Thanks to the voluntary contribution by France to the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Fund, and aligned with the funding priority “Strengthening capacities to safeguard intangible cultural heritage and contribute to sustainable development”, Ghana launched the Capacity-building for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and contributing to sustainable development project. Following a needs-assessment project undertaken between 2018 and 2019, risks and threats to the viability of living heritage in Ghana were identified in several areas.

This project led by UNESCO Office in Accra will allow local stakeholders to gain the needed skills to conduct community-based inventorying, in collaboration with numerous institutional partners and communities’ representatives. The aim of the project is to create a network of experts in ICH, which would strengthen policymaking in regard to ICH safeguarding. The key beneficiaries of the project are institutional stakeholders, local community members and custodians of ICH. As this project is also focused on sustainable development, an emphasis on living heritage being a driver of sustainable development will be privileged. As part of the Global capacity-building programme, a unit of training materials developed by the Secretariat is entirely dedicated to ICH and sustainable development.

UNESCO is pleased to see the increased mobilization of Ghana in the safeguarding of its living heritage and the growing awareness towards sustainable development.