From 27 September to 11 October 2024, the ICCROM-IUCN World Heritage Leadership (WHL) programme successfully conducted the "Managing World Heritage: People Nature Culture" (PNC) course, which brought together 35 site managers, national focal points, and heritage professionals from 26 countries offering them the chance to discuss World Heritage management.
The course guided participants through the entire framework for managing World Heritage sites and other heritage places, offering a structured methodology to review and reflect on management systems for heritage. The course looked at and discussed conditions and ways to support efforts to strengthen and improve heritage management across various contexts and national setups. It covered essential aspects of effective management, including understanding heritage values and attributes of the place, analyzing governance and legal frameworks, planning, and ensuring continuous improvement through feedback and monitoring.
The course was implemented using the forthcoming ICCROM E-learning platform, which will contribute to ICCROM’s commitment to deliver state-of-the-art and effective capacity building for the management and conservation of heritage. The course used the E-learning platform as a knowledge hub to present an essential and foundational theoretical introduction and used live sessions to foster connections and discussions and carry out exercises with and among participants and resource people. Participants also presented case studies during these live sessions, allowing them to engage with key course themes and reflect on their site management practices looking at strengths, weaknesses and opportunities to improve the management systems of their heritage places.
This PNC course was based on the forthcoming World Heritage Resource Manual, "Managing World Heritage," and the “Enhancing Our Heritage Toolkit 2.0,” both of which provided the foundation for the course curriculum. These resources offered participants practical insights into the management system of heritage places, equipping them with knowledge and skills to use these tools effectively in their respective sites and countries.
Looking ahead, we will launch new calls for applications for capacity-building activities in early 2025, offering opportunities for site managers and heritage professionals to join new editions of the PNC course next year.
