Progress report on the implementation of the recommendations of the Evaluation of the Global Strategy and the PACT initiative

WHC-12/36.COM/9A

The General Assembly, at its 17th session, requested the World Heritage Centre to provide at its 18th session in 2011 "with a summary of the work undertaken in relation to the reflection on the future of the Convention, including an independent evaluation by UNESCO's external auditor on the implementation of the Global Strategy from its inception in 1994 to 2011 and the Partnerships for Conservation Initiative (PACT).

The Committee at its 35th session (UNESCO 2011) with Decision 35 COM 9A requested the World Heritage Centre to transmit the independent evaluation by the UNESCO's external auditor to the 18th session of the General Assembly (UNESCO, 2011) for examination. The General Assembly decided (Resolution 18 GA 8) to establish an open-ended working group including experts from the different geographic regions, whose composition would be determined by States Parties and depending significantly on extrabudgetary funds, to examine the report of the External Auditor, in order to produce an implementation plan for the recommendations for consideration by the World Heritage Committee and to present a final report to the 19th session of the General Assembly. The open-ended working group met from 15 to 16 May 2012 at UNESCO and an update of the work is provided in this document. All documents of the open-ended working group are posted on the World Heritage Centre website at https://whc.unesco.org/en/open-ended-working-group/.