The World Heritage Committee highlighted the crucial importance of involving indigenous peoples, local communities and residents in conservation and management efforts for World Heritage properties, as well as other heritage sites in general, and this has become a part of five official Strategic Objectives of the World Heritage Committee.

In this framework, the UNESCO Office in New Delhi is conducting a series of workshops targeting different categories of local communities in order to raise awareness of the importance of a human dimension when dealing with cultural heritage sites.

A first workshop, entitled "Understanding Conservation of Cultural Heritage", will take place on 25 and 26 November, organised jointly with Aga Khan Trust for Culture India, and in co-operation with Municipal Administration and Urban Development of Hyderabad.

A second workshop, entitled "Engaging Local Communities: Towards Inclusive and Community Participatory Heritage Management", is organized in co-operation with civil society representatives such as INTACH with the support of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Cooperation.

The workshops are implemented by the UNESCO Office in New Delhi and organised as part of the UNESCO/Republic of Korea Funds-in-Trust project "World Heritage, Sustainable Development and Community Involvement", which is coordinated by the World Heritage Centre.

Both workshops will highlight the essence of the World Heritage Convention for people-centred heritage conservation and management, and advocate for the central role that both local communities and civil society can play for heritage sites.