St.Kitts and Nevis to Launch UNESCO Project to Safeguard Intangible Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Development
Basseterre, April 27 2019 (SKNICH) – A new US$100,000.00 project, funded by UNESCO that will help safeguard the St. Kitts and Nevis Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) will be officially launched on April 29th, 2019 at 9.00 a.m. at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Lime Kiln, Basseterre, St. Kitts.
The Bureau of the Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage approved at its meeting on 2nd October 2018, the International Assistance request submitted by St. Kitts and Nevis to implement the project, “Strengthening Inventory Preparation Capacity for Implementing the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Saint Kitts and Nevis”. St. Kitts ratified the Convention in 2016.
The project will be implemented in three phases namely: Training of Trainers to understand the content of 2003 ICH Convention; Community based Inventorying; a Pilot Inventorying Exercise and St. Kitts and Nevis Awareness Campaign.
The implementation strategy includes awareness creation workshops and training in research and inventory skills, which will be provided by global facilitators recruited by the UNESCO Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean, training in video and audio documentation skills, training on how to use archiving software and data processing, both provided by experts recruited nationally.
The training will enable St. Kitts and Nevis to have an official Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage including ICH elements, while building human capacity to continue safeguarding practices within local communities.
The SKN ICH database will be accessible to the public through different mediums – a database, website and printed materials. Government, organizations, stakeholders and the public will be sensitized about ICH; the importance of protecting it and methods of safeguarding it through the public awareness advertising campaigns.