Rabat: 11/07/2019

As part of the proclamation of 2019 as the Year of Islamic Cultural Heritage: Ouagadougou to host sub-regional workshop on preserving and managing endangered cultural heritage in West African Member States

The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism in Burkina Faso, and in coordination with ISESCO Regional Center for Training Museum Professionals, will hold a“Sub-regional workshop on preserving and managing endangered cultural heritage in West African Member States”,  in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, on 16-19 July 2019. The workshop will bring together participants from Côte D’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Togo, and Burkina Faso.

This workshop, which is organized as part of the proclamation of 2019 as the Year of Islamic Cultural Heritage, aims at exploring the most effective ways to preserve cultural heritage in West African Member States; publicizing it as being the collective living memory of African peoples; and contributing to countering the looting, trafficking and illicit trade of artifacts and archeological landmarks in these countries.

In the same vein, the workshop will focus on four themes, namely diagnosing the situation of cultural heritage in West African  and Sub-Saharan Member States; the challenges relating to safeguarding and preserving cultural heritage in this region; effective measures and mechanisms for preserving and managing landmarks of cultural heritage; and ways to promote national legislative procedures to counter violent extremism targeting cultural heritage in the region.

ISESCO will be represented in the workshop by Dr. Ismail Traoré, Programme Specialist at the Directorate of Culture.