Mentorship Programme for African World Heritage Professionals
“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” ---- Steven Spielberg
The Mentorship Programme is the first of its kind in Africa and brings innovation in building the capacity of African professionals in order to contribute to the implementation of the World Heritage Convention. The programme aims to ensure job opportunities for African experts in the field of World Heritage as well as to create a shared training and knowledge exchange platform between culture and natural heritage professionals in addition to building collaborative and cross-generational relationships between experts.
The problem/challenge
As people with expertise are aging and eventually would retire from active work, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was concern about retaining the expertise for future managers of the African World Heritage. UNESCO over the years has harnessed the job prospects in heritage industries and are now concerned about the sustainability of the sector.
Goal
The goal of the mentorship programme developed was to better capacitate African World Heritage professionals through mentorship and echoes the appeals from UNESCO Member States to ‘foster cultural heritage and capacity development’, supporting Africa to meet the African Union’s “Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want” and the Agenda 2030.
The solution
In response to the call to empower African experts working for World Heritage, UNESCO in partnership with the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF), ICCROM, ICOMOS and IUCN launched the Mentorship Programme for African World Heritage Professionals on 16 February 2022 through an online event. The event stressed on the need to make deliberate effort to safeguard the heritage sector, as “the future of the sector is largely dependent on how much of our knowledge we transfer/share with the young managers” (Narayandas & Moldoveanu, 2019). The mentorship programme which has been institutionalised will continue to groom young managers to ensure sustainability of the world heritage legacy.
Results:
The mentorship programme for African heritage professionals emphasises the notion of legacy by ensuring the transmission of expertise and the sharing of experience between generations. I was lucky enough to be able to benefit from this transmission 22 years ago when I took my first steps with the World Heritage Centre. With this programme, I have the opportunity to be able to pass on the torch in my turn, but also to learn through exchanges with mentees and other mentors in the programme.’’
~ Thomas Rabeil (Executive Director - Wild Africa Conservation)
Conclusion
Mentorship Programme for African World Heritage Professionals has been institutionalised in UNESCO framework to deliberately empower and prepare young leaders in the sector to take charge when the older generation fades out. The programme has helped mentees to tap into the knowledge of those with more experience than themselves and learn faster than they would on their own. It's also an opportunity to grow their network and connect with leaders rather than only their peers.
