- the key areas referred to in the report also figured in the Committee's report just examined under item 5. This was normal as the Committee and the Secretariat work in tandem, i.e., the Committee's decisions are often operationalized by the Secretariat's activities. In this context, the document was organized in three parts. The first part was dedicated to key achievements, the second part presented some of the key challenges and ways forward, and the annex contained a detailed table presenting an assessment of progress against targets for the five performance indicators of the 38 C/5. While the report was indeed comprehensive, the Secretary wished to focus his presentation on the key issues that had implications for the future. He began with the statutory support provided by the Secretariat. From the document, it was noted that the Secretariat's volume of work remained large with no less than eighteen statutory meetings organized during the reporting period. The near universal ratification was a sign that the Convention was attracting States and was thus considered as a key instrument in addressing today's issues. Concerning the International Assistance mechanism, it was recalled that in 2016 the General Assembly had decided to increase the ceiling of International Assistance examined by the Bureau from US$25,000 to US$100,000, which had notably attracted Member States. Since that decision, 78 per cent of International Assistance requests received had gone to the Bureau of the Committee. This meant that States did not need to choose between International Assistance and nominating files to the Lists or to the Register. However, much remained to be done in analysing and monitoring the results of the implementation of these projects, which had the potential to become a major learning tool for intangible cultural heritage safeguarding, which would be further discussed under item 8. Another key area of work concerned knowledge management , which plays a central role in terms of visibility and as a key working tool for both the Secretariat and the States Parties. In this sense, the website of the 2003 Convention was considered as an important clearinghouse for intangible cultural heritage. New, major improvements were made, for example, the online submission of periodic reports, which were detailed in the document. The Secretary was proud to announce that there had been an increase of more than 60 per cent of page viewers compared to the previous biennium, reaching 7.5M hits on the Convention 's website. In addition, 28 May 2018 had seen the launch of the Convention's website in Arabic thanks to the generous contribution of the Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud Foundation from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Secretary took the opportunity to renew a call for future contributions to be able to maintain the clearinghouse function of the website both in Arabic and in Spanish.
- 123. With regard to the overall results framework , the Secretary explained that this involved considerable work, and would be further discussed under agenda item 9. The Secretary then turned to capacity building , which also benefitted from major efforts and support on the part of the Secretariat. This formed the basis of the Secretariat's operational action in support of States Parties for the implementation of the Convention. It therefore remained a high priority for the Secretariat and Member States. Seventy countries had directly benefitted from this programme during the reporting period. It operated thanks to the global network of expert facilitators who were trained regularly. The capacity-building programme started in 2011 and it was therefore time to take a review. Following a number of activities to draw lessons, make strategic assessments and look towards the future, it seemed that this was now moving to a new phase. This included a stronger focus on strengthening institutional capacities and developing national networks of trainers. Tertiary education also had a key role to play to support the capacity-building strategy in the implementation of the Convention, as universities train the future administrators and decision-makers for intangible cultural heritage. The main challenge of capacity-building is that it needs to be continually adapted to the evolving needs of States Parties, and that demand still exceeded the Secretariat's delivery capacity. This was why capacity-building remained and continued to remain a funding priority, as approved by the Committee. The other new funding priority, which was approved by the Committee at its twelfth session in December 2017, was education. Indeed, during the reporting period, the Secretariat had started focusing more intensely on this key yet thus far relatively neglected safeguarding measure of the Convention, namely, the transmission of intangible cultural heritage through formal and non-formal education (referred