The Capacity Building Workshop on Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Development for Youth of Mongolia was held online from Nov 2 to 4. It was co-organized by International Training Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (CRIHAP) and Mongolian National Commission for UNESCO.

Shahbaz Khan, director of UNESCO Beijing Cluster Office and CRIHAP's director-general Liang Bin attended the event and delivered speeches.

Wang said China has made consistent efforts to promote the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage(2003 Convention),raising public awareness of the idea of ICH safeguarding and adding its safeguarding work has entered a new phase of theoretical construction.

Centering on ICH safeguarding capacity-building for young people, Wang also shared Chinese experiences in enhancing ICH bearers' ability to guide apprentices, upgrade researchers' theoretical capabilities on ICH safeguarding and explore new ways of ICH transmission.

"Constituting half of the world's population, young people are agents of change within their own communities who continue to re-create their ICH", Shahbaz Khan said in his speech during the opening session of the workshop. "As the youth are becoming more crucial than ever, UNESCO is strengthening partnership with them in the implementation of the 2003 Convention."

Liang Bin said CRIHAP has fully committed itself to uplifting the ICH safeguarding capabilities of countries in the Asia-Pacific region. As the 2003 Convention pays attention to the involvement of youth, this workshop is specifically designed to raise Mongolian youth's awareness of ICH safeguarding and to empower them with knowledge about the 2003 Convention, thus enabling them to play a more important role in ICH safeguarding and in fulfilling sustainable development goals.

Liang said he expects trainees to put what they have learned into practice and make their share of contribution to ICH safeguarding in Mongolia and beyond.

The workshop attracted a total of 37 participants including university students, representatives of youth organizations and representatives of cultural departments and local communities from across Mongolia. UNESCO accredited facilitators Linina Phuttitarn and Saruul Arslan were invited to deliver online lectures.

To prompt the trainees to active thinking, the two facilitators assigned homework before the official opening of the workshop and encouraged trainees to take a closer look at ICH elements nearby and gain a deeper understanding of ICH-related concepts using the research method of cultural mapping.