1. Background

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the United Nations in 2015, defines 17 Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) in the areas of eradicating poverty, promoting health, improving education, protecting the environment, fostering economic growth, and advancing social equity and justice, with the aim of promoting economic, social and environmental sustainability around the world. The goals cover all countries and regions and provide a common framework for global sustainable development by outlining a shared vision for sustainable development.

UNESCO attaches great importance to the role of intangible cultural heritage (hereinafter referred to as “ICH”) in promoting sustainable development, and has made "ICH and sustainable development" one of its priorities under the framework of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (hereinafter referred to as “the Convention”). In its chapter VI, the Convention refers to the ICH safeguarding as a driving force for sustainable development and encourages States Parties to endeavor to maintain a balance among the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability in the development of safeguarding measures. In recent years, relevant States Parties in the Asia-Pacific region have done a great deal in promoting ICH safeguarding for sustainable development and accumulated rich experience therein.

Taking into account Article 18 of the Convention, which stipulates that "the Committee shall periodically select and promote national, subregional or regional programmes, projects and activities for the safeguarding of the heritage which it considers best reflect the principles and objectives of the Convention", as well as the decision adopted by the Intergovernmental Committee at its 18th session about “the broader implementation of Article 18 of the Convention and revision of its Operational Directives", CRIHAP is scheduled to gather, select and disseminate cases of sustainable development through ICH safeguarding in the Asia-Pacific region in 2024 in stages and by sub-regions. The target cases mainly refer to programmes, activities, projects and other practices carried out by institutions or individuals in their effort to promote sustainable development through ICH safeguarding.

2. Instructions

1) Organizers:

International Training Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (CRIHAP)

International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)

International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (ICHCAP)

Contact Person: Ms. Chen Xiaoxi from International Training Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (CRIHAP) who can be reached via 0086-10-64896563 or research@crihap.cn

2) Themes and sub-themes

The case collection will be framed around the theme of ICH Promoting Sustainable Development, with sub-themes including but not limited to ICH＆education, ICH ＆ climate change, ICH ＆ livelihood or employment, ICH ＆ gender, ICH ＆ youth and ICH ＆ environmental protection.

3) Target Applicants

Communities, groups and individuals concerned; Relevant ICH safeguarding institutions, local governments, universities, research institutes, enterprises, trade associations and related organizations, etc.

4) Application Form

Please complete the attached application forms and submit photos (REQUIRED) and/or videos (OPTIONAL) as well as other supporting materials.

3. Case selection and results presentation

Experts in the field of ICH research and safeguarding will be invited to select good practices out of the collected cases, issue them certificates and organize case presentation events, and include them in the training materials for CRIHAP’s capacity building workshops on ICH safeguarding in the future.

Application Form：http://www.crihap.cn/pdf/applicationform_en.doc