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- Parties.
- 379. Congratulating the Vice-Chair, the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic was fully confident in the very constructive dialogue established by the working group, and noted that the Secretariat was doing its best to ensure that the group's efforts were transformed into decisions for a more active participation of NGOs in the implementation of the Convention. In the case of the Syrian Arab Republic, Syrian NGOs had played pioneering roles and been given the opportunity to become advisory members of the first evaluation group. This group of NGOs had contributed immensely to the visibility of the Convention in Syria, and particularly in making this Convention accessible at the level of public institutions working in the field of intangible heritage in the country, for which they played a very important role in the creation of the first Register of Syrian Intangible Cultural Heritage where 400 elements were inventoried, constituting a very important step in partnership with the country's official bodies. This transparency meant that this group of NGOs was always present in consultative bodies at the NGO level, and the delegation thanked the Secretariat and the States Parties for providing the NGO Forum with the financial support to allow the organization of this meeting and consequently to better implement the Convention.
- 380. The delegation of Senegal noted that there was only one African NGO from Zimbabwe on the list of NGOs, which clearly demonstrated a problem of under-representation and that all States Parties shared this responsibility, particularly African States. It was thus imperative that States working with NGOs encourage and help them apply for accreditation. This was the lesson to take away, as one had to be realistic and recognize that States could play a more active role. The delegation had worked with at least three NGOs in the past two and a half years, adding that something had to be done from the State s' side to help these NGOs. Considering the important role that NGOsplayed in the work of inventories, capacity building, and mobilizing communities, States should engage them to a greater extent at the UNESCO level so as to resolve under-representation from within the States themselves.
- 381. The delegation of Finland welcomed the fruitful efforts of the NGOForum to coordinate NGO activities in recent years to develop capacity-building regional networks, international cooperation for safeguarding projects, and the publication and exchanges of the #HeritageAlive online journal. It also welcomed and supported the reflection on the modalities of accreditation, while considering other possible roles for NGOsin relation to the Convention. The NGOForum had demonstrated in recent years its important role in building cooperation, efficiency and confidence among NGOs, as well as in relation to the Convention's work and meetings. So far, the work of coordinating the activities of some 150 NGOs from all over the world had been conducted through voluntary work without many financial options. It was hoped that ways to support the work of the NGO Forum could be found; an issue that the ad hoc working group could take up in its agenda. One example of NGO cooperation was the 8 Nordic Safeguarding Practices, an initiative of NGOs to share good practices among Nordic countries. The delegation also supported the idea of examining the good practices of other Conventions regarding the participation of NGOs, especially the 2005 Convention.
- 382. The delegation of Turkey welcomed the accreditation of the twenty-nine NGOs, three of which were based in Turkey, adding that NGOs played a key role in this Convention and it always looked forward to benefitting from their advisory services. The co-Chair of the informal ad hoc working group from the Philippines had eloquently summarized the outcomes of the working group with regard to NGO participation, but the upcoming working group would continue to address the challenges of NGO participation and how to further utilize their potential and the renewal mechanism under the Convention. The delegation also sought a more geographically balanced number of accredited NGOs, which was also the responsibility of States Parties, as mentioned by Senegal. It therefore called upon States Parties from under-represented electoral groups to encourage their NGOs in that regard.
- 383. The delegation of Palestine concurred with the remarks so far, including from Turkey on geographical distribution. It noted that Document 11 clearly referenced the Resolutions, yet