With additional funds from Norway, UNESCO planned the followed activities. The main purpose of this grant was to demonstrate the value of cultural mapping to the local communities and other stakeholders. Since the underlying purpose of UNESCO’s culture initiatives is to use the inherent strength of culture for socio-economic development and revitalization of communities, the proposed activities focus on ways and means to translate this concept into a reality. The activities are:

i) Women Empowerment through Handicrafts (Multan and Bahawalpur)
ii) Preparation of a Teachers’ Resource Kit, "World Heritage in Young Hands"
iii) Preparation of a Master Plan for Takht-e-Bahi

i) Women Empowerment through Handicrafts (Multan and Bahawalpur)
This pilot activity was built upon an ongoing UNESCO initiative, "Promotion of Textile Industries in Bahawalpur", where most of the groundwork had been done in terms of identification of target locations and partners. Cultural mapping in Multan and Bahawalpur further unveiled the needs of women and the endangered crafts. Within the scope of the overall objective of demonstrating how cultural assets which have been identified by communities and mapped can be used for the benefit of communities to provide economic opportunities for them; the specific of the project objectives are as below:

a) Employ/ Use local craft traditions as a means for alleviating poverty
b) Develop Cultural Products to enhance economic opportunities for craftswomen
c) Train women to develop innovative contemporary design
d) Train women in marketing and management skills
e) Provide functional literacy to project participants
f) Establish a National Award of Excellence for Handicrafts, based on UNESCO’s regional program on the same lines
g) Organize an Exhibition to introduce the crafts of Southern Punjab to potential market through an Exhibition in October 2010. (the proceeds of which would go directly to the women beneficiaries to sustain their efforts)

The Project required that 100 women be trained (20 women from 5 villages) in each district and a total of 10 Master Trainers be developed.

METHODOLOGY: The Methodology employed was designed to achieve the Project’s aims and objectives this required that sufficient information would be available regarding crafts and craftswomen in the Districts of Multan and Bahawalpur which would provide the basis to move forward. Information available from the UNESCO-Norway funded Project of Cultural Mapping in Districts Multan and Bahawalpur (2009) was useful for identifying the locations where various crafts were noted as assets. The methodology involved the following:

1. Assembling project team and personnel at district level and setting up offices; and recruitment of local resource persons.
2. Rapid survey of villages, identified during the cultural mapping process, in each district to identify crafts and artisans willingness to participate in the project.
3. Enlisting project villages based on crafts, artisans’ interest and logistics; formation of training clusters and central points for joint training.
4. Training including training methodology, material etc. for training in development of new innovate cultural products, marketing, management and functional literacy
5. Training of Trainers and establishing quality standards
6. Preparation of craftwork for Exhibition
7. Establishing standards of Fair Price for Cash-for-Work
8. Packing and Finishing of Cultural Products
9. Planning of Exhibition

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