Capacity-building programme for the nomination of World Heritage sites in the Africa Region supported by Government of Japan

Thanks to the support of the Government of Japan, the four-year “Capacity-building programme for the nomination of World Heritage sites in the Africa Region”, in line with UNESCO Global Priority Africa,  aims at reinforcing the capacities of African heritage experts in order to increase the number of African sites inscribed on the World Heritage List, while ensuring that present and future African World Heritage properties remain in a good state of conservation.

With priority given to States Parties with no properties inscribed, the programme built around two components ("Building a base" and "Building sustainability") will focus on inventory, Tentative listing and nomination, while also covering the areas of conservation and management, communication and community/stakeholders engagement for sustainability.

Building a base

• Needs assessment of the beneficiary countries regarding the implementation of the World Heritage Convention
• Establishment of National Committee for World Heritage
• Elaborate or update the Tentative List

Building sustainability

• Capacity building workshops on World Heritage tools and process
• Development of solid nomination dossiers
• Capacity building workshops on heritage conservation, monitoring and management

 Highlights in 2021

1. A national workshop on the development of nomination dossier of the Nyungwe National Park (Rwanda) was organized in June 2021. A first draft nomination dossier has been developed following the workshop by the national team and the identified expert, with the support of UNESCO. Consultations and awareness-raising of local communities were organized in December 2021 to collect and exchange on the biological, geographical and socio-economic information of the Nyungwe National Park in order to finalize the nomination dossier.
   Rwanda consults UNESCO for technical support in preparation of the Nyungwe National Park World Heritage nomination file
2. A serial online training, “Improving management effectiveness in African World Heritage properties”, in partnership with The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), has been planned in the context of the COVID19 pandemic and started in December 2021 (Module 1), benefitting directly the ten (10) African countries under this project and other fifteen (15) countries (Angola, Benin, Cape Verde, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Senegal Somalia, and the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) through synergy with other on-going projects. First joint training to improve management effectiveness in African World Heritage properties launched

1. Eswatini five-day training session for national authorities, experts and other relevant stakeholders on the 1972 World Heritage Convention and World Heritage nomination. The training specifically focused on methods for updating the Eswatini World Heritage tentative list, the development of nomination dossiers, strengthening of national capacity for nomination and conservation, and the establishment of the national World Heritage Committee at inter-ministerial level. Eswatini embarks on journey to have first World Heritage Site nomination