Community management 2g3r10

CRESPIAL recognizes community management as a fundamental cross-cutting axis in its work to protect and promote the region’s PCI. 2fb5j

Community management as a cross-cutting axis implies that CRESPIAL:

• It recognizes communities as the protagonists and holders of the ICH. Communities are the guardians and transmitters of their own traditions and cultural expressions. CRESPIAL must work closely with communities to ensure their active participation in all safeguarding processes.
• Promotes community participation in decision-making. Communities must be able to express their needs, priorities, and expectations regarding safeguarding ICH.
• Strengthens communities’ capacities to manage their ICH. CRESPIAL, through its Focal Nuclei, provides communities with the tools and knowledge necessary to manage their ICH effectively. This includes aspects such as documentation, research, transmission, revitalization, and promotion of ICH.
• Establishes strategic alliances with communities. CRESPIAL must collaborate with communities, civil society organizations, government institutions, and other relevant actors to safeguard ICH.

Community management is a priority programmatic line for CRESPIAL for the following reasons:

• It is essential for safeguarding ICH. Communities are primarily responsible for its transmission and revitalization. With their participation, safeguarding efforts can be effective and sustainable.
• It contributes to the sustainable development of communities. Safeguarding ICH can generate economic, social, and cultural benefits for communities. The Centre should communities in developing projects that link safeguarding ICH with sustainable development.
• It is an expression of communities’ cultural rights. Communities have the right to participate in the management of their own cultural heritage, and promoting community management is one way to ensure respect for these rights.

Community management is an ongoing process that requires the commitment of all stakeholders. CRESPIAL is committed to collaborating with its NFs, who work with communities to strengthen community management of PCI in Latin America.

The 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) recognizes the importance that communities, groups, and individuals play in maintaining and safeguarding said heritage and how this heritage is essential in bringing people together, exchanging, and understanding.

Based on this statement, the entire safeguarding policy advocated by the Convention above is based on the importance of community participation as a core condition for all actions by Member States.

Specifically, the importance of community participation is expressed in Article 15 of the 2003 UNESCO Convention: “In the framework of its activities for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage, each State Party shall seek to achieve the widest possible participation of the communities, groups and, where appropriate, individuals who create, maintain and transmit such heritage and to actively involve them in its management.”

By this determination of the UNESCO 2003 Convention, CRESPIAL established Community Management as one of its programmatic Strategic Objectives. Through this, it seeks to strengthen capacities, recover, and invigorate memory for PCI’s conscious and active management.

The strategic objective seeks to and strengthen the state’s role in PCI community management by generating guiding principles, methodological guides, and materials for the Center’s Member States.

In September 2018, the “International Workshop on Community Management, Our Voice in Our Voice” was held in Cusco, Peru.

The objective of this workshop was to exchange information and generate collective knowledge about work in PCI with and from the perspective of communities in a way that contributes to strengthening the capacities, knowledge, and practices of States for implementing participatory PCI management policies in the region.

CRESPIAL’s commitment was to systematize the shared information and knowledge, which will serve as inputs to develop work guidelines and roap proposals for work between States and communities and educational materials for civil society organizations and groups.

More information: International Workshop on Community Management

Among the products planned for development are:

• Document of Guiding Principles for working with communities

This document establishes principles, lines, and strategies for methodological work between States and communities.

• Safeguarding PCI Toolkit for Civil Society

To strengthen civil society’s knowledge of safeguarding ICH, CRESPIAL proposed the development of two different types of materials:

• A toolkit for safeguarding ICH includes conceptual texts, written case studies, and audiovisual materials accompanied by a guide on how to use these materials.
• Materials in different narrative languages ​​for use in various local and community media.