Inter-Regional Workshop “World Heritage and Sustainable Development: The Role of Local Communities”

An inter-regional workshop entitled “World Heritage and Sustainable Development: The Role of Local Communities” will be held in Karachi, Pakistan, from 23 to 24 November 2017. The workshop aims to highlight the important role played by local communities in the conservation and management of World Heritage properties and to further advocate for the crucial role of local communities in World Heritage management and sustainable development.

The workshop is a wrap-up activity of the UNESCO/Republic of Korea Funds-in-Trust Project “Local Community Involvement and Sustainable Development for World Heritage”, which was launched in May 2014 and led to the implementation of a series of successful activities in Pakistan and Bangladesh. With an emphasis on sustainable development and the interaction between communities and their shared heritage, the project aims to help local communities develop their traditional crafts into income-generating activities and utilize these crafts in the conservation of heritage.

The workshop will provide a platform for discussion and exchange of good practices for a number of experts, site managers and policy makers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Iran, Jordan and Oman, in an effort to showcase the role of heritage as an enabler for sustainable development, as well as to disseminate good practices in the field of heritage conservation by involving local communities.

The organization of this workshop has benefited from the close collaboration between the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the UNESCO Office in Islamabad and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Government of Sindh (Pakistan). It has received generous financial support from the Government of Sindh (Pakistan) and via the UNESCO/Republic of Korea Funds-in-Trust Project “Local Community Involvement and Sustainable Development for World Heritage”.