On 26 June 2023, ICCROM held its first Asia-Pacific Regional Information Meeting for our Member States, partners and those interested in our work in the region. The event provided an overview of ICCROM’s programmes and activities while facilitating discussions on regional challenges and opportunities for collaboration.
ICCROM Director-General Webber Ndoro opened the meeting, highlighting the immense significance of the Asia-Pacific region for ICCROM. He said, "We are always seeking new and better ways to improve ICCROM’s services to its Member States, which is why this informational meeting is meant to open dialogue and increase interaction with you to better understand how we can work together and better serve your interests."
Rohit Jigyasu, ICCROM Project Manager, provided insights into ICCROM’s vision and key approaches that serve as the foundation for all our activities. The following three thematic presentations served as illustrations of how these approaches enable us to fulfil our mission in diverse aspects of heritage conservation and management. Aparna Tandon, ICCROM First Aid and Resilience for Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis (FAR) Senior Programme Leader, outlined the capacity development activities of the FAR programme aimed at protecting all forms of heritage from climate-related disasters and using traditional knowledge and practices to promote climate action, disaster risk reduction, and sustainable peace. Eugene Jo, ICCROM Programme Manager of the World Heritage Leadership (WHL) programme, shared how ICCROM works to promote an integrated approach to heritage preservation and management, linking nature and culture and explained how WHL helps establish good management practices for heritage properties, starting from World Heritage sites and other designations. Tomás Castaño, ICCROM Movable Heritage Officer, gave an overview of ICCROM’s Training Partnerships and other capacity-building activities in Asia-Pacific, such as CollAsia.
Concluding the meeting, Rohit Jigyasu emphasized the pivotal role of cooperation with Member States and partners, which underpins all ICCROM’s initiatives in the region. Hirofumi Ikawa, ICCROM Project Manager and secondee from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs shared his valuable insights and encouraged other institutions to look deeper into our secondment scheme.
The meeting's Q&A session allowed us to hear from our Member States and partners about their main challenges and how they hope ICCROM can contribute. The need for building capacity, increasing awareness, and finding resources emerged as common challenges faced throughout the region. Attendees emphasized how we can join forces – within the region and beyond - to actively address these challenges.
All of us at ICCROM thank the attendees for their valuable contributions to the discussion and look forward to future cooperation and engagement in the Asia-Pacific region.
Feel free to write to us at partnerships@iccrom.org for more information on how to partner with ICCROM.