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Jhari Prasad Mahato, 50, lives in Gulmeli neighborhood of Madi Municipality, Chitwan. But life hasn’t been easy for Mahato as he faces many difficulties pertaining to his livelihood, especially due to the flooding of local rivers. The Rakteni River, which flows near his neighborhood, gets flooded every monsoon. A few years ago, Jhari Prasad harvested the paddy on his 15 kattha land and was drying it when the flooded Rakteni washed away his whole produce at nighttime.

Similar is the story of Mohan Sah Kanu, 69, who lives in Madi-3, Naya Ratani neighborhood. Kanu, an active member of the local community disaster management committee, grows paddy, wheat and beans. In the past, he has had bitter experiences like sleepless night because of floods in the local river, which washed away his produce ready for harvest. To address this problem, the Government of Japan provided financial assistance of $442,839 equivalent to approximately 50.36 million Nepali rupees, to Shapla Neer Citizens’ Committee in Japan for Overseas Support, an international NGO based in Japan, to work with a Nepali partner NGO, Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN), to implement a disaster risk reduction (DRR) strengthening project in Chitwan District.

The grant assistance is being used to strengthen community resilience to disasters in Madi Municipality, one of the flood prone areas, located in Chitwan District under the One River, One Community program. The project has been working in close coordination with local government, stakeholders, and communities and undertaking different activities, including support for capacity development of local government and communities, and establishment and maintenance of disaster reduction infrastructures. The project is also developing capacity of local bodies such as the Local Disaster Management Committees (LDMCs), Ward Disaster Management Committees (WDMCs) and Community Disaster Management Committees (CDMCs) on disaster risk reduction and facilitate the cooperation between these committees and other stakeholders.

 It is supporting the establishment and maintenance of infrastructure such as river widening, gabions and embankments as well as retention walls and drainage systems. The communities are maintaining these structures in cooperation with the local government. Following the implementation of the project, local residents are heaving a sigh of relief. “We can sleep well now. We harvest our agricultural production safely. It makes us happier. There is no damage of household properties including pets,” says Kanu. The house of Madhuri Sah, Madi-5 Basantapur neighborhood was fully damaged by flood of Rakteni River twice within a 10 years period in past.

Many times, her house was safe from flood but household properties and utensils were swept way. The same condition had to be faced every year in monsoon. The project adopted the concept ‘One River, One Community’ covering 14 neighborhoods of river corridor from its up-stream to down-stream area. In the one-and-half years of the project, 2,583 meter long mud dam in river corridors have been built and 40 meter river span in down-stream and 20 meter wider river span in mid-stream area have been widened. A 2,550 meter long gabion embankment has been made in the high risk area of river corridor whereas, a 65 meter long stone masonry wall has been made in the most high risk area of river corridor.

‘One River, One Community’ is a concept to work focusing on a single river and covering entire neighborhoods of that river corridor. Entire neighborhoods from up-stream to down-stream area are considered as a single community. During the time of monsoon, river flood damages from up-stream to down-stream’s neighborhoods. So, to reduce damages of one risk spot, it is found scientifically that the risk is caused by any other area’s landscape. It is important for infrastructure’s design to cover the entire neighborhoods from up-stream to down-stream area of the river corridor based on the flood occurrence mechanism.

It is not only about making infrastructures, but also improving capacity of community people for disaster risk reduction and management. This concept aims to foster the relationship between communities of that river corridor for helping each other. The community played a vital role during construction through their labor and monitoring which have been greatly appreciated.

Nepal Maharishi Vedic Foundation works in affiliation with the International Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education (IFCBE) to introduce highly effective non-sectarian programs that improve educational outcomes, reduce stress and antisocial behavior, increase creativity and intelligence, and unfold the inner happiness of students and teachers of all cultural and educational backgrounds.

The International Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education (IFCBE) is a nonprofit, educational organization that provides practical, scientifically validated educational programs, technologies, and consulting services for new schools, existing schools, and after-school organizations. IFCBE offers Consciousness-Based Education(CBE) to enliven the full creative potential and inner happiness of every student and teacher, eliminate stress, and enliven total brain functioning. The key technologies of this program are the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs.

The Consciousness-Based education program is non-sectarian, and is easily integrated into any public or private school without making extensive changes to the existing curriculum or schedule. When students regularly practice the Transcendental Meditation technique, they begin to learn more easily, think more clearly and creatively, sit and focus on their schoolwork more calmly and enjoyably, and solve problems with less effort. Just as watering the root of a tree improves all parts of the tree—its leaves, flowers, branches, fruits—so this Unified Field technology (Transcendental Meditation), enlivens the Universal Field of Natural Law which nourishes and enlivens life everywhere for the peace and prosperity of everyone.

Regular experience of the Transcendental Meditation program has been shown to dissolve deep-seated stress in the individual, bringing marked reductions in hypertension, stroke, heart disease, and other stress-related illness. When practiced collectively in groups, this same program has been shown to effectively reduce societal stress, and tensions, causing associated reductions in crime and social violence, and an upsurge of peace and positivity throughout the population.

Specifically, published research confirms that collective practice of the Transcendental Meditation program and the advanced TM-Sidhi program, which includes Yogic Flying, by groups of several hundred to several thousand trained experts quickly neutralizes acute societal stress—including the ethnic, religious, and political tensions that fuel violence and conflict. Violence and conflict are thereby averted as tensions are calmed and as the enmity in an adversary is naturally defused.

Accessing and stimulating the most fundamental level of creation—the Unified Field—generates powerful waves of unity and coherence that permeate the collective consciousness of the whole population. The immediate, practical result is markedly reduced crime and social violence, and improved positive trends throughout society. These trends have been extensively researched and are a new phenomenon in the history of the social sciences.

Ipas works globally with a vision that every woman and girl has the right and ability to determine her sexuality and reproductive health. It seeks to expand the availability, quality, and sustainability of abortion and related reproductive health services, as well as improve the enabling environment for the services. Ipas believes that no woman or girl should have to risk her life or health because she lacks safe reproductive health choices. Access to sustainable and safe abortion comprises of various factors and actors cutting across the standalone health lens.

These actors and factors based on the principle of human rights from the onset of programs, policies, and projects formulate a sustainable ecosystem. The introduction of the human rights-based approach to health aims to realize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (right to health) and other health-related human rights through the interrelated and essential elements of availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality (AAAQ).

To achieve balance and ensure a committed, responsive system for abortion care, Ipas is implementing a project called ‘Strengthening the Safe abortion Ecosystem in Nepal’ in line with Ipas Sustainable Ecosystem Framework, a dynamic condition by local stakeholders addressing multiple components to truly meet women’s safe abortion service needs keeping women centered care in the center of the program.

Intertwined with the programming components are the existential gender and social norms which might act as restraining or driving forces for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services. In addition to the prevalent social norms and knowledge among women, there are “other” factors or actors which might hinder the efforts to increase utilization of SRHR services by women and girls. It was felt important to understand the impact of such forces which are interlinked to the smooth implementation of program and increase access to services.

For this, Ipas used Force Field Analysis (FFA) and Social Norms Analysis Plot (SNAP) approaches to identify the associated social norms and other factors on selected program districts. The FFA provided the overall power structure and the position (agency, structure, or relations) where the power is stored to understand its navigation towards the positive or negative side for SRHR and safe abortion. SNAP helped to analyze how this power influenced the continuity of the harmful social norms.

In simple terms, by creating an inter-connectivity between both the tools, FFA helped Ipas develop a strategy regarding who and how it should work with, while SNAP helped us dissect the social norms that are inhibiting or driving these forces of power and implement the demand side activities and messaging. Two clusters from the interventions Palika of Province Lumbini and Sudurpaschim were selected. The clusters were selected based on the principle of social inclusion (marginalized and vulnerable areas) geographically remote and hard to reach for services.

The FFA was conducted with community women and girls of reproductive age whereas SNAP was conducted with the same participants from FFA along with the Men and Boys group 4 FFA and 3 SNAP tools were used in each selected areas. The findings of the study were crucial in identifying the areas of gender and social norms integration and guiding the pathway of the programs.

I am a former drug addict. But that’s my past. I have now started a new life thanks to Narconon Nepal Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center. I currently work as the head of administration of this center and have been away from drugs for more than five years. At times, I don’t want to even remember the old days. I understand that I have to move on now. Back in the days, my drug addiction brought nothing but sorrow, tears, failure, guilt, anger and pain to me and everyone around me.

I had completed by Masters’ degree, taught at colleges and worked at financial institutions. I even cleared the bank exams. My family was proud to see all this, but deep inside only I knew that I was a drug addict. I thought I could manage my life even with drugs, but things didn’t go as planned. I was unable to sleep due to the drugs. In a short time, I lost weight, and I couldn’t even carry on with my daily life. Mentally, I felt numb, and it was very difficult for me to take decisions. My behavior and wrong decisions caused a lot of pain to my family. My intellectual skills also waned as I couldn’t make the most of my education and experience.

I felt stupid and continued to push my life towards death and darkness. Luckily, I came to Narconon Nepal. My family did not know about the correctional center. Now they understand that a correctional center is for those who want to get rid of their addiction just like hospitals and clinics are for those who want to get rid of their ailments. My family selected the world famous Narconon method and admitted me to Narconon in Budhanilkantha.

Narconon centers are located in 42 places in the world. There are eight main stages in the Narconon program, developed by the American philosopher L Ron Howards. The first step is to handle learning problems and physical ailments. In the second stage, you read in depth why you should not take drugs. The third part of the six-month course covers how to control the body and the mind. The fourth deals with how to get rid of drugs; the fifth teaches how to recognize and leave bad friends, and the sixth deals with how to be honest and ethical. The seventh step is about how to study effectively and the eighth is on how to improve your life.

After completing the six-month course, you will have taken complete a three-month internship to practice returning to society. I completed the Narconon training well. I increased my ability to say no to drugs forever.

This is my new life and I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Narconon Center and my family for giving me a new life. I will not take drugs again in this life because a drug-free life is more fun, dignified and happy than one with drugs. I apologize to my family, society, workplace and country for my mistake. Now I have dedicated my new life to the task of giving new life to people in trouble.

Bishal Bhattarai is the head of administration at Narconon Nepal Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center

Jalbarsha Rajbanshi, a resident of Jhapa feels her life has been transformed after she actively participated in programs organized by Jagaran Nepal. Rajbanshi, 37, has been actively participating in activities organized by Gauradha Women Empowerment Group since its establishment. She has managed to continue her study even after her marriage and has even completed her bachelors’ degree.

Born to a normal family, she has worked hard after being involved in WEG. As a result, in less than two years, she has made herself a role model for many women from marginalized communities in her rural municipality. She says, “Because of Jagaran Nepal and its local partner organizations, I got involved in many leadership training programs that have inspired and encouraged me to do better. Through such training, meetings and interaction programs, I learned key leadership skills, especially public speaking. I can now deliver speeches confidently in my community.”

According to her, she gained knowledge about many issues, especially related to politics, economics, women rights through the programs conducted under this project. She says, “Jagaran Nepal has helped transform my life drastically. I was confined to my household chores but after gaining knowledge about the importance of women’s participation in politics, I have been politically active in my community and I believe that political empowerment is necessary tool to bring changes in the lives of women. It provides power to make decisions”.

With hard work and dedication, she was elected as a woman ward member (non reserved seat) in local level election and also won the position of executive member of Gauradaha Municipality. Rajbanshi says that if one is willing to work hard, one can achieve the desired goals. Her work has been appreciated by her community. She is thankful to Jagaran Nepal for conducting such a project that has been able to bring changes in her and many women’s lives. She expresses her commitment to fight against malpractices in the community and contribute to raising awareness for economic and political empowerment of the society, especially women.

The village of Bhawang is home to 45 families. Located in the district of Rolpa, one of the most isolated parts of Nepal. As a result, supplying water to residents there posed some considerable difficulties. Over a decade ago, another organization had attempted to build a water project for Bhawang, consisting of three communal taps. Unfortunately, the taps they built didn’t work all year round, meaning villagers would have to walk for hours to collect potentially dirty water from communal wells and other sources during the dry season.

Following a request for help, Gurkha Welfare Trust built separate taps for each of the 45 homes, providing clean water to everyone. Before the trust began gathering materials and building the pipes and taps, it met representatives of the community to educate them about sanitation and provide tips on how to keep the water source free of contamination and prevent the spread of disease. This is a procedure that the trust applies in the community before the construction phase.

The training also included small changes around the community including waste management and the construction of proper shelter for domestic animals to limit cross-contamination. At first, people were unsure about the new drinking water system; if their current system of three taps didn’t work, then how could the project build 45? To empower the community to take responsibility for their own project after the team leaves, the trust set up a village committee, including a chairperson, secretary and a village hygiene worker. A committee like this helps ensure the sustainability of the project.

Khadga Bahadur Chhetri, the village committee chairperson says, “When construction began, villagers were skeptical about the project. But their doubts disappeared once the taps were complete and the water started running.” The villagers are delighted to have access to clean water right at their doorsteps. Gothi Khatri, a resident from the village, is particularly appreciative of the quality of our work: “We are getting fresh water even in the dry season, I hadn’t imagined this would be possible. There is enough water to drink, wash and maintain cleanliness around the house.” “My daughter Rupa suffered a head injury when she was nine and she is mentally impaired. She can’t use her right hand properly and I need to look after her all the time.” “Before, we had to walk about 30 minutes downhill and walk back an hour uphill to fetch water and I used to be worried as I had to leave her home unattended.” “Now, I don’t have to worry because water is available right on my doorstep.”

Dinisha, an eight-year-old student, now has more time to focus on her school work. “I can now do my studies as well as help my mum in household chores. With a tap near our house, we don’t need to spend time in fetching water; I have more time for studies.” Mother of two, Rupmali Dangi no longer has to bring her young children along on dangerous journeys: “My husband has gone to Malaysia and I have an eight-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter (Bhumika).” “In the past, my daughter was small, I could not leave her alone in the house, so I used to carry my baby, walk half an hour, collect water and carry them both back uphill for an hour. “ “Now I don’t have to, I have a tap right in front of my house.”

Harkening back to 2004, where seven scholars after their doctoral degree from renowned Universities abroad were wandering and pondering chasing a key question "what new initiative shall be done in Nepal to make a breakthrough in the development". The founder members had a strong conviction that there is a dire need for policy formulation on the research-based evidence in Nepal. They were highly inspired by the legendary think tank institute of Thailand called "Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI)" which has an instrumental role in the rapid economic development of Thailand. And therefore, they came up with an idea to start up a policy research institute in Nepal that resulted in the establishment of Nepal Development Research Institute (NDRI).

NDRI stands today as a leading Think Tank in Nepal, working independently and typically free from partisan. NDRI envisions becoming a Centre of Excellence for quality research, education, and development. To achieve this vision, a mission was set to provide substantive analytical inputs for policymaking on contemporary issues through rigorous research and dissemination of findings.

NDRI comprises an interdisciplinary team of experts with the highest academic standings, mostly doctoral degrees, and a wealth of national and international experiences. It has been working on Agriculture and Food Security, Water and Climate, Disaster Risk Management, Livelihood and Gender, Health and Sanitation, Policy Research, Linguistic and Education, and Tobacco Control Programs. The beneficiaries of NDRI’s activities include political bodies, government institutions, international organizations (bilateral and multilateral), universities, and research institutes. Recently, it has been involved in several activities on COVID-19.

The activities of NDRI are divided into four strands: Policy Research, Data-Based Research, Event Organization, and Publication.  Through the strand of Policy Research, NDRI identifies pertinent subject in contemporary issues, collects data/information and analyzes, runs discourses with an interface between the policymakers and scientists, prepares position papers and policy brief with the recommendation to the government.

NDRI has covered all 77 districts of Nepal for the database research such as for impact assessment of development interventions done by both the government agencies and other collaborators. The database research throughout the country has led the research scientists of NDRI to understand the ground realities of the doorsteps of all Nepalese people. 

Organizing interactive platforms such as workshops, seminars, dialogue inviting critical masses from diverse sectors, and webinars are the regular program of NDRI. Those events are useful to disseminate the research output and to get feedback from peers. NDRI gives importance to producing knowledge products such as peer-reviewed journals, reports, fact sheets, and position papers that have great value for the scientific communities and the national stakeholder. Such knowledge products have well been utilized and acknowledged by the Government and development partners.

Special mileage: State restructuring for federal Nepal: At the time of the transition of Nepal to the Federal system (around 2009/2010), there was a dilemma on how to restructure the country. At that time, NDRI organized a workshop inviting hundreds of members of the constitution assembly and Finance Ministers from different political parties in the tenure of their government. The workshop gave clear guidance and consideration to be made to the constitution assembly members for state restructure for the rapid economic development of New Nepal.

Railway development in Nepal: It has always been difficult for Nepalese to believe in the prospects of railways in Nepal. However, NDRI published a peer-reviewed proceeding report titled “Railways Development in Nepal” in 2009 which recommended ample prospects of railway development in Nepal. The proceeding came from the expert’s consultation from countries where Railways have been playing an instrumental role for their economic development such as Japan, India, and others.  This report is considered as the first paving stone for the Railways development which played an influential role to conceive the trust in the possibility of the railway development in Nepal. The report has been well acknowledged and referred by the Government as a primary document for all kinds of railway infrastructure studies.

Food security atlas:  The food security status of Nepal looks bleak owing to the nation’s switch from the country of the food sufficient to food deficit in the last three decades. The food security situation is still going down as indicated by the increasing imports. With the view to ease the issue of food supply in Nepal, NDRI in collaboration with the World Food Program (WFP) and National Planning Commission (NPC), the Government of Nepal had prepared Food Security Atlas: Atlas 2010, the First edition and latest edition on 2020. This is the only Food Security Atlas in Nepal that has widely been used as a decision supporting document.

Tobacco control program: Another example of the recent achievement of NDRI is in the public health sector. It is well known that Nepal belongs to one of the least taxpayer countries in the world for tobacco which is 37% (excise duty) while the WHO recommendation is 75%. The repercussion of this paradoxical lowest tax rate has led Nepal to be one of the high prevalence tobacco consumers (32%) and significant GDP loss in health (1.04%). An initiative of NDRI has succeeded to convince the Government of Nepal to increase the excise duty by 25% in the fiscal year budget 2078/79, the first time in the last decade.

NDRI a platform for youth: NDRI is advocating the brain drain youths and therefore playing an exemplary role to build the capacity of youth to provide employment opportunities in Nepal. At present, NDRI has engaged about 50 competent post-graduate researchers, and about 250 graduate field researchers under the guidance of 30 doctoral senior researchers deployed for various research activities. Researchers in NDRI get opportunities to build their proficiency to the standard of international expertise. Human Resource Management in NDRI is guided by a standard and stringent policies to assure the quality research delivery.

Exceptionally, NDRI has become active in many folds after the COVID-19 pandemic came into place in 2020, transforming the challenges into opportunities. Our endeavors in the pandemic include the knowledge generation about coronavirus, the impact study on societies and economy, identifying the challenges in education sectors and possible remedies, impact on business and food security, etc. The knowledge products of our team on pandemics have been well utilized by both the Government and development partner organizations working in the pandemic. NDRI has prepared a standard research protocol on remote research and the computer-assisted telephone interview customized to the Nepalese context. With the rapid augmentation of NDRI both in scale and quality, we have realized the necessity of standardization and its institutionalization. Henceforth, NDRI has started the implementation of ISO-9000 for the Quality Management System.

Building of sustainable village: NDRI has adopted a village “Bhardeu” in 26 KM south to Lalitpur to make a Model Village Development as a demonstration site for the village development based on research. The different intervention in the village includes the education, sanitation, agriculture / women entrepreneurship development, and planned urbanization.

18 years of service excellence

NDRI has been constantly and continuously providing excellent service since 18 years. It celebrated its 18^th anniversary on April 13, 2021. It was an honor for NDRI to have an inaugural lecture by Hon’ble Mr. Khil Raj Regmi, Former Chairman of Council Minister, with the guest presence of Hon’ble Mr. Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Former Minister of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Also, NDRI feels the privilege to have the presence of Ambassadors and Deputy Chief Mission from SAARC counties.

Few other publications:

NDRI has been perpetually contributing to the publications. It is one of the major activities that NDRI has been committed to since its establishment. The publications of NDRI includes Policy Brief, Fact Sheets, Position Paper, Peer Review Journals, Peer-Reviewed Reports, Strategic Development Papers in diverse disciplines such as Public Health, Water & Climate Change, Hydropower, Science Communication, Agriculture, Gender & Social Inclusion, Sanitation and Environment, Disaster Management and many more. A glimpse of publication is available on its official website: www.ndri.org.np.  

Challenges and recommendations

Despites of several success stories in the courses of 18 years of services, NDRI is no exception from few encounters, those include the inadequate policy of the government to govern the policy research institutes, inadequate sense of authorities on the need for research and evidence on decision making, and the inadequate capacity of research institutes. NDRI is persistently advocating the need for a policy to govern the think tank research institute. The government shall operate some research funds for think tank institutes which shall be accessed through a competitive basis i.e. call for proposals in specific sectors to address the pertinent issues. Also, equally important is to make designated provisions to monitor and evaluate think tanks and research institutes in appropriate ways, in contrast to the present so-called evaluation practices by Social Welfare Council. Similarly, there is a dire need for the provision of ethical approval of research for the consistent regulation. Last but not the least, the state should consider the research capacity development through universities and other research institutes making them resourceful with a strategic plan linking with the strategic development of Nepal.

UNESCO works to attain quality education for all, focusing on women empowerment and literacy, to rehabilitate cultural heritage after the earthquake, promote cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue, to mobilize scientific knowledge, to promote press freedom, freedom of expression, media development and to advocate for the rights and safety of journalists.

In Culture sector, the Office is committed to strengthen the role of culture as enabler and driver of sustainable development, through its support to Nepal in promotion, protection, conservation and safeguarding of country’s unique tangible and intangible heritage by increasing the people’s awareness and strengthening national capacities at all levels.

Intangible Cultural Heritage – or ‘living heritage’ – is inherited from ancestors and passed on to descendants. It includes oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, and the knowledge and skills, that are meaningful to the communities. It is continuously recreated as it is transmitted from generation to generation and evolves in response to our environment. Living heritage is important because it offers communities and individuals a sense of identity and continuity. Living heritage contains locally rooted knowledge and provides a source of resilience against changing climatic conditions as well as at time of emergencies. It promotes social cohesion, respect for cultural diversity and human creativity, as well as help communities building peaceful and inclusive societies.

As the United Nations specialized agency for culture, UNESCO is tasked with safeguarding living heritage and ensuring its transmission to future generations. The 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage encourages and supports countries to take the necessary measures to ensure that communities can safeguard their living heritage.

Safeguarding living heritage is important to address some of the most significant challenges of today and build inclusive, resilient, and sustainable societies for the future. However, the localized system and traditional mode of intergenerational transmission of living heritage, which is a dynamic interactive process, is often at risk and/or disrupted due to various reasons such as rapid urbanization, natural or manmade disaster, displacement, out-migration, globalization, the advent of the digital age and many more.

Education plays a key role in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. The 2003 Convention recognizes the transmission of intangible cultural heritage ‘through formal and non-formal education’ as a key safeguarding measure. The Convention calls on States Parties to ensure recognition of, respect for, and enhancement of intangible cultural heritage through education programmes. These can include:

• programmes in formal learning environments such as in primary, secondary and post-secondary schools.
• non-formal opportunities such as short courses, community learning and capacity-building activities.

Experiences have shown that teaching core subjects such as mathematics, science, or literature by using students’ cultural backgrounds can make the learning process more relevant, as it creates better connections between what is taught in classrooms and the children’s everyday life and their surroundings. This also allows students to explore their identity, learn to respect cultural diversity and reflect on their heritage and that of others and help find local solutions to global problems related to climate change, health, etc.

Since the heritage bearers – the communities and groups concerned- are at the heart of safeguarding living heritage, reconnecting school (youth) with communities provides the opportunity for survival into the future.  This can provide rich resources as well as context-specific content and pedagogy for education programmes, thus act as leverage to improve the relevance of education and learning outcomes. In the meantime, this opportunity can help safeguard intangible heritage through education. For example, education for sustainable development uses indigenous knowledge and skills as a key resource for communities in understanding the environment, sustainably using its resources, assessing climate change impacts, and adapting to them. This linkage also promotes cross-sectoral and multi-level cooperation among diverse stakeholders. Therefore, UNESCO promotes learning and teaching through and about ICH in education programmes in all relevant disciplines.

Approaches to bring intangible cultural heritage into classrooms and non-formal education spaces can vary depending on the local context, needs and educational level.