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- 203. The Chairperson thus pronounced the new paragraph 11 adopted. With no further comments or objections, the Chairperson declared Resolution 7.GA 7 adopted .

## AGENDA ITEM 7bis NGO FORUM REPORT

- 204. The Chairperson recalled the General Assembly 's Resolution 6.GA 8 in 2016 to include a point on the agenda of its current session inviting the NGO Forum to present its report.
- 205. The NGOForum representative , Mr Gustavo Caicedo Trevilla, thanked the Chairperson for the opportunity to speak at the opening of this General Assembly. In 2018, the Convention celebrated fifteen years of international cooperation for the safeguarding of living heritage practised throughout the globe. Living heritage in all its rich and fascinating diversity that is cherished by all. We live in vastly changing times of globalization, migratory movements, economic crisis and climate change. Given the fragility of numerous intangible cultural heritage practices that were facing enormous challenges, everyone must come together to collaborate, keeping in mind the value of intangible cultural heritage as a source of cultural diversity and a vector of sustainable development. The Convention was a pioneer in the United Nations in exploring the participation of civil society in heritage governance. It invited NGOsfrom all the world's regions to relate to the work of the Convention and to offer advisory services. There was transnational networking and cooperation among intangible cultural heritage communities, NGOs and heritage organizations. NGOs were contributing to achieving the goals of the Convention through concrete safeguarding activities, such as the report on the contribution of intangible cultural heritage to sustainable development in South Asia and the transnational cooperation project on intangible cultural heritage and museums 5 in European contexts. The NGO Forum's online journal #HeritageAlive for the exchange of experience from the field had reached a new milestone with the publication of a book on 6 traditional medicine in 2017 with support from the International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (ICHCAP).
- 206. The NGO Forum representative , Ms Jorijn Neyrinck, spoke of the collaborative and collective efforts by the accredited NGOsthat had gathered momentum through the ICH NGO Forum established some years ago. The Forum had developed this platform to communicate and coordinate with the accredited NGOs and it had delivered numerous outcomes already, dedicating considerable efforts for outreach and civil society involvement in the life of the Convention. These included capacity building for NGOs (thanks to the support of Indonesia and the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation in 2017), working groups addressing actual challenges faced in safeguarding work, and regional networks to develop network cooperation relationships and capacities in the regions. In addition, the Forum was continuously working towards a transparent and sustainable form of governance. Since the General Assembly in 2016, it had set up an association and a bank account for the sake of transparency, and to enhance cooperation and support possibilities with States Parties and other partners of the Convention. The Forum had held the first elections of its Steering Committee during the twelfth Committee session in the Republic of Korea. States Parties always welcomed the efforts of the Forum. At the end of 2017, the Committee had decided to invite the Secretariat and the ad hoc informal working group to reflect on possible ways to strengthen the participation of NGOs in the framework of the Convention in consultation with accredited NGOs, which would be reflected in the accreditation and renewal mechanisms of NGOs. The NGOs looked forward to the process and would continue to work constructively towards the objectives of the Convention and the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage around the world. The Forum thanked UNESCO for encouraging and giving NGOs the opportunity to share part of their safeguarding actions during this General Assembly, and it was pleased to invite the delegations to morning performances on 5 - 6 June. This exhibition was hosted by more than twenty NGOs from Asia, Europe, South America and Africa. In