Registration open for the online workshop “Re-discovering African Heritage through the Lenses of the 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape”
The Africa Unit of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, with the support of the Government of Norway, in partnership with the African World Heritage Fund and ICCROM is pleased to announce that an online workshop dedicated to the “Re-discovering African urban heritage through the lenses of the 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape” (HUL) will take place on 24 July 2023.
Background
The HUL Recommendation was adopted on 10 November 2011 during the 36th session of the UNESCO General Conference as a tool to manage transformation in historic urban areas. It defends the integration of heritage values and their protection into the broader city and territorial-scale strategies. This is especially relevant in Africa, as the HUL approach does not deny development, but rather makes sure that it is realized in a way that respects history, culture, heritage, and local assets thus contributing to sustainable development.
The UNESCO World Heritage (WH) property “Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi”, Uganda, was inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2010 following a devastating fire that resulted in the destruction of the Mazibu-Azaala-Mpanga building, a major component of the property. As one of the corrective measures for the removal of the sites from the World Heritage List in Danger (WHLD), the WH Committee requested the State party to develop guidelines for its buffer zone in line with HUL. The property, located in the middle of the rapidly growing and bustling city of Kampala, is exposed to external threats and pressures that cannot be controlled by the site management authority alone. The disaster highlighted the need for local institutions to work together, to look at values beyond World Heritage management boundaries and to integrate them in planning tools and city-scale strategies. With this goal, a pilot project for the Kasubi tombs has been developed since 2022. It attempts to define a contextualized methodology and presents a series of proposals for the protection and integration of the WH property within its buffer zone and the wider context.
The workshop
This international workshop will enable participants to:
- learn more about the HUL Recommendation and its potentiality;
- discuss the methodology and results of the Kasubi pilot project;
- exchange with international experts and peers on integrated heritage management;
- collectively identify key assets and challenges with integrating heritage conservation in urban development strategies in Africa;
- explore how the methodology developed for the Kasubi tombs could be adapted to other sites in Africa.
The workshop will be divided in two sessions (see detailed Concept Note and Agenda):
- morning session 11:00-13:30 (GMT+2) Lessons learnt from Kasubi
- afternoon session 15:30-17:30 (GMT+2) Understanding the context around African World Heritage properties
The workshop will be held in English and French with simultaneous interpretation
Registration
Registration form
- Interested people can register for the workshop by filling a short online form accessible through this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfudrf8x5VbHEX2y3KL6lnIC3_qSwXwvZ39J2Q2pF4JX-uBdg/viewform?usp=sf_link
- A connection link to the Zoom session will be sent to you after registration. Registration closes on 19 July 2023 23:59 (GMT+2)
- A limited number of spots are available inside the Zoom session. We kindly encourage you to register early.
- Those having trouble accessing the online form can alternatively fill in and send the Word version of the form available on this website to albazamarbide@gmail.com with mwaka@unesco.org in copy.