UNESCO supports Ghana for Forts and Castles management plan

On 19 January 2021, UNESCO and the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) launched the development of the Conservation and Management Plan for the Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions of Ghana, during a hybrid (physical and online) four-day capacity-building workshop and marked a major step in the implementation of the International Assistance, under the World Heritage Fund.

"This workshop is crucial, as the new Management Plan will introduce priority programmes to ensure the implementation of appropriate interventions”, said Mrs Mabel Cudjoe, Representative the Chief Director of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture. In his statement, Mr. Abdourahamane Diallo, Head of Office and UNESCO Representative to Ghana, who opened the workshop together with Mr. Ivor Agyemang Duah, Acting Executive Director for GMMB, stressed the need to integrate the recommendations of the 2020 Reactive Monitoring Mission Report  to address challenges of effective management in Ghana.

The workshop, which ended on 22 January, was attended by more than 35 participants comprising GMMB Staff and heritage experts.  It  followed the Reactive  Monitoring Mission which made strong recommendations for measures to be taken to improve the conservation, promotion and interpretation of the Forts and Castles, a serial site inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1979 and which features a total of 28 components stretching along Ghana's seashore.