In the past 10 years, a number of countries have created UNESCO Category 2 Centres to enhance cooperation and capacity building for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention.

To date, there are six of these centres:

• Nordic World Heritage Foundation (NWHF) in Oslo, Norway;
• World Heritage Institute of Training and Research-Asia and Pacific (WHITR-AP), with its three operational centres located in Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou, China;
• Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage (ARC-WH) in Bahrain;
• Regional Heritage Management Training Centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;
• African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) in Johannesburg, South Africa;
• Regional World Heritage Institute in Zacatecas, Mexico.

ICCROM already has formal relationships with many of these centres (for example, serving on advisory boards), and carries out joint activities when requested (for example, the Management Planning for Cultural Heritage course that takes place every two years in collaboration with WHITR-AP). 

In the 2012-2013 biennium, it is expected that ICCROM will strengthen its collaboration with these existing centres and begin to work with some of the new ones that are currently being proposed. 

updated on: 27 January, 2012