UNESCO’s Heritage Emergency Fund Supports Activity for Central Asia

UNESCO will be supporting emergency preparedness activities in Central Asia through its Heritage Emergency Fund. This support offers a timely opportunity to address the threats and pay attention to the emergency preparedness for culture, emergency management systems at World Heritage (WH) Properties, museums and other heritage institutions in Central Asian countries.

The main focus of the activity “Strengthening Regional Capacity in Central Asia for Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Preparedness for Culture”, which will be implemented by UNESCO Almaty Cluster Office, is strengthening the capacities of WH site managers and emergency preparedness.

UNESCO Almaty would like to thank HEF donors for their support: the Qatar Fund for Development, the Government of Canada, the Kingdom of Norway, the French Republic, the Principality of Monaco, the Republic of Estonia, ANA Holdings INC, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Slovak Republic, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Principality of Andorra, the Republic of Serbia.

The Heritage Emergency Fund is a financial mechanism established by UNESCO to support the protection of cultural heritage in emergency situations resulting from conflicts and disasters. The overall goal of HEF is to support the protection of culture and the promotion of cultural pluralism in emergencies related to conflicts and disasters caused by natural or human-made hazards, through better preparedness and response on the part of UNESCO and its Member States.

More information is available at the HEF webpage.

In 2021, the UNESCO Almaty organized series of online capacity-building webinars for the museum professionals and another series of online capacity-building webinars for the managers of the World Heritage properties.