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Intangible Cultural Heritage Needs DRR: a Training Workshop in the Philippines Rolled out in May 2021

Disasters, whether natural or man-made, affect all aspects of life, including intangible cultural heritage (ICH). This realization prompted the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee of the 2003 Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention to adopt a set of operational principles and modalities for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in emergencies in June 2020.

ICH is the store of traditional and local knowledge and skills practiced, cherished and transmitted across generations by communities. It represents the dynamic integration of people (practitioners), place (materials and the tangible world) and stories (knowledge), all of which are necessary to ensure its continuity. How will a world increasingly marked by disaster both safeguard and manage ICH into the future, and draw on that ICH to reduce the risk of disaster and lessen its impact?

Supported by the Government of Switzerland, the Cultural Communities and Traditional Arts Section of the Philippines’ National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) delivered an online workshop on 19 and 26 May 2021 using newly developed UNESCO training modules on ICH in emergencies.  18 participants - representatives from national government agencies, local government units, and leading community practitioners responsible for ICH safeguarding - explored the relationship between disasters and ICH, examining both the impacts of disaster on ICH and the role of ICH in reducing risk.

The workshop was led by Professor Christopher Ballard of the Australian National University, with inputs from Dr. Renato U. Solidum, Undersecretary of the Philippines’ Department of Science and Technology, and Officer-In-Charge of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, and ICH community members. The sessions included lectures, presentations, and sharing of case studies and experiences of Filipino communities about their ICH in times of disasters.

At the opening, the Chairman of the NCCA, Mr Arsenio Lizaso underlined how it is critical to support ICH at the time of disaster as it lays the basis of community well-being, and livelihood. Philippines, which annually faces natural hazards should provide a leading example of integrating ICH in disaster risk reduction policy.  

After the second day of the workshop, the participants began working in small teams to document local ICH elements that might be at threat from disaster or that might be mobilised to mitigate the impacts of disaster. The participants will return after 6 weeks to share the result of their exercise.

The Philippines is one of the pioneer countries to implement a training workshop on ICH in emergencies through UNESCO.

For further information, please contact m.chiba@unesco.org