Capacity strengthening 62h

Within the vision of the Strategic Plan for 2024, the CRESPIAL CAPACITIES STRENGTHENING PROGRAM continues to meet the demand for training persons committed to safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage (PCI) in the CRESPIAL’s Member States. 2868o

The program has been in force since 2017 and has contributed to UNESCO’s efforts in the global strategy to strengthen national capacities. Through a training strategy, CRESPIAL has expanded and improved the coverage of capacities-strengthening work in the region.

Since its creation, the center has taught more than 50 training based on agreements and at the request of focal nuclei for diverse themes, such as PCI awareness, elaboration of safeguard plans and actions, and identification of the local PCI, among other items and aimed at various audiences, including communities carrying PCIs, NGOs, academics, public managers, communicators, photographers, and video. The addressed themes have been diverse, from the awareness of PCI to elaborating safeguard plans and actions through identifying the local PCI.

In some cases, the training was prepared from their proposals, as was the case with the prospective workshops applied to the safeguarding of the PCI (Venezuela 2012) and the participatory photographic record workshops of the PCI. In most cases, proposals were developed by adapting UNESCO materials for specific situations and audiences proposed by the center’s focus nuclei, based on the UNESCO 2003 Convention and its operational guidelines.

The primary audiences that have been formed in the courses are as follows:

• State officials.
• Municipal officials.
• Cultural managers of the PCI.
• PCI manifestations carriers.
• Academy (professors, researchers, and university students).
• Social communicators and journalists.
• Photographers and videographers linked to the PCI registration.

Among the most outstanding training actions between 2010 and 2016, we mention the following:

• Virtual Inventory and Registration Course of PCI (2010-11).
• Basic Sound, Visual Registration Workshop, and PCI catag (Cusco-Peru, 2010).
• Macroregional Training Workshops for PCI Safeguard (Peru, 2011).
• Virtual Workshops on Participatory Methodologies in the PCI Photographic Registry (2013, 2014, and 2016) and face-to-face participatory workshops of the PCI in photography and video (Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, and Cuba, 2016).
• Workshops for formulating the Safeguard Plan of the Mamacha Carmen de Paucartambo (Cusco-Peru, 2013-14).
• Workshops for the formulation of the Mariachi Cultural Expression Plan, String Music, Canto and Trompet (2014/15 period) (Jalisco-Mexico, 2014) and Review Workshop of the Salvaguardia Plan for Cultural Expression Mariachi, Music of strings, song and trumpet (2017).
• Virtual Training Course of the PCI management of the Lucio Costa y Crespial Center (2015).
• Workshop for formulating Ecuador’s PCI policy and management diploma (Lima-Peru, 2016).
• Awareness and identification of intangible cultural heritage (PCI) in Costa Rica and participatory inventory course (2016).

Thus, during the formulation of the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan, the need for member states to continue strengthening national capacities through advisory, training, and training actions to safeguard the PCI was highlighted.

To respond to these demands, the Center developed the capacities strengthening program in 2017, establishing the objectives, strategies, and role of the Center regarding enhancing capacities in the Member States. This program was built through various technical consultations, which allowed for the preparation of a document discussed and in a workshop with Latin American experts regarding training in PCI.

Strengthen human and institutional abilities for managing and safeguarding the PCI through regional cooperation, promoting community participation as a condition for safeguarding and cultural governance.

• Promote knowledge, awareness, and understanding of the 2003 UNESCO convention and safeguard.
• Train State representatives and promote improving PCI management at different levels of government.
• Train of carrier communities from their traditional knowledge and dialogue between this knowledge and theories and concepts about the PCI so that they become managers of their heritage.
• Train civil society representatives (NGOs, academics, managers, etc.) to contribute to them through a better understanding and dissemination of the PCI, which can play a safeguard management role.
• Adapt the tools of UNESCO’s global strategy to the specific needs of the PCI actors in the region.
• Sensitize the trained public about sustainable development objectives (SDGs), their relationship with the PCI, and the need to develop policies for safeguarding the PCI aligned with development.

In recent years, the program has stood out for the following training actions:

The seminar was organized by the National Directorate of Cultural Assets and Sites, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, the Ministry of Culture of the Nation of Argentina, and the Institute of Culture of the Government of the Province of Corrientes and Crespial. It involved 30 students from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. This subregional seminar proposed to address general aspects of the design of safeguard plans, promote the implementation of specific projects, and monitor the experiences designed and implemented by the participants, favoring the evaluation of the proposed measures.

The seminar took place in three stages: two face-to-face modules each and an intermediate stage of virtual tutoring that lasted about five months.

The first face-to-face workshop, from November 7 to 11, 2016, focused on addressing work concepts and methodologies with the PCI.

In the second, in the virtual modality, the participants planned safeguard actions for a PCI demonstration in their regions and conducted participatory fieldwork with the carrier communities.

The last face-to-face workshop was developed by Maconducted9, 2017, in which the students carried out different work planning to safeguard the actions of cultural manifestations of each country or region throughout the course.

The course Appropriation and Management of Intangible Cultural Heritage was aimed at actors from the National Culture System (SNC), the National Heritage System (SNP), cultural managers, and the general community interested in ICH, with 150 participants. Its objective was the implementation of the National Policy on Intangible Cultural Heritage, which looked at the comprehensive safeguarding of intangible heritage from and with the participation of communities, bearers, managers, leaders, and public servants.

Its specific objectives were to provide tools for understanding the ICH policy, its challenges, and contextual possibilities for implementing it in a participatory manner, to offer tools for the dissemination and socialization of the ICH policy in the municipal and departmental context, and to explore alternatives for the intersectoral management of ICH.

For its development, a completely virtual course with 155 hours, distributed over approximately seven months, was proposed to cover the broad content related to the subject. In addition, the course was divided into six modules, each with a specialized tutor who accompanied the participants’ learning process.

CRESPIAL and the National Institute of Cultural Heritage (INPC) of Ecuador have taught the virtual course “Moving towards the Management and Safeguarding of PCI in Decentralized Autonomous Governments,” with the of the Association of Municipalities of Ecuador (AME) and the institutional endorsement of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage.

It was born from the need to guarantee the transfer of capacities on the management and safeguarding of PCI between the central government and local governments of Ecuador, given that the latter is responsible for promoting the necessary conditions to make the management and safeguarding of PCI effective at the regional level.

The course was taught from March to July 2018 and was developed in 5 modules:

• Module 1: Access and management of the virtual campus.
• Module 2: Key concepts of the PCI – introductory module.
• Module 3: Ecuadorian legal framework and territorial competencies about the PCI.
• Module 4: Community participation within the framework of safeguarding the PCI.
• Module 5: Tools for safeguarding the PCI.

The workshop aimed to strengthen Peru’s DDCs’ capacities for the public management of ICH within the framework of national legislation and the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of ICH.

During the workshop’s development, various resources and methodologies for identifying, managing, and safeguarding ICH were discussed through participatory tools relevant to the national context.

The workshop, held in November 2018, was facilitated by officials from the Directorate of Intangible Heritage of the Ministry of Culture of Peru and the Technical Secretariat of CRESPIAL. Officials from eleven regions participated in it: Ancash, Ayacucho, Cajamarca, Cusco, Huancavelica, Ica, La Libertad, Loreto, Puno, San Martín, and Tacna.

The virtual course on preparing requests for international assistance to the ICH Fund aims to expand national capacities in preparing safeguarding projects and requests for international aid.

This course is based on the workshop on preparing requests for international assistance with the Global Strategy, which is adapted to the region’s needs and specificities. Particular consideration was given to previous national efforts to obtain funds through this mechanism and the results obtained.

Through analysis of practical work and case studies, participants became familiar with the concepts, terminology, and procedures of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund and requests for international assistance, particularly the exercise of tly developing international aid proposals inspired by the technical assistance model proposed by UNESCO.

The course began in November 2018 and ended in the first quarter of 2019.

The Ministry of Culture and Sports of Guatemala, through the Vice Ministry of Cultural and Natural Heritage and the Technical Directorate of Intangible Heritage and CRESPIAL, organized the Training of Trainers Workshop on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), which took place from June 4 to 8, 2019, in Antigua, Guatemala.

The objective of the workshop was to strengthen the capacities of the Center’s Member States by training officials in the field of ICH to provide training on the safeguarding and management of ICH from the perspective of the CRESPIAL Plan “Dialogue and strengthening of capacities, knowledge, and practices for the safeguarding of ICH.”

The five-day workshop lasted, during which the participants, taking into their understanding of the current situation of ICH safeguarding in their respective countries, were trained on central issues of the UNESCO 2003 Convention for safeguarding ICH.

PCI specialists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay participated, as well as representatives from the focal points of the CRESPIAL Member States.

This initiative aimed to create a methodology that allows young people to learn about, value, and lead extracurricular experiential research projects on the ICH of their locality, using new technologies as a tool. A CRESPIAL initiative that promotes responsible citizenship that respects cultural diversity, contributing to the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The pilot project, ed by the GAL Center Educational Company, was developed in three phases in 2019, with the permanent participation of teachers and students from four educational institutions in Cusco, Peru: Cecilia Túpac Amaru (Cusco), Hermanos Ayar (Paruro), San Juan Bautista (Coya), and GAL School (Cusco).

In total, the students developed 11 projects based on the expressions of the ICH that they identified as part of their cultural identity. The young people created digital platforms where the ICH can be navigated through QR Codes.

As a result of this process, CRESPIAL developed an Implementation Guide where successes and lessons learned are shared to facilitate educators from public and private organizations to replicate this project.

VIDEO ABOUT THE PROJECT

APPLICATION (Metaverse)

INDICATIONS AND QR CODES

The CRESPIAL Capacity Building Programme has proven to be a fundamental tool for strengthening national capacities in ​​ICH. Through its various actions, the Programme has contributed to the training of numerous cultural professionals and managers who have promoted the safeguarding of ICH in their respective countries.

Looking ahead, the Programme will continue strengthening national capacities in ​​ICH and contribute to safeguarding this significant cultural heritage.