The last of three capacity-building workshops for the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Center is taking place this week in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, from 16 to 20 April 2017.

Under the title ‘Developing Safeguarding Plans in the Emirate of Dubai’, the workshop is organized as part of the Center’s efforts to strengthen its capacities to serve as a competent body for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Dubai. It will cover the knowledge required for the development of safeguarding plans, as well as a short review of the Convention’s key concepts. The workshop consists of three scenarios for an interactive role-playing game that can be used to improve the competencies needed to elaborate plans for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage; facilitators will select the scenario best suited to the context in which the participants belong.

Bringing together approximately 25 participants, including staff from the Center and various stakeholders working in the field of cultural heritage, the workshop will provide the practical know-how needed to identify appropriate, contextually relevant methods for developing safeguarding plans for intangible cultural heritage in Dubai.

Conducted by UNESCO expert facilitators, and supported by the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Heritage Center, these tailored workshops are an example of the importance of capacity-building at an institutional level to better integrate the provisions of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage into activities at the local level.