The UNESCO-Southern African Intangible Cultural Heritage Cooperation Platform

The Southern African Intangible Cultural Heritage Cooperation Platform (SAICH Platform) operates under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The SAICH Platform is hosted by Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) in Zimbabwe. The seven participating countries in this Cooperation Platform are Botswana, eSwatini (Swaziland), Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The decision to set up the SAICH Platform was made in February 2015 by delegates of these seven countries during a workshop of the UNESCO-Flanders "Project on Strengthening Sub-regional Cooperation and National Capacities in Seven Southern African Countries for Implementing the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)". The project is funded by the Flanders Government and coordinated from CUT with oversight by the UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa (ROSA) in Harare