The two-day convergence held at the NCAC conference hall in Banjul was sponsored by UNESCO Dakar.
The forum brought together different ICH facilitators across the country with the desire to build their capacity in order to support the development of realistic Intangible Cultural Heritage safeguarding plans.
The participants were trained on; Safeguarding, Ethics for Safeguarding ICH, Intellectual Property Protection; Developing Safeguarding Plans; 2 Scenarios for Developing Safeguarding Plans; Risks and Threats to the Viability of ICH among others.
Hassoum Ceesay, the director general of NCAC spoke on the significance of the training.
He emphasised that: “There is a need for the project to go hand-in-hand which includes the on-going capacity building training in order to allow the Gambian ICH facilitators to have their scripts and knowledge improved,” adding that when the facilitators are through with their inventory, they would now continue to have their skills and knowledge upgrade.
The training, Ceesay added, is a full capacity-building package. “In the next two weeks, many activities will commence including field works among others with the objectives of ensuring that our country’s Intangible Cultural Heritage are safeguarded,” he posited.
The training, the NCAC boss said, would go a long way in providing exposure and creating opportunities for the facilitators. “It is also envisaged that the capacities of these facilitators would be enhanced in order to nurture in-country technical assistance to communities and heritage-related institutions,” he added, while commending UNESCO international facilitators for their continued efforts.
It could be recalled that in July, an introductory workshop on the 2003 UNESCO Convention and Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) was held.
The training was aimed at enhancing the understanding of participants of the objectives of the 2003 Convention, the roles of different stakeholders especially the central role of the community, ethical principles in ICH safeguarding as well as the link between ICH and sustainable development among others.
