Minister of Youth, Culture, and Communication, Mehdi Bensaid attended the Thirteenth UNESCO Youth Forum on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday in Paris, where he urged UNESCO to prioritize African intangible cultural heritage.
The minister reviewed Morocco’s experience under the King’s direction in terms of bettering youth conditions and the most significant programs put in place for their benefit during this meeting, and emphasized the significance of UNESCO setting up a special fund to support small and medium-sized businesses.
In the course of this forum, the government representative emphasized the King’s vision and initiatives to preserve and honor both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
These include the announcement made earlier in 2022 regarding the creation of a national center for intangible cultural heritage and the signing of an agreement and framework for partnership with UNESCO to provide sub-Saharan African nations with Moroccan expertise in the field of world heritage protection.
Bensaid urged UNESCO to allow more African nations to register their cultural properties on the organization’s World Intangible Heritage List in order to show greater concern and attention to Africa’s intangible cultural heritage.
Furthermore, in order to further enhance and expand Morocco’s partnership with this international organization, the Minister met with the Director-General of UNESCO. Erkoge Tesfaye, the Minister of Women and Social Affairs of the Republic of Ethiopia, was also a part of a similar meeting that focused on finding methods to develop collaboration between the two nations and sharing knowledge and experiences about youth-focused governmental policies and initiatives.