A training workshop organized by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre on the preparation of nominations of cultural properties to the World Heritage List will be held from 30 May to 3 June 2005, at the School of African Heritage in Porto-Novo, Benin. Financed by the Italian and Dutch Funds-in-Trust, and the Africa 2009 Programme, the project falls within the framework of the Periodic Reporting exercise for Africa.

Participants include 15 cultural heritage professionals who are responsible for the implementation of the Convention in their countries, in West Africa (Senegal, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Togo, Benin, Cape Verde, Guinea, Burkina Faso) and Central Africa (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Angola).

The objective of the workshop is to provide the professionals with the skills needed to satisfactorily prepare nomination proposals, with the purpose of increasing the number of properties in Central and West Africa inscribed on the World Heritage List.