African World Heritage Fund (AWHF)

Introduction

The African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) addresses a dire need to provide greater protection for World Heritage sites in Africa. The mission of the African World Heritage Fund is to support the effective conservation and protection of natural and cultural heritage of outstanding universal value in Africa (Herbert n.d.). The fund was established in 2006 as an intergovernmental organization to support the protection of World Heritage sites by providing financial support for training, national inventories of cultural heritage sites, and the conservation and management of heritage properties in Africa (Patchett 2006). The aim is to target local populations of the African countries who have signed the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) convention and support them to implement active approaches to protect World Heritage sites (Herbert n.d.). The major initial contribution to the Fund was a donation of 20 million rand, the equivalent of...