The ICCROM-IUCN World Heritage Leadership (WHL) programme and the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage (ARC-WH) delivered a joint session to develop training teams to enhance Arab regional capacities and create a regional roster of resource people that will work with ARC-WH and WHL in delivering capacity building and assistance.
From 17 to 19 October 2022, ARC-WH and WHL joined forces to offer a 3-day virtual capacity-building session for the Arab region. The workshop’s aim was to contribute to the establishment of a roster of resource people that will work with the two organizations in delivering capacity building and assistance in the region. Fifteen natural and cultural heritage professionals with experience in impact assessment and heritage management in a World Heritage context took part in an advanced online activity focused on providing participants with an overview of how to apply the newly-published Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessment in a World Heritage context in learning environments.
The workshop provided participants with an overview of the impact assessment methodology and its three tools presented in the Guidance and Toolkit, as well as insight into different virtual and in-person teaching methods and learning environments – from establishing a course programme to selecting case studies and developing course content with other resource people.
The workshop also offered an opportunity to contribute to the ongoing translation of the Guidance and Toolkit into Arabic. Participants discussed with ARC-WH and the translators the terms used in the Arabic translations and proposed suggestions for the translation of technical terms. This also offered an opportunity to exchange the meaning of key World Heritage and impact assessment terminology to ensure consistency in terms' use and application. The translation of the guidance is ongoing, and the Arabic translation is foreseen to be published in the first half of 2023.
In the coming months, participants will be engaged as resource people in capacity-building courses as well as in assistance to Arab States Parties and World Heritage properties, starting with an impact assessment workshop that will take place in Saudi Arabia in November 2022.
The workshop piloted WHL’s intention to engage more with Category 2 Centres (C2Cs) for World Heritage, and provide assistance and coordination in enhancing capacity-building activities. In phase two of the WHL programme from 2023-2028, the programme will work closely with C2Cs and other regional networks to share the content and knowledge incorporated in the newly revised World Heritage Resource Manuals, focusing on providing context-relevant capacity building in multiple languages.
This work builds on WHL’s ongoing, active partnership with ARC-WH and efforts to build capacity in the Arab region, such as with our joint capacity-building course on World Heritage risk management, held in Bahrain in July 2022.