ICHCAP

The Southern African ICH Cooperation Platform (SAICH Platform) launched its newsletter, SAICH NEWS, in October. The SAICH Platform was created in February 2015 to coordinate the work of the UNESCO/FLANDERS Project on Strengthening Sub-regional Cooperation and National Capacities in Seven Southern African Countries for implementing the 2003 Convention. The seven participating countries in this project are Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Funded by the Flanders government (Belgium), the platform operates under the auspices of UNESCO, and the host institution is Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) in Zimbabwe.

The mission of the SAICH Platform is to build a vibrant sub-regional platform for the protection, preservation, and promotion of ICH. Visibility of the SAICH Platform is maintained through its interactive website (saich.org) and the CUT website (cut.ac.zw/saich) as well as the recently launched newsletter, which is linked to those same two websites.

Volume number 1 of the newsletter provides details of the SAICH Platform’s activities since it was established in 2015. Future issues of SAICH News will focus more on the activities in the seven participating countries.

As the SAICH Platform grows, there are plans to digitally produce more text, audio, and visual materials for widef distribution as well as create documentaries, journal articles, and academic books. In the area of policy development, a small start has already been made with the SAICH Platform workshop that was held in Lusaka in early October 2016 to discuss and develop strategies on how best to provide advisory services for the responsible authorities in the participating countries on policy development and legislation in the field of ICH.