’s ICH, NHB hopes to strengthen the Singaporean identity because it believes that ICH provides links to Singapore’s past, facilitates community involvement, and fosters cultural understanding within and across ethnic communities.\n\nPhoto : The NHB’s traveling exhibition on Our SG Heritage Plan © National Heritage Board of SingaporeYear2018NationSingapore
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The National Program for ICH Safeguarding in MongoliaBy the 68th resolution of the government of Mongolia, the National Program for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage was approved on 13 February 2019. This national program will be implemented between 2019 and 2023, and it has six parts.\n\n 1. Justifications\n 2. Objectives, purposes, and duration\n 3. Activities to be implemented within the framework of the national program\n 4. Evaluation criteria for implementing the national program\n 5. Financing the national program\n 6. Monitoring and evaluating the implementation of national program\n\nSeveral articles associated with protecting and safeguarding traditional culture, its transmission, development, research, and dissemination were reflected on the Constitution of Mongolia, the National Security Concept of Mongolia, the Concept of Mongolia’s Foreign Policy, the Concept of Sustainable Development of Mongolia, the State Policy on Culture, the Law of Culture, the Law on Protection of Cultural Heritage, and the Law of Mongolian Language.\n\nThe Mongolian Law on Protecting Cultural Heritage was amended in 2014 by the State Great Khural for regulating relations associated with the fifteen ICH classifications, the rights and duties of ICH practitioners, an organization of transmission activities and so on.\n\nBetween 2005 and 2016, the government of Mongolia approved and implemented national programs for ICH elements, including morin khuur, traditional long song, and Mongol khoomei, which were inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and Mongolian traditional folk dance bii biyelgee, Mongol epic, and Mongol tsuur, which were inscribed on the List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. The NCCH has taken part in implementing these programs. As a result, these national programs have had positive changes in safeguarding ICH, such as identifying ICH practitioners from elders, organizing apprenticeship training, promoting traditional culture and cultural heritage abroad and nationwide, transmitting ICH to younger generations, building pride in ICH, and self-researching ICH.\n\nThe national programs were implemented only for the folk performing arts domain—one of the five UNESCO domains of ICH—but were not implemented for the other domains.It is a demanding task to implement ways to increase and improve research and safeguarding efforts for ICH in every domain represented in nomadic culture as well as to promote ICH abroad and nationally, and, at the same time, also increase the social and economic status of ICH practitioners while improving their skill and opening possibilities to introduce the cultural industry as a form of a tourist product.\n\nThe main objective of this national program is to identify ICH elements of ethnic groups in Mongolia and to research, register, document safeguard, transmit, and disseminate the ICH elements abroad and nationally.\n\nWithin the program’s framework, the following objectives were put forward to be implemented:\n\n-To improve the policy and legal environment of ICH and to intensify the implementation of the UNESCO 2003 Convention for Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage\n-To improve research, documentation, and activities of ICH registration and information database in accordance with international standards\n-To organize and conduct activities associated with raising the general public’s awareness about ICH and disseminating ICH abroad and nationally based on intersectoral cooperation\n-To increase the ICH specialists’ capacity and support ICH practitioners\n\nPhoto : Sambuugiin Pürevjav of Altai Khairkhan (an overtone singing ensemble from Mongolia) playing a morin khuur near Centre Georges Pompidou in 2005 CCBY 2.5 Eric PouhierYear2019NationMongolia