Follow-up to the Director-General’s initiative on “The World Heritage Convention: Thinking Ahead”

WHC-15/39.COM/5C

In 2012, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an initiative entitled “The World Heritage Convention: Thinking Ahead” to give an opportunity to the Advisory Bodies, the Secretariat and the States Parties to collectively review the main challenges and opportunities facing the Convention.

A half-day meeting was convened by the Director-General on 21 January 2015 to take stock of progress made to improve dialogue, communication and transparency. This meeting was a follow-up to the series of meetings organised since October 2012. The 2012 meeting produced a number of recommendations and the progress of their implementation was reviewed both by the World Heritage Committee and the General Assembly of States Parties.

As per Decision 38 COM 5C, this document presents a progress report of the main conclusions and actions resulting from the “Thinking Ahead” initiative since its inception.