The UNESCO’s Culture Program’s Priorities in Viet Nam ... · The UNESCO’s Culture Program’s...

The UNESCO’s Culture Program’s Priorities in Viet Nam (2012-2016)

United NationsEducational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization

,

Ha Noi OfficeOffice of the Representative tothe Socialist Republic of Viet Nam

For more information on UNESCO Culture Program and possibilities to

join hands to promote the role of culture for sustainable development in

Viet Nam, please contact :

UNESCO Office in Viet Nam23 Cao Ba Quat, Ha Noi

Tel. : +84 (4) 37 47 02 75Email : [email protected]

Thematic area 1: Cultural HeritageThe overarching goal of the thematic area “Cultural Heritage” will be to strengthen governance of the culture sector to ensure inclu-sive and sustainable growth. Current high growth rates, rapid ur-banization and unsustainable tourism development continue to put pressure on Viet Nam’s cultural heritage and those who manage it. Finding ways to keep the balance between preservation of cultural heritage and socio-economic development, whereby the country’s cultural heritage is adequately managed while its contribution to sustainable development is maximized, remains a challenge and will be the broad outcome of this thematic area.

Thematic area 2: Cultural CreativityThe overarching goal of the thematic area “Cultural Creativity” will be to create an enabling environment for cultural creativity and expression to flourish in Viet Nam. Support will be provided to strengthen the creative economy, which transforms creativity as raw material into assets, offering new employment opportuni-ties and forms of revenue at the local level. An emphasis of this thematic area will also be given to ensuring that vulnerable com-munities and individuals participate fully in cultural life, maximize their capacity for creative expression and enjoyment of diverse cultural goods and services. These are fundamental to the building of socially inclusive and creative societies and enhancing overall quality of life.

Thematic area 3: Cultural DiversityThe overarching goal of the thematic area “Cultural Diversity” will be to ensure that development policies and interventions are culturally appropriate, so that cultural diversity continues to flour-ish in Viet Nam. It will mainly target the country’s ethnic minor-ity com-munities, as it has become apparent that socio-economic growth has not benefited the Kinh/Hoa and the minority groups equally, because of the application of a “one-size-fits-all” ap-proach. This thematic area will promote culturally appropriate approaches, which will on the one hand ensure that the cultures of ethnic minorities are not negatively impacted and on the other hand contribute to the effectiveness of development projects and interventions.

Culture is a source of personal pride. It has the power to inspire and unify, and it can reveal a nation at its best to the outside world. The unique, transformative power of culture can be lever-aged to improve socio - economic conditions in communities that often have a rich cultural heritage but in which people nevertheless sometimes live in poverty.

The cultural sector offers a great and unexplored potential for partnerships. Partnerships in the area of culture can bridge the funding gap of public entities, provide interesting investment op-portunities for the private sector, but require environmentally and socially sound approaches that respect and benefit local communities. Such partnerships offer opportunities to develop capacities, transfer knowledge and excellence and foster entrepreneurship. It aims to optimize the compara-tive advantage of each partner and pool resources, while maintaining a balance between public and private interests, ensuring transparency and mitigating high transaction costs.

Capitalizing on UNESCO’s recent achievements in promoting culture as a driver and enabler of peace and sustainable development, strictly complying with gender equality and human rights principles, and involving a wide range of stakeholders including international organizations, gov-ernments, civil society, the private sector and the general public, UNESCO’s Culture Program in Viet Nam will focus on 3 thematic areas : Cultural Heritage, Cultural Creativity and Cultural Diversity.

Creative industries development for the diversity of Cultural expres-sions – strengthening the sustainability of Creative industry in viet nam

In Viet Nam, the creative industries are in a relatively early stage of development – the country is still in its infancy as a market econo-my and sector growth has been suppressed by a rigid approach to subsidy in culture, low levels of awareness of the potential for the creative industries, weak demand from a mar-ket which has not prioritized higher value creative goods and services, widespread intellectual property infringement, inappro-priate business management capacity and specialist business support for cultural actors.

To address these challenges and capitalize on the great abundance of creative talents in Viet Nam, the Government is currently develop-ing the Framework into a National Strategy for Creative Industries to 2020, which is planned to be approved by the Prime Minister by the end of 2013.

UNESCO recognizes a major opportunity to develop an inclusive range of connected activities under-pinned by partnership and proposes the project “Creative industries development for the diver-sity of cultural expressions – strengthening the sustainability of creative industry in Viet Nam”, which aims to support the Government of Viet Nam in bringing this strategy into full operation.

The overall objective is to establish a regionally recognized and appreciated cultural sector, which contributes significantly to the country’s economic growth, cultural wellbeing and social cohesion.

The specific objective is to strengthen the policy framework, capacity, confidence and coordination of cultural actors to realize their potential in contributing to the country’s economic growth and sustainable development.

Project timeline : 4 yearsBudget : 800,000 USD

Activities

• Networking and branding: launch a national cultural sector entrepreneurs’ net-work, events programme and website; launch a Creative Viet Nam brand;

• Talent building: pilot training programs to promote creativity, entrepreneurship and management in selected schools, universities and for small businesses;

• Intellectual Property: pilot capacity building programs on Intellectual Property rights; establish online specialist Intellectual Property services;

• Infrastructure: pilot cultural mapping and setting up of creative clusters in selected locations;

• Investment: review international and national investment policies and models; deliver planning, feasibility and testing for a creative loan fund;

• Audience: establish an audience devel-opment programme to build new audiences, deepen existing audience relationships and diversify audiences for the culture sector;

• Policy: provide policy recommendations based on successful pilots.

Development of an aDaptive tourism strategy in WorlD Heritage areas

Viet Nam is one of the four high risk coun-tries in Asia affected by climate change, with an annual loss of 1.5% of the GDP caused by severe weather. The central region, home to four World Heritage sites in Vietnam (Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park, Hue Complex of Monuments, Hoi An Ancient Town, My Son Sanctuary) and Cham Island Biosphere Reserve, is among the most affected areas. The eastern central region has been seriously impacted by rising water levels while the western area has become more vulnerable due to drought, landslides and flooding caused by both the changing weather patterns and weak development plans, which result in the over devel-opment of electronic water dams in the uplands.

In this area, from provinces of Quang Binh to Quang Nam, heritage tourism has recently become one of the leading industries inlocal economic development. The impacts caused by climate change and disaster risks make this area highly vulnerable and faces lots of challenges in socio-economic development. The ultimate goal of the proposed project is to reduce the climate change impacts on key actors in heritage tourism, with the particu-lar emphasis on the most vulnerable groups in the central area. In order to achieve this ulti-mate goal, the proposed project aims to sup-port the development and pilot the implemen-tation of a climate change adaptive tourism strategy in World Heritages Sites in central Vietnam.


Objectives

• Enhance the adaptability of tourism services and products in World Heritage sites in Central Viet Nam in the context of climate change;• Strengthen the capacity of tourism actors to ad-dress the challenges posed by climate change.

Activities

Assessment of climate change impacts on heritage tourism :• Establish a diagnostic survey report assessing cli-mate change impacts on tourism development, with a particular focus on vulnerable groups.• Identify the best practices/case studies in World Heritage tourism management, especially in the context of climate change.

Development of an adaptive tourism strategy in the central provinces’ World Heritage Sites :• Integrate climate change issues in tourism strate-gies;• Develop disaster Geographic Infomation System maps;• Develop an adaptive tourism strategy for the world Heritage sites;• Establish an action plan/solutions for alternative tourism products to sustain tourism development during severe weather;• Pilot the implementation of the adaptive tourism strategy. Documentation and sharing information will be an integral part of the whole process.

CapaCity Building Strategy for World Heritage ManageMent in Viet naM

The World Heritage sites are managed by management boards consisted of specialists in a variety of fields. The capacities of different management boards vary, both in managementstructure, number of staff and staff capacity. Most of the staff do not have access to up-to-date information and materials regarding heritage management and conservation.

This proposed activity aims to assist World Heritage site managers to identify current and future needs for a better implementa-tion of the World Heritage Convention and to improve professional skills for management and conservation. All of this will contribute to the sustainable development of the heritage sites.

Since its ratification of the 1972 Conven-tion concerning the protection of World cul-tural and natural heritage, seven sites in Viet Nam have been inscribed on the World Herit-age List: Ha Long Bay and Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park are natural sites, while the five remaining sites are cultural: Complex of Hue Monuments, Hoi An Ancient Town, My Son Sanctuary, Central sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long-Hanoi, and Citadel of the Ho Dynasty.


Objectives

• Strengthen knowledge, abilities, skills and be-haviours of people with direct responsibilities in heritage conservation and management;• Improve institutional structures of the man-agement boards of World Heritage sites in Viet Nam.

Activities

Conduct a situation analysis of status of con-servation and management of World Heritage sites :• Assess the effectiveness of management sys-tems of World Heritage sites in Viet Nam;• Conduct needs assessment for capacity build-ing of World Heritage site managers;• Identify the best international practices in heritage conservation and management that can be adapted to Viet Nam.

Improve Viet Nam’s policy framework for heritage management and conservation.

Conduct capacity building activities for World Heritage site managers. The capacity building activities will be carried out with a learning-by-doing approach, which allows site managers to apply what they learn in workshops in their everyday work. E-learning materials will be produced for future use.

Promoting the ethic minorities’ traditional textile cultural values and their contribution to economic growth and sustainable develoPment


Viet Nam’s official 53 ethnic minority groups only make up 14% of the total population while the Kinh eth-nic majority (also referred to as ethnic Vietnamese in many official documents) make up the remaining 86% of the country’s 86 million population (data available from Census 2009). These groups vary greatly in size, level of integration into the majority population and levels of socio-economic development. The majority of minority groups still practice and retain their traditional culture, customs and languages, but these traditional cultural resources are becoming greatly at risk due to the rapid rate of urbanization, migration and other forms of socio-economic development.

In Vietnam women are the predominate producers of traditional textiles. The knowledge of traditional patterns and motifs has been transmitted orally from generation to generation. Unfortunately, however, the transmis-sion of knowledge about traditional patterns and motifs is rapidly being lost. This is due to a number of factors as a result of rapid economic development and subsequent social transformation. Because the knowledge is not documented this loss is significant – not only for the ethnic groups concerned but for all Vietnamese. By thoroughly documenting and raising awareness about the richness and importance of this aspect of intangible cultural heritage, the project will contribute to the effective transmission of this heritage to younger genera-tions and will also strenghen this heritage’s role in economic development.

The project will also create links between cultural expressions of ethnic minority groups and wider creative industries, thus promoting the economic development of these groups who are currently in a vulnerable and marginalized position.

Objectives

• To preserve the cultural values of traditional textiles of ethnic minorities groups for future generations;• To generate income opportunities for ethnic minority groups by connecting them with wider markets;• To diversify the design industry by connecting them to traditional values.

Activities

Conduct research :• Survey and collect information on traditional textiles with participation from members of ethnic minority groups;• Produce publications to disseminate the survey results.

Raise awareness :• Organize awareness raising workshops at a regional and national level;• Set up showrooms of traditional textiles and promote their cultural values.

Build capacity :• Training and capacity building for design students, SMEs and production groups;• Develop sustainable production and marketing training materials. Strengthen networks :• Facilitate the cooperation between textile-related SMEs and ethnic production groups;• Develop market linkages for sustainable economic de-velopment.

Tools for urban heriTage managemenT in hanoi’s old quarTer

As one of the oldest developed areas of Hanoi, the Old Quarter has a history that spans 1,000 years and represents the eternal soul of the city. The Hanoi Old Quarter acquired its reputation as a craft area and a trading hub when King Ly Thai To decided to build his palace there. The Old Quarter differs itself from other heritage areas in Vietnam by its unique “tube house”, design which gives the streets a homogenous look. Besides, the Old Quarter is also a rich religious heritage site with many old temples and pagodas located in the area.

Like many other ancient towns, the Old Quarter is under great pressure due to rapid urban development and a dramatic increase of the population. The small area of the Old Quarter is now home to approximately 80,000 people. Not only does overcrowding worsen the living environment, but it also results in the degradation of old houses, each of which is being occupied by a large number of families.

Massive tourism development also threatens the distinctive values of Hanoi’s Old Quarter.

The proposed project aims at safeguarding and promoting Hanoi’s Old Quarter through improved urban heritage management. In doing so, models can provide decision makers with specific tools to deal with emerging concrete issues in urban development. This effort is consistent with the UNESCO’s commitment to promote urban herit-age conservation and sustainable development.


Objectives• Strengthen the management system of the Ha Noi Old Quarter in line with international standards and practices;• Ensure the participation of local communities in the preservation of the Old Quarter;• Enhance the capacity of the Old Quarter Management Board in research, herit-age management, and tourism development.

ActivitiesConduct a comprehensive socio-economic research in the area :• Identify the current state of land tenure, of the public infrastructures, of public spaces and of traffic issues; • Inventory tangible and intangible heritage in order to develop appropriate safeguarding measures for this heritage, in the face of rapid socio-economic development.

Build capacity for the Management Board of the Old Quarter :• Management staff will be equipped with skills and knowledge in safeguarding and managing urban heritage through series of training and workshops; • The management board will also be assisted to develop proposals for technical and financial assistance from the International Funds for restoration projects.

Develop an Inclusive Management Plan for Hanoi’s Old Quarter, which will serve as the essential urban management tool to achieve sustainable development :• Development of the first draft of the management plan;• Organisation of consultation workshops with relevant stakeholders; • Implementation of the Plan will be supported by urban regulations covering a wide range of issues such as a zoning plan, planning for development of infra-structure, architecture and construction regulations.

Develop Guidelines for urban heritage management and technical guides for the conservation and restoration of buildings and structures in the Old Quarter :• These guidelines will be beneficial and applicable for other ancient towns throughout Vietnam.

Raise local community awareness in safeguarding the Old Quarter through pub-lic meetings and publishing the Citizen’s Guide.

Strengthening the role of Viet nam’S muSeumS in SuStainable deVelopment

Viet Nam has 160 museums spread through-out the country’s cities and provincial towns. Most of these were established by the Government in the wake of the Indochina wars as propaganda tools that present a narrative of Vietnamese history using similar exhibits and display con-tents. With a few exceptions (e.g. Viet Nam Mu-seum of Ethnology, Women’s Museum and Ho Chi Minh City Museum) visitation rates are low and activities organized in the museums are poor.

Viet Nam has attained Lower Middle Income Country status and as the living standards of its people steadily improve, especially in urban ar-eas, there is a growing demand for high quality and diverse cultural products and services. This presents a great opportunity for the country’s cultural institutions, especially museums, to reno-vate approaches and make themselves more at-tractive and accessible to the public. The renova.

tion will also gear toward attracting international visitors, whose number is on the rise but little at-tention to museums in Viet Nam has been paid.

Since 2012, UNESCO together with Viet Nam Her-itage Association have established a Viet Nam Museum Network, a forum for information shar-ing and capacity building for primarily museums located in Ha Noi but also further afield. Currently there are about 400 members from over 100 mu-seums in Viet Nam participating in this network. The proposed project aims to support the opera-tion of Viet Nam Museum Network and maximize the contribution of Viet Nam’s museums to the contemporary society and sustainable develop-ment of the country.


Objectives

• Implement a comprehensive capacity building strat-egy in order to uplift the presentation and operation of museums in Viet Nam;• Develop tools for future museum development work;• Strengthen the roles of Viet Nam’s museums in the country’s socio-economic development.

Activities

Strengthen Viet Nam’s Museum Network:• Create joint promotional materials for the network;• Conduct capacity building needs assessment with member museums.

Develop and implement capacity building activities based on the results of the training need assessment:• Examples of the activities can be: strengthening customer services in member museums; Improving outreach programs in member museums; or building the capacity of member museums in developing me-dia products.

Each activity will include the following components:• Organize training courses on related topics;• Member museums develop pilots to be implement-ed using knowledge gained during the workshop. • Pilots proposed will be judged on a competitive ba-sis and seed fund will be provided for selected mu-seums to implement pilots, with the UNESCO’s close supervision and technical support;• Evaluate the results of pilots;• Produce a guideline/manual for future use at other museums.

Promoting inclusive and culture-based develoPment among ethnic minorities in viet nam

Viet Nam’s official 53 ethnic minority groups only make up 14% of the total population, while the Kinh ethnic majority make up the remain-ing 86% of the country’s population of 86 mil-lion people (data from the 2009 census). These groups vary greatly in size, level of integra-tion and level of socio-economic development. The majority of minority groups still practice and retain their traditional culture, customs and languages, but these traditional cultural resources are becoming greatly at risk due to the rapid rate of urbanization, migration and other forms of socio-economic development.

This proposed project aims to address these needs by strengthening capacities of relevant governmental institutions to support development and implementation of culturally appropriate programs, which contributes to the realization of the rights of

ethnic minority communities in Viet Nam as part of an effort for the country to become an inclusive society, in which cultural diversity flourishes. By introducing a culturally appropriate approach into development poli-cies and interventions, it is expected that the gaps between the Kinh majority and ethnic minorities will be reduced, and the ethnic minori-ties will be able to increase their participation in governance processes, obtain gainful employment, receive quality and relevant education and have equal access to health and social services. UNESCO is adamant that the culturally appropriate approach will, on the one hand, ensure that the culture of ethnic mi-norities is not negatively impacted; while on the other hand will contribute to the effective-ness of development projects and interventions.

Project timeline : 5 yearsBudget : 1,000,000 USD

Objectives

• Strengthen dialogues between civil society and Govern-ment decision makers on cultural rights and ethnic minority issues;• Enhance capacities of government agencies to support community-based management of cultural resources;• Enhance capacities of government agencies to design and implement development interventions with a culturally ap-propriate approach;• Develop tools for culturally appropriate policies and inter-ventions that the Government can then apply to programs targeting ethnic minorities.

Activities

• Provide training on cultural rights and culturally appropri-ate approaches in working with ethnic minority communities; • Create an enabling environment for dialogues between civil society and Government institutions working with eth-nic minorities;• Establish pilots to integrate culture and culturally appropri-ate approaches in various development interventions such as economic development, education, health and environ-mental protection;• Establish pilots to showcase the cultural richness of the communities as well as challenges faced when safeguarding;• Generate tools for culturally appropriate approaches (such as tools for cultural mapping, integrating local culture into school curricula and environment, local economic develop-ment initiatives, promoting indigenous knowledge for envi-ronmental protection, promoting cultural rights among ethnic minority communities) for adaptation at the national level.

Promoting sustainable tourism develoPment at World Heritage sites in viet nam

Information is a very important element in tourism. If presented accurately and attractively, information can enrich visitors’ experiences, bring visitors closer to the destination and local communities. In heritage or cultural tourism, information helps to increase visitors’ awareness on the importance of heritage preserva-tion, leading to appropriate actions and attitudes toward heritage.

Within the framework of the UNESCO’s efforts to strengthen the interpretation systems at World Heritage sites in Viet Nam, the proposed project aims to develop innovative and sustainable tourism products and services which can significantly contribute to sustainable tourism development at these sites by encouraging visitors to stay longer, spend more money, experience more attractions and revisit the region.


Objectives

• Strengthen the interpretation systems for World Heritage sites in Viet Nam to enhance visitors’ experiences and appreciation for local cultural values;

• Improve opportunities for local communi-ties to participate in and benefit from tourism development.

Activities

• Develop information materials; • Establish Tourism Information Centers;

• Develop handicraft products which reflect local, cultural, environmental and historical characteristics, produced by local artisans using traditional skills and local materials;

• Train World Heritage Specialist Guides follow-ing UNESCO standards;

• Develop media rooms for My Son, Thang Long and Ho Citadel.

Strengthening national collaboration and capacity on community-baSed inventory of intangible cultural heritage

Since its ratification of the UNESCO 2003 Convention on the Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage, Viet Nam has made significant progress in promoting and integrating the text into national legislative instruments and putting its operational directives into practice. In 2009, the National Assembly passed an amendment of the Law on Cultural Heritage in conformity to the UNESCO’s 2003 Convention. In June 2010, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MoCST), issued the Circular No. 04/2010-BVHTTDL pursuant to the new law amendment. The circular regulates the inventorying of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and elaborates nomination files for the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Viet Nam.

Under MoCST, many agencies such as DCH, the Viet Nam Institute for Culture and Arts, the Viet Nam Institute for Musicology and vari-ous provincial authorities in the country, have built a good understanding and expertise

in establishing inventories of intangible cultural heritage, considering the convention’s provisions.

Other MoCST agencies, whose mandates, programmes and activities are directly involved in some or all ICH domains, are still unfamiliar with community-based safeguarding measures under the UNESCO 2003 Convention. Many of their programmes and activities have been criticized for being implemented with a top-down approach and for lacking participation of concerned communities. There is also lack of collaboration among the agencies involved. The proposed project aims to bring together all relevant agencies to establish a coordinated ap-proach for conducting inventory at the national level.

Developing a community-based inventory is a fundamental step in ICH safeguarding and one of UNESCO’s priorities in strengthen-ing national capacities for safeguarding ICH.


Objectives

• Build capacities for relevant agencies through the establishment of a mecha-nism for networking and cooperation in ICH safeguarding;

• Develop detailed implementation guidelines for conducting inventories of ICH;

• Conduct ICH Inventories of selected communities and/or ethnic groups and use the inventories as a basis for de-veloping safeguarding projects.

Activities

• Organize training courses on com-munity-based inventory of ICH for se-lected institutions;

• Implement community-based inven-tory-making projects (fieldwork practi-cum) with hands-on activities;

• Conduct a national review workshop on the results of the ICH inventory pro-jects;• Develop guidelines for conducting in-ventories of ICH.

incorporate intangible cultural heritage into the un DecaDe of eDucation for SuStainable Development

The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable De-velopment will end in 2014. This target date pro-vides a stimulus to accelerate progress towards achieving the aims of the decade. Underlining the importance of sustainable development is the necessity to re-orient education systems in a manner that is cognizant and inclusive of lo-cal cultural practices and knowledge systems. Having evolved over generations in specific ecological and social contexts, these practices and knowledge systems, instilled in our intan-gible cultural heritage (ICH), form the basis for sustainability in all its dimensions. Widespread adoption of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Herit-age (2003) provides a great opportunity for un-derstanding and safeguarding ICH through ESD.

The project is proposed to raise awareness and capacity of teachers to incorporate ICH in forms of local knowledge and practices into teaching and learning in order to reinforce cultural diver-sity to drive towards sustainability. Designed as an inter-sectoral collaboration between UNESCO’s Education and Culture sectors, the project aims to identify and promote innovative approaches in integrating ICH into learning environments and curricula in schools. Through the project, teacher educators, teachers, students and communities, as well as policy and decision makers, will be en-gaged in appreciating the relevance of their ICH as a mainspring of cultural diversity and a com-mitment to sustainable development. The project will facilitate new pathways of inter-generational transmission that is central to the vitality of ICH.


Objectives

• To equip educators and learners with the knowledge and skills to understand ICH that is conducive to sustainable behav-iours, lifestyles and practices grounded in traditional wisdom;

• To raise awareness about the value and importance of ICH as a form of education that can promote sustainability of local traditions and knowledge;

• To immerse the education sector in the importance of integrating validation for, and cultivation of, local identities and knowledge systems into the formal educa-tion system.

Activities

• Develop pilots that use ICH for school curricula in a variety of locations, repre-sent a diversity of ICH elements, school levels and types of activities, and with participation of stakeholders in both cul-ture and education sectors;

• Disseminate the pilots through the user-friendly tools and channels.

• Integrate the methodology in the cur-ricula of teachers’ training in universities and colleges.

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