From 26 to 28 November, Havana will host the Subregional Meeting on the Caribbean Action Plan for World Heritage 2014-2019.

The focal points for World Heritage in 20 Member and Associate States of the Caribbean, representatives of the Advisory Bodies to the Convention (ICOMOS, ICCROM, IUCN), universities, and specialists of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO offices in Havana, Kingston and Port-au-Prince will participate in this event to discuss and adopt the above-mentioned Plan.

The meeting aims to enhance coordination of efforts by the World Heritage community, strengthen the inter-university network, and promote Caribbean - Pacific coordination within the framework of the International Year of Small Island Developing States.

The Caribbean Action Plan will be established as the key tool to advance towards the protection, conservation and management of the diverse cultural and natural heritage present in the subregion and towards the effective implementation of the 1972 Convention and its Operational Guidelines during the next five years.

In a period of rapid social and environmental changes, heritage has great potential thanks to its role in human development, as a repository of knowledge, an engine for economic growth and a symbolic force that brings stability and direction to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex world.

UNESCO Offices in Havana (Cuba), in Kingston (Jamaica) and UNESCO World Heritage Centre, in cooperation with UNESCO Office in Port au Prince (Haiti), and with the financial support of the Netherlands Funds-in-Trust are organizing the Sub-Regional meeting on the Caribbean Action Plan for World Heritage 2014-2019 which will take place in Havana (Cuba) from 26 to 28 November 2014, as a follow-up to the adoption by the World Heritage Committee of the Action Plan for World Heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean Region (Decision 38 COM 10B.4).
Draft Concept Paper
Draft Agenda
List of participants
World Heritage Papers 38: Safeguarding Precious Resources for Island Communities
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Adopted by the World Heritage Committee (Decision 38COM.10B.4) at its 38th session in Doha, Qatar (15-25 June 2014).

Organized in Brasilia, Brazil (23-25 April 2014), this Regional meeting meant a crucial step in achieving the proposed objectives of the Periodic Reporting exercise. It was not only the scenario for generating a platform for discussion to identify priority lines of action at the national, regional and sub-regional levels, but also for defining specific activities related to conservation, capacity-building and regional cooperation that reflect the region's needs and specificities in terms of World Heritage.

Action plan for World Heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean (2014-2024)
Programme
List of Participants
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The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), as a result of its Second Meeting of Heads of State and Government held in Havana, Cuba, on 28 and 29 January 2014, adopted a Special Declaration on Culture as a Promoter of Human Development and on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), to enhance the inter-regional exchange of experience among the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Issue n° 11 of the periodical Culture & Development is online, with the theme "World Heritage in the Caribbean". The UNESCO Office in Havana, with the aim of supporting the preparation of a new Action Plan for the Caribbean and a new Capacity Building Programme (CCBP) for the effective implementation of the World Heritage Convention, has made an assessment of the state of World Heritage in the sub region and of the current CCBP itself, whose results are also presented in this issue.

The CCBP is a long-term training programme, implemented by the UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Havana, in close coordination with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO Offices in Kingston and Port-au-Prince. Its implementation began in 2004 when the First Periodic Report on the Application of the Convention in Latin America and the Caribbean recommends the elaboration of effective measures to strengthen capacities in the States Parties. In 2013, with the presentation of the Second Periodic Report on the Application of the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean, the first CCBP cycle comes to an end. The UNESCO Havana Office, with the financial support of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, has developed an evaluation of the CCBP in June 2014.

Evaluation CCBP

UNESCO and the Government of St. Maarten, through the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Affairs hosted a meeting on Capacity Building on Heritage Conservation in the Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS), in Philipsburg, St. Maarten from 8 to 13 May 2014.

Brief on the Meeting
Philipsburg Declaration and Action Plan
Agenda
List of participants
Recommendations of the UNESCO Meeting on Eastern Caribbean Coastal Fortifications Maho, St. Maarten 8 – 10 May 2014
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The 2nd Caribbean Workshop on Disaster Risks Management on World Heritage was organized by the UNESCO Havana Office and the World Heritage Centre, in coordination with the National Council on Cultural Heritage of Cuba and with the cooperation of ICOMOS and ICCROM. The singularity of this second Workshop was the overall and inter sectoral approach to the World Heritage Convention in a coordinated strategy among UNESCO sectors to appraise lessons learnt and new challenges on risk prevention and management over the World Heritage sites in the Caribbean.

Concept Note (AVAILABLE ONLY IN SPANISH)
Provisional Agenda (AVAILABLE ONLY IN SPANISH)
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The UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the UNESCO Offices in Kingston and Havana in collaboration with the Antigua & Barbuda National Commission for UNESCO organized this training exercise, which was a follow-up to the June 2012 training held in Kingston, Jamaica. The course brought together some 20 representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, The Bahamas, and Trinidad and Tobago. During the training the participants shared their draft nomination dossiers, exchanged information and received feedback/guidance from the resource persons/experts from the Caribbean, representatives from ICOMOS, IUCN and UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

The Kingston Action Plan (Updated)
Concept note
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The UNESCO Offices in Havana and Kingston and UNESCO's World Heritage Centre, in coordination with the Barbados National Commission for UNESCO and The University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, organized this Training Course as a follow-up of the agreement on the Caribbean Capacity Building Programme (CCBP) between The University of the West Indies-UWI and UNESCO (June 2011).

Concept note
Agenda
Official Opening Agenda
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The workshop was organized by the UNESCO Kingston Office with funding from the government of Japan and the cooperation of the UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean in Havana and the National Jamaican Commission for UNESCO. It was focused in the development of capacities for the nomination of sites to the tentative lists of World Heritage on the Eastern Caribbean countries as a way to expand the number of sites representing Caribbean heritage in the world list and to balance its geographical location.

Concept note
Programme
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UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean, Havana, Cuba:
Fernando Brugman, Olga Rufins, Víctor Marín, Begoña Guzmán, Elba Suárez and Junior González.

Contributions to this edition: UNESCO World Heritage Centre and UNESCO Offices in Kingston (Jamaica) and Port au Prince (Haiti).