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- education, as well as the transversal connection and synergies between the different culture Conventions, which attempted to meet ever-increasing new demands. In 2017, China had jointly convened with the Secretariat the meeting of open-ended intergovernmental working group on developing an overall results framework for the Convention. The International Training Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (CRIHAP), supported by China as a category 2 centre, had provided more than thirty capacity-building workshops in an effort to increase the capacity of Member States to safeguard intangible cultural heritage since its establishment in 2012. China would continue to provide assistance to the Secretariat and to make an active contribution to its work in this area.
- 141. The delegation of Sweden thanked the Secretariat for the elaborated and excellent report and for its hard work. In 2017, the Swedish Parliament passed a cultural heritage bill that took a holistic approach to cultural heritage, making it a separate policy area. The new policy would contribute to making common cultural heritage a concern for all, and it encouraged co- creation and involvement. When it comes to intangible cultural heritage, this co-creation is the very starting point, as it is always the practitioners who preserve, transmit and further develop intangible cultural heritage, and they are primarily non-profit actors and individuals. Civil society and NGOs therefore have a vital role to play in ensuring that intangible cultural heritage remains living and dynamic. The work in the implementation of this Convention should therefore promote and strengthen civil societies ' potential to preserve, transmit and develop intangible cultural heritage. The national inventory provided a unique opportunity for co-creation and non-profit involvement that also engaged national minorities. They consist of groups that do not necessarily relate to places, buildings or objects, but have a rich tradition, for example, in crafts, songs, music and stories. The Institute for Language and Folklore in Sweden employs methods to find ways of getting national minorities more involved in the work of the inventory. In 2017, for example, several items of intangible heritage of the Roma people were inscribed on the inventory. Sweden emphasized the role of civil society in its work with the Convention and it therefore wished to highlight the importance of UNESCO in promoting the commitment and participation of civil societies. The delegation appreciated agenda item 7 that included the ICH NGOForumreport. However, it wished to see a separate agenda item attributed to the NGO Forum at the next meeting so that NGOs would be given the opportunity to have an interactive discussion and play a constant role in the overall work of the Convention on equal terms.
- 142. The delegation of Senegal congratulated the Secretariat for the quality of its report, especially for its hard work despite the reduced human and financial resources. It remarked that the involvement of intangible cultural heritage in education was extremely important. For almost two and a half years, Senegal had been carrying out field work on its inventory, which had just received significant support from UNESCO. The delegation congratulated the Secretariat for providing this assistance that would allow it to finalize this work with universities, research institutes, and communities. Senegal was working with some universities as part of the implementation of action plans and safeguarding plans related to the inventory. The most important point, however, was that communities, the custodians of cultural heritage, were involved in the process and that universities went directly to the level of the communities to share knowledge and know-how so that the content of the curricula could be defined. For this reason, Senegal facilitated this link between communities and researchers, students and teachers, and even primary and elementary schools. The work on the inventory thus included teachers and young students from these communities so as to better appropriate this heritage and its safeguarding. Colombia had spoken earlier of recognizing the knowledge of these communities and of teachers-in-training. In 2005 - 2006, Senegal started to celebrate so- called ' living human treasures ' and for two - three years it had appointed holders of this knowledge and know-how in the register of living human treasures so as to ensure continuity in the chain of transmission. Today, it might appear important to inscribe elements on the Representative List, but it was much more important and urgent to work in the field to find and collect these elements of intangible cultural heritage, especially as they form the basis of informal education in Senegal. For example, initiation rites were still very much respected in the societies of the south and south-east of Senegal where they transmit values of culture,