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- useful for raising awareness and outreach so as to include a wider spectrum of stakeholders and communities.
- 54. The delegation of Burkina Faso congratulated the Chairperson on her election and reiterated its support for the actions of the Committee at its eleventh and twelfth sessions, as reported by Mr Byong-hyun Lee. It also congratulated the Secretary, Mr Tim Curtis, and his team for the genuine friendship conveyed between the Secretariat and the officials in charge of culture in Burkina Faso. The delegation spoke of the financial and technical assistance that Burkina Faso had received to undertake an intangible cultural heritage inventory; a project that had recently closed with a kind letter from the Secretariat. It was noted that Burkina Faso was currently preparing its second national report for 2019.
- 55. The delegation of China congratulated the Chairperson on her election and the Assistant Director-General for Culture on his new position. It was noted that there were fifteen new States Parties to the Convention with an increasing number of countries committing to the protection of the world's cultural heritage. It also thanked Ethiopia and the Republic of Korea for hosting the two Committee meetings, and Mauritius for having accepted to host the next Committee session. The Committee had achieved a lot over the last two years, in particular, in strengthening capacities and the International Assistance programme, in ensuring high- quality periodic reports, and in developing the overall results framework. The Committee is a very important body for the implementation of the Convention and it was hoped that the Committee would continue to strengthen capacities among States Parties so that they could protect their intangible cultural heritage.
- 56. The delegation of Sri Lanka extended its congratulations to the newly elected Chairperson, Vice-Chairs and the Rapporteur. Sri Lanka has a recorded history of over 2,500 years with its intangible cultural heritage going beyond this period. Rich in tangible and intangible cultural heritage, it accorded great significance to its protection and promotion. While updating the registries of sites and monuments, as well as the national inventories, Sri Lanka also explored information technology in updating databases, and in creating public awareness campaigns and education. Special emphasis was given to protecting and supporting the practitioners of intangible cultural heritage, while motivating younger generations to continue their traditions. In this respect, Sri Lanka was thankful for UNESCO for its capacity-building assistance in developing national policy for intangible cultural heritage and the training of practitioners. Sri Lanka looked forward to the deliberations and outcomes of this Assembly. The delegation then spoke of the decreasing budgets at UNESCO, yet worldwide economic growth continued unabated. In Asia, 100 million people had come out of poverty every year for the last eight to nine years. Given this discrepancy, the delegation urged the leadership to look beyond the organization in trying to raise funds rather than managing with reduced budgets. It was happy to support these efforts and it commended the new Director- General's vision to raise funding in a different manner, rather than solely relying on contributions from Member States. For example, Harvard University has an endowment of US$179B. Thus, modern ways to raise funds for UNESCO should be sought.
- 57. The Secretary recalled the question on the dual option used last year and whether it would continue in future sessions, explaining that he was unable to answer for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the dual option was proposed by the Evaluation Body, and thus the Evaluation Body would determine whether it wished to continue when it met in June and September 2018. Secondly, the Secretary recalled that the Evaluation Body had suggested in 2017 that this procedure had been established on an exceptional basis owing to the fact that the new form under criterion R.5 had not yet been used. In this way, submitting States that had yet to benefit from the new form and had missed out some factual information could easily clarify at the time.
- 58. The Chairperson then turned to the resolution on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis. With no comments or objections, the Chairperson declared Resolution 7.GA 5 adopted .