Decision 45 COM 6

Follow-up to the World Heritage capacity-building strategy and Progress Report on the World Heritage-related category 2 centres

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/23/45.COM/6,
2. Recalling Decisions 43 COM 6 and 44 COM 6, adopted at its 43rd (Baku, 2019) and extended 44th (Fuzhou/online, 2021) sessions respectively,
3. Commends the progress made by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the Advisory Bodies, the States Parties, the category 2 centres under the auspices of UNESCO related to World Heritage, as well as the UNESCO Chairs with the implementation of the World Heritage Capacity-Building Strategy (WHCBS), and notably the efforts to maintain and adapt capacity-building activities during the global COVID-19 pandemic;
4. Takes note of the progress made with the implementation of the regional and thematic capacity-building strategies and initiatives, the role of the regional category 2 centre in supporting the implementation of the Regional Action Plan for Africa (2021-2027) and calls upon States Parties and all concerned partners and stakeholders, including the Advisory Bodies (ICCROM, ICOMOS and IUCN), to support and follow up on the implementation of the strategies and initiatives developed for each regional and thematic area;
5. Thanks the Governments of Norway, the Republic of Korea, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Switzerland for the continued financial support they extended to the WHCBS and the World Heritage Leadership Programme, also thanks the States Parties of the People’s Republic of China, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, France and the Sultanate of Oman for supporting World Heritage capacity-building activities, notably in the Africa region, and further thanks those States Parties who have contributed to the African World Heritage Fund, including Norway, South Africa, Uganda, Mauritius, Namibia, Germany, Burkina Faso, Azerbaijan, Serbia, France, United Arab Emirates and Rwanda;
6. Encourages States Parties and other stakeholders to continue supporting the implementation of the WHCBS by providing financial support and/or reinforcing the human resources of the institutions involved;
7. Recalls that category 2 centres and UNESCO Chairs have the mandate of contributing to the implementation of the Organization’s strategic priorities, programmes and global development agendas, notably through capacity building, welcomes the progress made by category 2 centres and UNESCO Chairs in the field of World Heritage, and encourages States Parties to make full use of the services and resources that category 2 centres and UNESCO Chairs provide, in a spirit of international cooperation;
8. Commends the organisation of the 8th Coordination Meeting of the World Heritage-related category 2 centres, hosted by the International Centre for the Interpretation and Presentation of World Heritage Sites (Republic of Korea), takes note of the “Sejong Declaration of Understanding and Cooperation among UNESCO Category 2 World Heritage Centres” adopted on this occasion, and notes with thanks that the Regional World Heritage Institute in Zacatecas (Mexico) has expressed its intention to organise the 9th edition of the Coordination Meeting;
9. Expresses again its gratitude to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for providing the financial support required to carry out the independent evaluation of the WHCBS;
10. Takes note of the independent evaluation of the WHCBS, initiated through cooperation between UNESCO, ICCROM, IUCN and ICOMOS and carried out by the E.C.O. Institute for Ecology, and endorses its conclusions and recommendations;
11. Welcomes the involvement of an Evaluation Reference Group composed of interested Committee members, States Parties and other key capacity-building actors in the evaluation of the WHCBS and the development of guidelines for the planned update of this Strategy, and thanks the numerous States Parties that actively participated in the evaluation process at the site, national and (sub-)regional levels;
12. Invites all States Parties to provide dedicated voluntary contributions under the World Heritage Fund and/or extra-budgetary support to the World Heritage Centre for capacity building, since the Evaluation has further demonstrated the need to enhance capacity building and highlighted the lack of dedicated funding for capacity-building activities under the World Heritage Fund thus far;
13. Reiterates its appeal to States Parties to contribute financial resources for the update of the WHCBS through earmarked contributions to the World Heritage Fund or by providing extra-budgetary support to the World Heritage Centre and the World Heritage-related category 2 centres for this purpose;
14. Requests the World Heritage Centre, in cooperation with ICCROM, IUCN and ICOMOS, to develop a new World Heritage Capacity-Building Strategy for the decade 2025-2035, including clear priorities, strategic objectives, expected outputs and outcomes, relying on the outcomes of the independent evaluation of the WHCBS and the guidelines developed by the Evaluators for this purpose, and taking into account the results of the Periodic Reporting process, to be presented for review at its 47th session, if funding allows;
15. Further requests the World Heritage Centre and ICCROM to submit a progress report on the World Heritage-related capacity building activities and the revision of the WHCBS, for examination at its 46th session;
16. Mindful that contributions by category 2 centres to the implementation of the World Heritage Convention are not confined to capacity building, finally requests the category 2 centres to submit a progress report on all the activities concerning the implementation of the World Heritage Convention by the World Heritage-related category 2 centres, presented as a specific agenda item during the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee.