Participation Programme

UNESCO's Participation Programme is designed to provide direct assistance to initiatives undertaken by Member States in the Organization's fields of competence, in line with priorities determined by the countries themselves, with proposals submitted via UNESCO National Commissions. The funds are modest (up to a maximum of US$26,000 granted for national project requests, with about six projects per country in each biennium, and up to US$46,000 for regional submissions). But UNESCO is not a funding agency. And support at these sorts of level may often be easier to assimilate than higher orders of financial contribution. As an ensemble, Participation Programme (PP) projects touch on many of the technical fields and areas of concern addressed in the Mauritius Strategy, as reflected in the listings of PP projects under UNESCO's contribution to several of the chapters of the Mauritius Strategy (e.g. on Transportation and communication, Sustainable capacity development and education for sustainable development, Culture). This said, 'Tourism resources' is addressed in relatively few of the several hundred approved PP projects that have been carried out in recent years, and then often only indirectly. Antigua & Barbuda. Gilbert Estate heritage tourism project. Barbados. Coral reef monitoring and management training: youth within coastal communities. Database and on-line resource of the Flora of the Eastern Caribbean. Designation of a marine conservation area. Comoros. Travelling exhibit on natural and cultural heritage of Comoros. Cyprus. Guidebook on World Heritage sites in Cyprus. Dominican Republic. Crafts and cultural tourism in the Caribbean region. Grenada. Development of Duquesne beach and surrounding heritage sites. Palau. Natural history web-site development, Belau National Museum. * Information culled principally from two documents: a list of approved 2004-2005 Participation Programme projects in a document prepared for the 171st session of the UNESCO Executive Board in September 2005 (171 EX/34); and a report by the Director-General on the implementation of the 2006-2007 Participation Programme and emergency assistance prepared for the 175th session of the Executive Board in September 2006 (175 EX/36).