This project proposes to train a mixed group of disaster risk management professionals, emergency responders, military personnel, humanitarian aid professionals, leaders of heritage communities, and cultural heritage professionals. The end goal is to facilitate coordination between actors and integrate cultural heritage into existing emergency management.
By opening the training beyond the cultural sector, ICCROM aims to make a breakthrough in standardizing procedures for safeguarding cultural heritage during major and complex emergencies, and incorporating them in existing local disaster risk reduction, emergency response and humanitarian assistance.
The project combines blended learning with direct on-the-ground application of methods and tools discussed during the training. Project activities include four weeks of in-person training; the development of two learning packages on heritage in peacebuilding and community-based disaster risk management for cultural heritage; two months of online pre-course mentoring; and six months of structured follow-up of context-specific projects in participant countries of origin.
Mentors are selected from our network of course alumni, paying special attention to those who have been active since their training in strengthening local networks, implementing advocacy or capacity building initiatives, or who have been directly involved in cultural heritage emergency response. Each mentor guides three to four participants who have cultural, linguistic or regional affinities. This helps to stimulate long-term relationships, which in turn helps to support the follow-up phase of the training.
The key resource for the pre-course mentoring is the First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis Handbook and its accompanying Toolkit.
The four-week in-person workshop includes simulations, group work, structured presentations and tabletop exercises. The workshop prepares our participants and mentors to act as change agents. They will gain the knowledge and skills to build networks, train others, and establish on-the-ground coordination mechanisms between civil protection, army, humanitarians, cultural heritage institutions and the affected local communities.
The follow-up phase consists of participant field projects, which they will be required to outline during pre-course mentorship and refine during the in-person training.
Partners
Swedish Postcode Foundation, Smithsonian Institution; Prince Claus Fund; UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); ICOM-ICORP Turkey; Italian Civil Protection Department (Dipartimento Protezione Civile); Italian Ministry of Culture (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, MiBAC); Italian Fire Brigade (Vigili del Fuoco); Special Office for the Reconstruction of Umbria (Ufficio Speciale Ricostruzione Umbria); Italian Red Cross (Croce Rossa Italiana, CRI); The Municipality of Norcia and the Carabinieri.
Represented countries
Chile, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Honduras, India, Iraq, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, South Sudan, Spain, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, and the United States.
The success stories and lessons learned in the follow-up phase will be collected and will be compiled in the form of a publication with the help of mentors.
Learning resources created as a result of field projects
- A Story of Change
- PATH – Peacebuilding Assessment Tool for Heritage Recovery and Rehabilitation
- inSIGHT
Course
The eighth international First Aid to Cultural Heritage in Times of Crisis (FAC) course was the centrepiece of the Culture Cannot Wait project. For four weeks, 16 participants from 14 countries (Chile, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Honduras, India, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Spain, South Sudan, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States) were joined by five mentors and teaching experts from around the world to work in Rome and in the town of Norcia.
The course brought together experts in several fields, including cultural heritage, disaster risk reduction, urban resilience, mediation, climate variability and humanitarian aid. Through the FAC training, they learned how to mitigate disaster risks, prevent damage to cultural heritage in crisis situations, and take the necessary steps to ensure early recovery post-crisis.
Built into this was an emphasis on factors such as climate change and the tensions that can increase the impact of disasters, as well as a focus on the importance of building resilience. The FAC course provides field-tested strategies for wider integration with first response, civil protection, humanitarian aid and development sectors.
In Rome, an intensive timetable saw participants engage in sessions that varied from lectures and presentations to group discussions, debates, and workshop exercises.
In order to put theory into practice, the participants were given the opportunity for hands-on learning in Norcia, a town in the Umbria region which suffered extensive damage in a series of earthquakes in 2016.
Finally, the participants put everything they had learned to the test during a simulation in Rome, comprising a fictional major flooding scenario. Participants conducted an emergency evacuation of cultural heritage objects and personnel in tandem with first responders, civil protection, and cultural heritage authorities.
Norcia
On the second week of the course, participants, mentors, teachers, and other staff relocated to the small town of Norcia, Umbria – an area rich in both tangible and intangible heritage. The earthquakes that shook Central Italy in August and October 2016 proved devastating for the town; many buildings were either destroyed or severely damaged in the aftermath, including churches and other cultural centres. These circumstances provided the setting for additional theoretical and practical teaching on cultural heritage first aid in a real-world context.
A core part of the FAC training was the interaction and consultation with members of Norcia’s community, which provided the participants with a greater understanding of how culture matters during and after a crisis.
Final phase
The FAC course in Italy comprised the second phase of a nine-month-long programme, with the first phase earlier this year consisting of pre-course mentorship training. This training phase gave all the FAC participants a chance to familiarize themselves with key concepts from the worlds of cultural heritage preservation, disaster risk management, and humanitarian aid. It has also allowed them to prepare for the final phase, in which the newly qualified FAC trainees will pass on their knowledge by organizing follow-up trainings of their own.
Partners
FAC 2019 was organized by ICCROM alongside the Swedish Postcode Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Prince Claus Fund, in collaboration with the following:
- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
- ICOM-ICORP Turkey
- The Italian Civil Protection Department (Dipartimento Protezione Civile)
- Italian Ministry of Culture (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, MiBAC)
- Italian Fire Brigade (Vigili del Fuoco)
- Office of Reconstruction for Umbria Region
- Italian Red Cross (Croce Rossa Italiana, CRI)
- The Municipality of Norcia
- Carabinieri
ICCROM would like to thank the people of Norcia for their support, hospitality, and assistance during FAC training, and is grateful for the cooperation of local partners.
Field projects
The third and final phase of the project Culture Cannot Wait: Heritage for Peace and Resilience comprised of 16 field projects undertaken by participants in 14 risk-prone countries. Recognising the importance of heritage to humanity, the overarching goal of these projects was to instrumentalize heritage for people-centred disaster risk management, while also addressing the lack of coordination between the fields of emergency response and cultural heritage.
Conducted in Chile, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Honduras, India, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Spain, South Sudan, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States, together these projects fostered over 70 partnerships with institutions from the sectors of disaster risk management, humanitarian aid, civil protection, and emergency response, and trained over 345 professionals from different fields.