The Final Meeting of the programme “Urban Heritage and Traditional Building Skills in the Southern Mediterranean Region” builds on national workshops’ results and looks to the future

Córdoba, 5-6 June 2024 – The Final Meeting of the programme on “Urban Heritage and Traditional Building Skills in the Southern Mediterranean Region”, organized with the financial support of AECID and in collaboration with the UNESCO Maghreb Office at Casa Árabe in Córdoba, Spain, on 5-6 June 2024, built on the results of each of the national workshops held in Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia in 2023-24. The Final Meeting also served to jointly design concrete regional actions to be implemented during the second semester of 2024 and 2025.

The programme, launched by the UfM and the UNESCO Office for Maghreb countries, with the financial support of GIZ in July 2023, served to identify and promote good practices in raising awareness, preserving and promoting urban heritage, vernacular architecture and traditional construction techniques, as part of an approach aimed at strengthening the resilience of local heritage. It aimed to strengthen the cultural embeddedness of traditional solutions and their capacity to adapt to the climate, promote a sustainable local economy and create qualified jobs linked to traditional materials and techniques. Representatives of the national governments, as well as experts from national and international organizations, participating in the programme, explored innovative solutions that take advantage of traditional construction and protect urban heritage.

Following the inaugural meeting held in Barcelona, Spain, on 6 July 2023, a series of workshops were organized in 2023 and 2024 in each of the participating countries. The first of these workshops took place in Tunis, Tunisia on 5-7 December 2023, the second workshop took place in Ouarzazate, Morocco on 28-29 February & 1 March 2024, the third workshop took place in Timimoun and Adrar, Algeria on 16-18 April 2024, and the fourth workshop took place in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on 9-10 May 2024.

The Final Meeting included a presentation on the conclusions of the national workshops and contributions from the Ministry of Culture of Algeria, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Housing of Mauritania, the Ministry of Housing of Morocco, and the Ministry of Housing of Tunisia. Participants addressed how to implement official and certified training programs in traditional building techniques. The meeting touched upon the role of oasis in triggering development in the inner parts of North African countries and the cultural, as well as the route of Salt caravans in North Africa to be promoted as a touristic destination. To conclude, possible follow-up activities were discussed, including the potential enlargement of the program to  Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine