Presentation of Iccrom Activities to African Diplomats at the Residence of South African

PRESENTATION OF ICCROM ACTIVITIES TO AFRICAN DIPLOMATS AT THE RESIDENCE OF SOUTH AFRICAN AMBASSADOR NOMATEMBA TAMBO IN ROME

Rome, 18 November 2013. On Monday, November 18th, 2013, a number of African Ambassadors and senior diplomats attended a presentation on the activities of ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) in Sub-Saharan Africa. The presentation was co-hosted by the South African Ambassador, H.E. Nomatemba Tambo, and the director-general of ICCROM, Dr. Stefano De Caro, and was held in the official South African residence in the Parioli district of Rome.

After her welcoming address, stressing how crucial ICCROM’s work is to preserve Africa’s cultural heritage for future generations, Ambassador Tambo passed the floor to Dr. Stefano De Caro and his co-presenters from ICCROM, Ms Catherine Antomarchi (presentation of PREMA-Prevention in Museums in Africa); Mr. Joe King (presentation of AFRICA 2000); Mr. Apama Tandon (presentation of SOIMA-Sound and Image Collections Conservation Programme in Kenya); and Ms Florence Lamy-Joly (presentation of EPA- Ecole du Patrimoine Africain and CHDA-Centre for Heritage Development in Africa).

The meeting was aptly reminded by Dr. De Caro on the need to preserve Africa’s heritage when he quoted the first President of Botswana, Sir Seretse Khama, who had said that a nation without a past is a lost nation, and a people without a past is a people without a soul.

In view of the critical importance of preserving cultural property and heritage, Dr. De Caro mentioned that the presentation to African Ambassadors had two key objectives, namely to present ICCROM and its activities in the past thirty years in Sub-Saharan Africa and to look into the future, as well as to highlight the important role of the African countries in the upcoming general assembly of ICCROM due to be held in late November 2013, especially with regard to the planning of its general policy, the approval of its biennial programme of activities and budget and the election of new council members.

ICCROM is an intergovernmental organization for the conservation of cultural heritage, whose establishment was first mooted at the 9th UNESCO general conference in New Delhi in 1956 and then accomplished in Rome in 1959. It currently has 133 members, with the adhesion of Malawi coming in just few weeks ago.

The only institution with a worldwide mandate to promote the conservation of all types of cultural heritage, ICCROM pursues its objectives with a three-pronged strategy, namely by improving the quality of conservation practice, by supporting the diversity of heritage approaches and by raising stakeholder awareness about the importance of cultural heritage preservation. ICCROM fulfils its mission through collecting and disseminating information, coordinating research, offering consultancy and advice, providing advanced training and promoting awareness of the value of preserving cultural heritage, including monuments and sites, as well as museum, library and archive collections.

ICCROM has managed to position itself as a centre of excellence for the training of professionals in heritage conservation. The overall goal is to contribute to social stability, and environmental and socioeconomic development through culture.

In the 2012-2013 biennium, over one hundred countries benefited from ICCROM’s services through training and think tank activities. These included workshops for the protection of heritage in conflict areas in the Arab region, a conference that brought together the field’s most prestigious scientists to discuss how to connect conservation to wider social priorities, and a ground-breaking course in Kenya that merged the preservation of sound and images with smart phone technologies.