Following extensive consultation and stakeholder support, the Head of State and the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) released the National Arts, Culture, and Heritage Policy (NACHP) in 2019 to establish a relevant, innovative and developmental approach to Arts, Culture, and Heritage.
The GoZ has established, designated, and constituted a National Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee for a second term to advise and recommend the safeguarding of the ICH. A number of challenges have been faced by the NACH Policy, NCCI Strategy, and ICH Convention implementation. These include limited resources, limited community awareness, inaccessibility to education, and a lack of materials for raising awareness and building capacity at the national and local community levels.
As custodians of cultural heritage, traditional leadership will need to buy in and appreciate its sacrosanct values and inspirational beliefs, while local communities are an important asset that contributes to further consolidating and preserving oral traditions, performing arts, traditional crafts, rituals, and festivals.
The Hon officially declared the project and launched it at the national level. In addition to traditional leadership, local community representation will endorse the project as a tool for socioeconomic transformation. Traditional local communities also will be provided with technical equipment. Develop digital ICH materials as instruments for awareness-raising seminars by translating the summarized version of the ICH Convention basic text to make it more accessible to local communities. To establish an office for the ICH working party, which would act as an information center, maintain a website and online platforms for communication with traditional leaders and local communities, and provide e-feedback for updating the project status, and progress report through sharing content, information and experiences across the country. Activate traditional leaders and local communities in a 2-day online consultation webinar to identify priority areas, implement a matrix, facilitate internet connectivity, and secure binding consent. In all provinces, there will be 10 provincial launches and 7 days of awareness-raising seminars, where the Provincial Launch will be a formal event.
Moreover, Community ICH Steering Committees (CICHSC) and ICH Action Plans will be consolidated, established, and approved by the Hon Minister of Culture in collaboration with NICHC, traditional leadership, and local communities so that communities can continue safeguarding ICH long after the project is complete. Progress reports will be monitored and evaluated quarterly. Mid-term and end-of-project evaluation reports with financial audits will be published. The project management team will prepare the final report.