Generously supported by the US Department of State’s Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP)
The United States has generously contributed close to USD 250 000 to advance ICCROM’s efforts in building capacities to safeguard and recover Ukraine's cultural heritage. This substantial funding is part of the US Department of State’s USD 7 million investment in its recently announced Ukraine Cultural Heritage Response Initiative.
ICCROM’s flagship programme, First Aid and Resilience in Times of Crises (FAR) – supported by the US State Department’s Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) and in close cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine (MoCIP), Maidan Museum, Heritage Emergency Response Initiative (HERI) and Agency for Cultural Resilience (ACURE) - conducted an immersive five-day in-person training from 1 to 5 August 2023. It trained 25 multidisciplinary heritage professionals from five at-risk regions: Kharkiv, Odesa, Donetsk, Chernihiv and Kyiv.
The training aimed to develop a GIS-based risk map for tangible and intangible cultural heritage in Ukraine by systematically collecting, compiling, analyzing and visualizing data on damage and risk. It featured a collaborative process for developing tailored assessment forms for different types of heritage, imparting safety and security tips for hazardous areas and equipping participants with hands-on data collection and analysis skills using the ICCROM-FAR App. Through a comprehensive, step-by-step methodology, participants became able to identify immediate interventions, estimate costs and strategically allocate resources for safeguarding heritage based on post-event damage and risk data.
After the training and for all of 2024, the workshop participants are carrying out expeditions to 15 at-risk cultural sites to conduct on-site damage and risk assessments for movable, immovable and intangible heritage. The data collected from these expeditions will form the basis of a GIS-based risk map for cultural heritage, which will help identify priorities for first aid, risk reduction and post-war recovery and develop a risk-informed approach to protecting heritage at the national level.
Expected outcomes
Triangulation and analysis of verifiable damage and risk data to coordinate response and recovery efforts, avoid duplication of efforts and enable efficient use of resources.
A comprehensive and sectorized GIS-based risk map for heritage with centralized data that reflects needs, enabling the identification of priorities, estimation of resources needed for intervention, and identification of the necessary expertise for efficient response and recovery planning.
A team of 25–30 highly specialized cultural first aiders able to use emergency documentation and risk assessment tools and technologies.
Enhanced capacity to monitor the identified risks to enhance emergency preparedness for the conservation and risk mitigation of heritage sites and collections of national and international significance.
Interagency coordination and cooperation mechanisms to collate damage and risk information from different sources.
