Work Plan for FY 2021

1. Activity Focus and the Overview of Research Projects
The Work Plan for FY 2021 is developed under the scheme of IRCI’s Medium-term
Programme, which was approved at the 4th Governing Board Meeting of IRCI (25September 2015). In FY 2021, IRCI will look back on its achievements in the past andplan new projects with the aim of envisioning the future direction of IRCI.
As for the continuing projects in FY 2021, there are 3 projects in total planned under
Activity Focus I (Promoting Research for ICH Safeguarding), and 1 project under Activity
Focus II (Research on ICH Safeguarding and Disaster-Risk Management) (Table 1).

Figure 1: Timeline of research projects in Medium-Term Programme
FY2016FY2017FY2018FY2019FY2020

FY2021

Activity Focus I. Promoting Research for ICH Safeguarding
International
International
Experts Meeting
Conference
Literature Survey on ICH Safeguarding Research in Asia-PacificCountries
Research Data Collection on ICH Safeguarding in the Asia-Pacific Region and
Optimisation of its Use
Sustainable Research Data Collection for ICH Safeguarding in
the Asia-Pacific Region
Researchers
Researchers
Researchers
Forum
Forum
Forum
Multi-disciplinary Study on ICH’s
Research on ICH Contribution to SDGs
Contribution to Sustainable– Education and Community
Development - Focusing on Education
Development

Activity Focus II. Research on ICH Safeguarding and Disaster Risk Management
Preliminary Research on ICH
Safeguarding and Disaster Risk
Management

Asia-Pacific Regional
WorkshopResearch on ICH Safeguarding and DRM

Study of Emergency Protection of ICH in Conflict-Affected Countries in Asia

1 / 10Table1: List of FY 2021 research projects

Activity Focus I. Promoting Research for ICH Safeguarding
Sustainable Research Data Collection for ICH Safeguarding in the Asia-Pacific Region
Research on ICH Contribution to SDGs – Education and Community Development
New project
Researchers Forum
Activity Focus II. Research on ICH and Disaster Risk Management
Research on ICH Safeguarding and Disaster Risk Management
Activity Focus I: Promoting Research for ICH Safeguarding
Specific Contents of Activities
Promote research for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, through conducting
the following activities regarding the practices and methodologies of safeguarding, incooperation with research institutions and researchers working in the Asia-Pacific region:(i) Instigate research activities and develop the researchers’ community throughinternational conferences, experts meetings, and publications;(ii) Examine and develop strategies for optimizing the use of research data, whilecollecting research information.
(Section III(1), Medium-term Programme)

IRCI has implemented a research project based on the mapping of research information
pertaining to the safeguarding of ICH in the Asia-Pacific region for 6 years from FY 2013
to FY 2018.
This ‘Mapping Project’, aiming at instigating research for ICH safeguarding in the AsiaPacific region through analysing current trends and challenges, has been carried out in
the

form

of

three

inter-related

sub-projects

Since

FY

2016:

international

conferences/experts meetings, systematic literature survey, and optimisation of the useof research information with the database.
After six years of implementation, the project was reviewed and new projects were
proposed in FY 2019 to develop an alternative framework for collecting research data andto prospect the future direction of the IRCI research as a whole.
As for the project “Research on ICH Contribution to SDGs – Education and Community
Development” (FY 2020-FY 2021), IRCI has started a case study on the contribution of
intangible cultural heritage to SDG 4 and 11 in FY2020, based on the accumulated
expertise of the project “Multi-disciplinary Study on ICH’s Contribution to Sustainable
Development- Focusing on Education” carried out from FY 2018 to FY 2019. IRCI will
implement these cases in 2021 as a project to examine these cases in more depth.

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The Researcher Forum has been held every other year since 2017, and a wide range of
discussions have been held among researchers on intangible cultural heritage. Since
FY2021 is the 10th anniversary of IRCI's establishment, the third forum will bepositioned as a commemorative event. In addition, this forum will also look back on
IRCI's past 10-year research projects and IRCI will utilize them when formulating thenext Medium- term and Long-term Programme. Following the event, IRCI and Sakai
City will collaborate to hold a public event on intangible cultural heritage to further
spread the understanding of the 2003 Convention to the general public.

Activity Focus II: Research on ICH and Disaster Risk Management
Specific Contents of Activities
Conduct research on the current status and the cases of the safeguarding of intangible
cultural heritage in the Asia-Pacific region that are endangered by disasters such as
natural hazards, as well as research on the role of ICH for disaster preparedness and in
the post-disaster recovery process, in consideration of UNESCO’s focus in the MediumTerm Strategy (37C/4) on the response to post-conflict and post-disaster situations(PCPD).
(Section III(2), Medium-term Programme)

This Activity Focus was devised in consideration of UNESCO’s concern on post-conflictand post-disaster (PCPD) situations, as described in its Medium-term Strategy 2014-2021(37C/4). The emphasis on this issue has been further strengthened in the latest
Programme and Budget (39C/5 and Draft 40C/5), with a cross-cutting ER 5 stating‘Culture protected and cultural pluralism promoted in emergencies through better
preparedness and response’. This Activity Focus also reflects growing national andinternational interests in the heritage management in the context of disasters, in which
importance of ICH has been increasingly recognised. Against this backdrop, IRCI has
undertaken two projects during the current medium-term: one focusing on natural
hazards and disasters, and the other related to conflict. The importance of these projects
by IRCI has been acknowledged by various researchers and organisations in the world,
including the latest sessions of the Intergovernmental Committee in 2017 and 2018, andthe experts meeting in 2019 which highlighted the agenda on the safeguarding of ICH

under emergencies. Also, in the 8th General Assembly of the 2003 Convention recently
organized in September 2020, “Operational principles and modalities for safeguarding
intangible cultural heritage in emergencies” was adopted.
In addition, the global spread of the COVID-19 infection that occurred in the first half of2020 raised great interest in research on ICH and pandemic. In response to this serious
situation, IRCI will take an urgent step toward exploring research areas as a new factor
that threatens the transmission of ICH, taking into account the outcomes of various

3 / 10surveys including the UNESCO online survey on Living heritage experiences and COVID19.

2. Individual Project Outlines
Activity Focus I. Promoting Research for ICH Safeguarding

Sustainable Research Data Collection for ICH Safeguarding in the Asia-PacificRegionPeriod of implementation: FY 2019-2021
Geographic focus:

Entire Asia-Pacific region

Background: With regard to the Mapping Project that was concluded in FY2018, somechallenges were identified by analysing the project outcomes. One of the challenges isthe difficulty to collect the information through the individual researchers. The
background of the challenge is: A majority of the countries in Asia-Pacific region ratified
the 2003 convention (44 countries as of October 2020), nonetheless, a basic
understanding such as the definition of ICH has not been popularised thoroughly among
the research institutions and government officials and there are still many countries thatare seeking or beginning to make inventories and to develop national laws, and thesituation of each countries varies. Moreover, there is a limited number of experts in theacademic fields related to ICH such as anthropology at the local level, given that from a
global perspective, research resources are distributed unevenly. Furthermore, high riskof loss of archived research data due to poor storage conditions and limited access was
also revealed. In order to overcome these challenges, from FY 2019, IRCI systematicallycollaborated with research institutions such as universities instead of individual
researchers, and established a cooperative mechanism for the sustainable ICH researchdata collection. This promotes to gain profound understanding of ICH and betterknowledge of the 2003 Convention and encourages the area studies by researchers
including young researchers, and this, conclusively, is expected to contribute to thesafeguarding of ICH. By FY 2020, IRCI developed activities in collaboration with 11
institutions (universities and research institutes) in 6 Asian countries, centered on
National Counterparts, participated in the research data collection and spread theunderstanding of ICH research. In addition, National workshops (on the web) on
challenges related to ICH research were held cooperated with the counterparts, anddifficulties found in research and also future plans were discussed.
Purpose:In FY 2021, while assessing the response of research institutions in eachcountry due to COVID-19, the existing national counterpart will build a network of

4 / 10research institutions such as universities in their own country and promote theenhancement of data collection systems, and IRCI will add the collected data to the
database. In the end, this will be verified as an effective information gathering scheme
as a practice useful for application in other regions. Furthermore, in collaboration with 11
institutions that IRCI have cooperated with so far, IRCI will analyse the challenges
regarding ICH research that have become clear in the process of data collection in theregion, and from this point, IRCI will clarify the challenges of research that IRCI should
aim for and also discuss the use of the IRCI Research Database. Discussions on theanalysis of this challenge will be opened to young researchers at cooperating universities,
and opinions will be widely sought.
Progress/preparatory activities (during/before FY 2020): The specific activities in the
FY 2020 is the followings:- A national workshop (27-28 July) at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia was held on
the web, with a total of 34 researchers participating, and two new universities haveestablished a system to cooperate in the project.
- A national workshop (4 August) at the University of Malaya in Malaysia was held on theweb, with a total of 32 researchers participating, and three new universities haveestablished a system for cooperation in the project.
- The University of the Philippines (UP), Faculty of Cultural Anthropology of Thammasat
University, and Vietnam Institute of Cultural Arts Studies (VICAS) have signed the MoU
to start research data collection in collaboration with IRCI. Thammasat University plans
to collect data in collaboration with one institution, and VICAS plans to collaborate withtwo domestic institutions to collect information.
Specific activities for FY 2021:

Since the activities of universities and research

institutions are limited due to the large impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, IRCI willproceed with activities while assessing the situation in each country. National
Counterparts that have been collaborating since FY2019 will promote the construction of
networks and the expansion of data collection systems in each country.
1. The National Counterparts (NC) will expand their network with domestic research
institutions and collect further research data.
2. IRCI will analyse the research data collected over the three years and make a proposal
for overcoming the challenges and enhancing research in the region, and publish it on
the IRCI website.
3. The National Counterparts and IRCI will hold a symposium to discuss and summarise
the above two points. IRCI will aim to build a mechanism to promote ICH research,
including the training of young researchers, in order to activate research activities.
4. The data collected in the above section 1. will be added to the IRCI Research Database.
Specific outputs:

The challenges of ICH research in the Asia-Pacific region will be

5 / 10clarified, and the direction of research promotion based on it will be decided. The collected
research data will be published in IRCI Research Database.
Project partners/cooperating researchers and organisations:
Research institutions in selected countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including universities,
museums, and other relevant organisations.
*See attached PDM (IRCI/2020/9GB/7/Annex 2a) for the detailed project design andbenchmarks.

Activity Focus I. Promoting Research for ICH Safeguarding

Research on ICH’s Contribution to SDGs – Education and Community
Development
Period of implementation: FY 2020-2021
Geographic focus:

Entire Asia-Pacific region

Background: On 25 September 2015, the 70th General Assembly of the United Nations
adopted the resolution “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development”. The Agenda sets the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which
consist of 17 goals and 169 targets. The SDGs are the common goals shared by theinternational community to realise the sustainable world in order to leave no one behind.
UNESCO emphasises the contribution of culture to the sustainable development. In the
Major Programme Ⅳof the 39C/5, UNESCO outlines the contribution of culture to theSDGs, where the potential contribution of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is expected
in SDGs 2, 4, 5, 11 and 17. At the twelfth session of the Intergovernmental Committee,
a decision was made to dedicate its second funding priority to the safeguarding of ICH informal and non-formal education, testifying a growing need for its contribution to thegoal 4, which stipulates “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote
lifelong learning opportunities for all”. In this context, in FY2018-2019, IRCI conducted
the project that testifies ICH contribution to SDG 4, using ICH into formal and non-formal
education in Viet Nam and the Philippines respectively, and the international workshops
were held to share the outcomes with the related stakeholders including UNESCO. Then,
IRCI launched a 2-year project to analyse the ICH roles in SDG 4 and SDG 11 by collecting
a series of case studies.
Purpose: ICH in the Asia-Pacific Region is facing the challenges of ICH transmission due
to various internal and external factors. As a safeguarding measure focusing on SDGs,
IRCI will conduct a series of case studies expecting to find the clues to solve the problem.
The case studies will be initiated by two NGO/institution which relates to ICH (including
traditional knowledge), education, community development and its analysed result will
be revealed the relevance of three elements. Besides, the impact and effective measures

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on the ICH safeguarding will be examined. Furthermore, the impact on the community
where transfers the ICH, will be studied. The analysis and verification of the case studies
between the previous project (FY 2018-2019) focusing on only SDG4 and the current
project focusing on both SDG4 and SDG11 will lead consideration of ICH safeguarding
which accommodates with diverse Asia communities.
Progress/preparatory activities (during/before FY 2021): The feasibility study has
begun in some NGO/institution in the Asia-Region, through emails, web meetings, andquestionnaires asking the possibility of the case studies. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak,
only a limited number of the institutions are possible to conduct the case studies.
Therefore, the partner institutions will be selected assessing the future situation. In
October, IRCI and Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) agreed to conduct case studies mainlyin the urban area and rural area. Regarding the DAM in Bangladesh, IRCI has exchanged
opinions with DAM since 2019 and DAM is highly interested in this project from theirexperience of solving comprehensive social issues such as poverty, human rights, and theenvironment through education. Similarly, Dewi Fortuna Community Learning Center(DFCLC) (Indonesia) and Taalim-Forum Public Foundation (TFPF) (Kyrgyz Republic)
agreed to join the project to address their own social issues such as globalization andgender inequality by studying the relationship among intangible cultural heritage andeducation, especially non-formal education and community development. However, as
the expansion of COVID-19 is a big issue for Asia-Region, the research methodology is
still under consideration.
Specific activities for FY 2021:
1. The field surveys for the case studies are conducted in the area, in particular, where
sufficient field surveys were yet to be conducted due to the COVID-19 in FY 2020.
2. The outcomes will be verified at the workshop with local stakeholders, related experts
of ICH, education and community development. The lessons and challenges learned
from the workshop will be discussed at the regional symposium at the end of the fiscal
year. At the symposium, a discussion will be made for the above purpose inviting
experts from partner institutions, former project (FY 2018-2019) partners (from thePhilippines and Vietnam), and Japanese experts.
3. As a final fiscal year, the project report with the 2 years collection of case studies andoutcomes of the symposium will be published on the IRCI website.
Specific outputs:

Project report with a collection of case studies

Project partners/cooperating researchers and organisations:

Research

7 / 10institutions, CLCs, local museums, and NGOs
*See attached PDM (IRCI/2020/9GB/7/Annex 2b) for the detailed project design andbenchmarks.

Activity Focus I: Promoting Research for ICH Safeguarding

Researchers Forum（New）
Period of implementation:
Geographic focus:

FY 2021

Entire Asia-Pacific region

Background: Studies on ICH are carried out by experts in various academic fields fromtheir respective standpoints, and challenges related to ICH safeguarding and transmission
are also widely discussed. It is necessary, therefore, to analyse them for the effective
safeguarding of ICH in the region.
Purpose: IRCI was established in FY 2011 as a Category 2 Centre of UNESCO with theaim of contributing to the promotion of the 2003 Convention by instigating andcoordinating research, and will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2021. Since the Mediumterm and Long-term Programme will start in FY 2022, the 3rd Researcher Forum will beheld to look back on the IRCI research projects that have been carried out in the past 10
years and discuss the direction that IRCI should aim for.
Specific activities for FY2021：
１．

An academic symposium consisting of presentations and panel discussions will
be held. Speakers will be selected from researchers from about eight IRCI
partner institutions, researchers and practitioners in the field of intangible
cultural heritage, etc., who have collaborated in the past programmes.
＊Online meeting will be envisaged depending on the situation of COVID-19
pandemic.

２．

IRCI will contact relevant organisations before the forum to gather opinions andcomments on IRCI's research activities. This enables discussions that reflect theopinions of more stakeholders.

３．

Summarise and publish the contents of the meeting

Specific outputs:

Proceedings that summarise the latest challenges of promoting the2003 Convention in the Asia-Pacific region and the current status and challenges ofresearch on ICH will be published.

8 / 10Needs for IRCI's future research promotion activities will be gathered.
Project partners/cooperating researchers and organisations: Researchers of about
8 IRCI partner institutions, researchers and practitioners in the field of intangible
cultural heritage, etc. who have cooperated so far*See attached PDM (IRCI/2020/9GB/7/Annex 2c) for the detailed project design andbenchmarks.

Activity Focus II. Research on ICH Safeguarding and Disaster Risk Management

Research on ICH Safeguarding and Disaster Risk Management
Period of implementation: FY 2020-2022
Geographic focus: Entire Asia-Pacific region
Background:

The importance of ICH in the context of natural disasters has recently

been widely recognised, but the situation still requires active involvement of ICH sector.
At the “Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop on ICH and Natural Disasters” that IRCI held in
2018, roles of ICH in disaster preparedness, disaster mitigation and disaster resilience
were discussed. These various aspects of ICH should be reflected in DRM.
In addition, the global spread of COVID-19 that occurred in early 2020 has become apandemic worldwide and has a great impacts on the practice and succession of ICH. While
natural disasters affect both tangible and intangible cultural heritage due to its correlation,
it seems to negative impacts of epidemics concentrated on ICH. Although there is noprospect of convergence of COVID-19 at this time, it is considered that information
gathering on the impact on ICH should be started at an early stage.
Purpose: Building upon the preliminary survey conducted since 2016 and the results
obtained at the workshop held in 2018, research on the effectiveness of ICH in the context
of disaster preparedness, disaster mitigation and disaster resilience and the measures for
safeguarding ICH from natural disasters is conducting. IRCI aims to collect case studies
to be applied to examine the effectiveness of the matrix developed by IRCI in FY 2020
which shows preparedness for each potential risk for ICH associated with different typesof natural disaster and the role of ICH in post-disaster resilience. IRCI will deepen
cooperation between institutions as a collaborator, mainly researchers working in the areaof ICH and disaster prevention, and government agencies involved in disaster risk
management and cultural policy.

Specific activities for FY 2021：

9 / 101. IRCI will collect case studies on ICH in the context of natural disasters in cooperation
with approximately two counterparts in the Asia-Pacific region.
2. The results will be discussed with local experts. Based on these works IRCI will
improve the matrix in cooperation with researchers, institutions and communities
involved.
3. Target countries will be selected in the expert meeting.
4. IRCI will collect information on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on ICH in viewof thorough assessment in the region.
Specific outputs:

Project report

Project partners/cooperating researchers and organisations:- Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties- National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka- ICH/DRM researchers in the research institutions in the Asia-Pacific Region andoptionally those in the other regions*See attached PDM (IRCI/2020/9GB/7/Annex 2d) for the detailed project design andbenchmarks.

3. Cooperation with Sakai City
In accordance with its Medium-term Programme, and within the framework of its
mandate as specified in the Agreement between UNESCO and the Government of Japan,
IRCI has been contributing to the projects carried out by Sakai City for promoting ICH to
the general public.
In FY 2021, in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of IRCI,
Sakai City will organise a symposium followed by the IRCI Researchers Forum, where an
exhibition on ICH of the city will also be planned to raise the public awareness onimportance of ICH safeguarding as well as to increase the visibility of IRCI. In addition,
IRCI will collaborate in organising seminars with Sakai City as well as display panels
introducing IRCI’s research activities and disseminate brochures and leaflets at the Sakai
City Museum.

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