UNESCO, ICCROM and EPA train African site managers on Disaster Risk Management strategies and Protection Systems

Disaster and risk are threats to World Heritage sites. The increasing impact of disasters in Africa and their growing complexity is a great concern for site managers, heritage professionals, and decision-makers. According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), millions of people worldwide are affected annually by disasters arising from extreme natural phenomena such as storms, floods, droughts, wildfires, and extreme temperatures. Faced with this stark reality, we must ask: what can be done?

Recognizing this urgency, UNESCO set up a capacity development programme to empower site managers in Disaster Risk Management.  On 28-29 November 2024, UNESCO launched a 2-day online component of a regional project on “Capacity Building in Risk Management and Protection Systems in Africa” in collaboration with ICCROM and EPA (Ecole du patrimoine africain), thanks to the financial support of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This project aligns with the Flagship programme 3 of Operation Strategy for Priority Africa (2022-2029) and the Strategy for World Heritage in Africa.

The project gathers site managers from six sites namely the Historic Town of Grand-Bassam (Côte d’Ivoire), Island of Saint-Louis (Senegal), Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba (Togo/Benin), Royal Palaces of Abomey (Benin), Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi (Uganda) and Stone Town of Zanzibar (the United Republic of Tanzania).

_{Training session on Disaster Risk Management in the World Heritage context. © Laurent KOSSOUHO, EPA, 2024}

Then, from December 9 to 13, 2024, site managers and key stakeholders gathered at the Royal Palaces of Abomey (Benin), a World Heritage site, for the project’s physical training session. This physical training represented an excellent opportunity for participants to share experiences, learn from each other and the team of scientific coordinators, and experience first-hand the disaster risk management issues at a World Heritage site. Many discussions focused on understanding the difference between a vulnerability and a hazard, and the need to understand that any disaster risk management plan must focus on preserving two main elements: the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the sites (thus clearly identifying values and attributes), as well as human lives in and around the sites.

_{Field visit to the Royal Palaces of Abomey (Benin), a World Heritage site, to identify and understand the property’s key values and attributes, as well as hazards (Left) ; and Group work on the use of Google Earth to map key attributes and hazards (Right). © Laurent KOSSOUHO, EPA, 2024}

To better understand how preparedness, mitigation, and response measures work together in disaster risk management, participants had the privilege of meeting the head of the fire department in the Zou department, home to the World Heritage site of the Royal Palaces of Abomey. This represented an excellent opportunity to learn from the last fire that occurred on the site in August 2018.

Finally, site managers will now embark on the next stage which is the drafting of their disaster risk management plans by the end of the year 2024, with the guidance of the two experts. This phase will be followed by the involvement of key stakeholders at the national level and the mobilization of technical and financial partners, including UNESCO, to ensure effective implementation of  the developed plans at the national and even regional levels.