A virtual two hour Memory of the World workshop was held on 9 November 2023 as part of the PARBICA (Pacific Regional Branch of the International Council of Archives) biennial conference. There was much interest in the session and forty people from across the Pacific attended. MOWCAP works collaboratively with PARBICA and the workshop was the first opportunity to re-engage with many Pacific countries since the pandemic.

The purpose of the workshop was to provide an overview of the Memory of the World Programme with a focus on documentary heritage registers and the processes for submitting and assessing nominations for inscription to a register. The three speakers were from Pacific countries and all had experience with both PARBICA and the Memory of the World Programme.

Dr Roslyn Russell, a previous chair of the International Advisory Committee provided an overview of the MoW Programme and also gave tips for completing the current MOWCAP nomination form. Dianne Macaskill, a MOWCAP Bureau member, spoke about the revised MOWCAP register guidelines and gave examples of some previous Pacific inscriptions. Opeta Alefaio, a MOWCAP Register Sub-Committee member, spoke about the process used to make recommendations to the MOWCAP General Meeting.

There were many questions and comments from the attendees. One of the important outcomes was to ensure that Pacific nominators knew who to contact to obtain more information and support to develop a nomination or set up a National Committee.

On 24 May 2023 UNESCO announced 64 new inscriptions on its Memory of the World International Register, 20 of which originate in Asia and the Pacific. This year’s new inscriptions bring UNESCO’s global list to 494 collections, 119 of which are from Asia and the Pacific.

The successful nominations from Asia-Pacific celebrate traditional science and technology, women, peace and international relations, indigeneity and multilingualism, poetry and oral literature, and spiritual and religious diversity.

The Mongolian National Commission for UNESCO, UNESCO Bangkok and MOWCAP collaborated in organizing the ‘Memory of the World Seminar and Workshop’ in Ulaanbaatar on 24-25 May 2023. The two-day activity consisted of a one day seminar to raise awareness on the Memory of the World programme, its objectives and mechanisms, followed by a one day workshop to discuss good practices and experiences in managing a national committee and national register. This was followed by expert tips on completing the MOWCAP nomination form and feedback on proposed items for national, regional and international registers.

The activity was held at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology and was organized with the financial support of the Mongolian Ministry of Culture and UNESCO Bangkok. The activity was designed to respond to national stakeholder needs in Mongolia and was attended by 83 participants — 33 in-person and 50 online, including stakeholders from provinces and national and international speakers.

The MOWCAP General Meeting was held on 24-26 November 2022, hosted by the Korean Studies Institute (KSI), in Andong, Republic of Korea. The hybrid meeting gathered 109 participants, including six MOWCAP Bureau members, 20 Member States, three UNESCO representatives and 80 observers from various institutions across the region.

Latest updates in national documentary heritage activities were shared, as well as the MOWCAP Register Sub Committee’s recommendations and Member State comments on the 2022 cycle of nominations to the MOWCAP Regional Register.

The 9th MOWCAP General Meeting will be held from 24-26 November 2022. The meeting is generously hosted by the Korean Studies Institute (KSI), Andong, Republic of Korea.

The event will be hybrid and delegates can attend in person or online.

A draft agenda for the General Meeting is available. Please note that this agenda may be subject to minor changes before the meeting.

For any enquiries or questions please contact MOWCAP Secretariat at: gm2022@mowcap.org

The UNESCO Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific (MOWCAP) is pleased to share the results of the 2022 round of the Asia Culture Centre (ACC)-MOWCAP Grants Program.

In 2022, thirteen applications were assessed against the application criteria (outlined in the Grant Guidelines), with four organizations from eight countries in the Asia-Pacific region awarded grants. These grantees are from Australia, Mongolia, Kyrgyz Republic and Republic of Tajikistan, and Vietnam. They will undertake projects to preserve and make documentary heritage collections accessible. The ACC-MOWCAP Small Grants Programme is made possible through the generous financial support of the Asia Culture Center (ACC). $20,000 USD was awarded under the 2022 grants cycle.