Workshop to review Ghana’s report on UNESCO 2003 Convention

A day’s workshop was organised on 12th December 2023 at the Hilton View Hotel, East Legon by the National Folklore Board bringing stakeholders from the Ghana Heritage Committee, Regional Heritage Ambassadors together with other stakeholder agencies to review a report that had been compiled for submission to UNESCO as part of requirements for the Africa Regional Reporting for the 2003 Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage.
In a speech read on behalf of the Honourable Deputy Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture by Mrs Cudjoe, the minister expressed delight that such a workshop was being organised in Ghana to get the views and inputs of stakeholders to enrich the report.
According to him, Ghana ratified the 2003 UNESCO Convention in 2016 and has become one of the tools that is helping the nation and its concerned agencies within the heritage sector to safeguard Ghana’s intangible cultural heritage.
He said a lot has happened with and around our intangible cultural heritage and we need to properly document the changes for it to reflect in our intangible cultural heritage.
Our responsibility as a country, therefore, is to ensure that periodic reports are submitted to UNESCO as part of the reporting requirements for countries and this will encourage us as a nation to collect more information on the state of our ICH elements even beyond the confines of the convention. The periodic reporting exercise will generate, for the first time, data on systematically safeguarding living heritage in Africa.
The Honourable Deputy Minister said the knowledge that will be received during the workshop will go a long way to help us all properly handle information about Ghana’s intangible cultural heritage. It will help build our capacities that will help us safeguard it. He encouraged all present to engage well in this workshop so that the benefits would be evident in Ghana and support the National Folklore Board by providing information on the state of intangible cultural heritage from our various jurisdictions and regions.
He spoke about steps being taken by the Ministry to review the 2004 Culture Policy of Ghana which has measures to safeguard Ghana’s intangible cultural heritage. He applauded the National Folklore Board and thanked the UNESCO office in Ghana for their supervisory role.
The Director of the National Folklore Board, Mrs Bernice Deh-Kumah welcomed participants to the workshop and expressed her appreciation to the UNESCO Country office for their support.
According to her, the necessary measures have been put in place to safeguard Ghana’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) through for example raising awareness and building people’s capacities.
She said for the reporting of the 2003 Convention, a needs assessment was done through interviews with representatives from the relevant institutions and the workshop would enable her outfit to validate the information that had been collected.
Nevertheless, there are challenges to the availability of information and the lack of education and awareness on the part of the public and institutional and legislative frameworks to support the work of the National Folklore Board in Ghana.
According to Mrs Deh-Kumah, our ICH remains very relevant not only for the promotion of peace and cultural diversity but also can help us address challenges such as climate change and is the only legal text that is unique and efficient today.
The representative from UNESCO, Mr Carl Ampah also expressed the satisfaction of UNESCO that such a workshop was being held to solicit inputs to help finalise Ghana’s report on Intangible Cultural Heritage. The report when completed, would be submitted to UNESCO as part of Africa Regional Reporting on the 2003 UNESCO Convention.
Mr William Boateng, a Cultural Activist and a former Director at the Bureau of Ghana Languages took participants through the report for their inputs and revisions.