Deadline: 19 January 2020
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre has announced the Call for Projects for the World Heritage Volunteers (WHV) Campaign 2020. This Call welcomes the participation of all interested organisations and institutions. In addition, it offers a new opportunity to apply for not only one-year cycle, but also two-year cycle process, with the aim to foster and encourage the commitment to World Heritage.
The World Heritage Volunteers Initiative (WHV) was launched in 2008 to encourage young people to undertake concrete actions and to play an active role in the protection, preservation and promotion of World Heritage sites. It consists of action camps organized by youth organizations or institutions in cooperation with multiple stakeholders and partners, which work all together for the state of conservation of World Heritage sites. The initiative mobilizes national and international volunteers through hands-on and awareness-raising activities for the conservation of their common cultural and natural heritage.
In the framework of the UNESCO World Heritage Education Programme, the initiative is led by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC) in collaboration with the Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS), European Heritage Volunteers (as a branch of Open Houses) and Better World.
Aims
The World Heritage Volunteers Campaign 2020 shall aim to:
- Raise awareness among young people, volunteers, local communities, and concerned authorities of the need to protect and promote World Heritage;
- Involve young people in World Heritage preservation through concrete projects at sites;
- Empower young people allowing them to learn skills, basic preservation and conservation techniques and raise their capacity as future decision-makers and global active citizens;
- Strengthen sustainable cooperation between non-profit organisations, site management, communities and authorities;
- Identify best practices and develop non-formal education tools to facilitate stakeholders’ participation in the World Heritage education;
- Mainstream gender equality in all stages of the projects and geographical diversity among the World Heritage properties where the action camps take place.
Criteria
- The project:
- Should be organised in immediate connection to a property inscribed on the World Heritage List or a site inscribed on a Tentative List
- Should have a minimum 10 day duration (excluding arrival and departure dates);
- Should include the same group of people for a minimum 10 day duration, consecutive or not;
- Should ideally start after the 15 June and end by the 15 December;
- Should involve as much as possible international volunteers;
- Should include awareness activities, practical hands-on activities and skills related to World Heritage sites where the action camp will be conducted;
- Should be developed in consultation with site managers and local authorities in planning details of the activities;
- Should include practical hands-on skills training activities as well as reflection on issues related to World Heritage;
- Should involve the community in order to deepen their knowledge around issues related to World Heritage and the World Heritage Volunteers Initiative;
- Should respect participants’ gender equality (ideally equal number of male and female) and geographical diversity (ideally from different countries and regions).
- Applying organisation:
- Should be legally registered as a public or private organisation or institution in the country where the project takes place;
- All activities of the organisation related to WHV should be no profit. All local, national and international partnerships developed by the applicant in the framework of the WHV should be submitted for approval to the WHV coordinators;
- First time applicants should submit two letters of support from recognised organisations and/or institutions recommending the applicant on the basis of past or current proven cooperation;
- First time applicants should submit a copy of their Constitution / Bylaws and of their most recent activity report in one of the UN official languages.
- NOTE: Organisers engage themselves to implement their project as per approved proposals and to submit a full activity report (including images, videos and other results) demonstrating the concrete engagement of young volunteers in the field of World Heritage. UNESCO shall use these for promotional purposes, among others publication in UNESCO’s website, the World Heritage Review, for information to the different States Parties and concerned governmental agencies.
- Each organisation is eligible to apply for a maximum of 4 projects to be carried out at different sites (applicants may apply to run several projects at the same site; or to run several projects on the same theme but on different sites. This will be counted as one project).
- The evaluation form of previous World Heritage Volunteers projects done by the same organisation has to be submitted in order for the new proposals to be considered.
Recommendations
- The project:
- Projects organised between June and December have a higher chance of receiving international volunteers.
- A group size of minimum 10 volunteers provides a richer working and learning environment for the participants and stimulates more diverse interpersonal and intercultural dynamics.
- A group ideally composed by international volunteers with a maximum of two people per country.
- Applying organisation:
- Organisations are highly recommended to join the World Heritage Volunteers Meetings that will be organised by the coordination of the campaign.
- If applicants project was already part of the campaign in the past, their organisation must demonstrate a sustainable project and show which actions have been implemented and what the future needs are for the further development of the project.
Meetings
- If funds are available, the organizations shall be invited to the World Heritage Volunteers Meetings, as planning and evaluation are an integral part of the World Heritage Volunteers Initiative’s implementation
- The planning and networking meeting is usually held in April/May. It gathers the selected organizations in order to discuss further the implementation of the World Heritage Volunteers projects during the campaign.
- The evaluation meeting is usually held in October/November. It aims to give a feedback and to present the main results, achievements, and challenges encountered by the organizations so as to enhance the quality of the campaign.
- The organizations will be informed on dates and venues of the meetings in due course.
For more information, visit https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2061