Empowering Action for Climate through Collections-based Institutions in LMICs

This new project, led by Rodney Harrison, in collaboration with the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), draws on results and methodologies developed as part of the AHRC-funded Reimagining Museums for Climate Action project, and the ongoing UKRI-underwritten Horizon Europe-funded project Petrocultures’ Intersection with The Cultural Heritage Sector in the Context of Green Transitions (PITCH). Both projects have largely been developed in anglophone and western European contexts.

The project aims to explore their wider application in capacity building for climate action within the heritage and museums sector in a number of Low and Middle Income Countries. It works in partnership with ICCROM, an intergovernmental organisation focussed on heritage conservation, uses of heritage and training, working with member states around the world.

It draws on ICCROM’s international networks and their Our Collections Matter programme, which focusses on building capacity for collections-based institutions to contribute towards the Sustainable Development Goals, and which has been empowering collections professionals since the programme was launched in 2020. The project will connect the research, capacity building and policy-oriented work of the Reimagining Museums for Climate Action and PITCH projects with international capacity-building activities and experience of ICCROM on Our Collections Matter.

The project will:

1. Co-develop a series of capacity-building activities (delivered via online webinars and workshops) with two separate cohorts of collections-based professionals from LMICs in different time zones (east of GMT and west of GMT);
2. Promote inclusion of heritage collections and adaptation actions in local and national monitoring and reporting for climate action;
3. Develop a train-the-trainer component for participants with roles or aspirations to further support climate adaptation in their LMIC country/adjacent regions through working with further collections professionals;
4. Gather evidential material from participants of past and present activities and future plans to form a body of material as evidence of heritage-based adaptation activities. This body of material will use to develop case studies and a policy briefing document/documents for relevant international NGOs on the role of collections-based institutions in the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience (which contributes towards the Global Goal on Adaptation).

It will deliver benefits not only to the individual LMIC-based institutions involved and their publics, but will also highlight the key role of heritage research and policy making in facilitating Action for Climate Empowerment and Global Climate Adaptation and Resilience. The project will draw on the diverse experiences in LMIC as inspiration for the cultural sector and related decision makers in Global North and Global South countries alike.

The project is supported by Henry McGhie and Linjie Wang as research and innovation associates, and funded under the AHRC/DCMS Cultural heritage research translated into climate change policy call.

Further details

• ICCROM online workshops