Our Approach to Culture and Development

CIE believes that heritage can be a stimulus for encouraging empowerment of communities and using culture to work towards the improvement of quality of life and fostering more stable societies. The central feature of our Culture and Development aspect is the promotion of local ownership. CIE involves itself as facilitators in this aspect, bringing tools and lending expertise, to help develop the heritage sector in a given area.

We use our diverse international network to bring together people from a multitude of different backgrounds, professionals and countries to come together and bring different perspectives and experiences together, working towards a common goal. CIE is most interested in enabling local stakeholders and communities to develop their own traditions, perspectives and visions on (world) heritage sites. 

One method which is a major feature in much of our work with Culture and Development is the establishment of local heritage teams, made up of members of the local communities and organisations.  We work with these teams as our partners throughout the project, helping them through individually tailored and assessed needs training, thus providing them with the tools to continue in heritage management once the project ends. This further helps to reinforce the local identity and feeling of ownership and empowerment through heritage, enabling people to harness, as well as generate, awareness and knowledge about both intangible and tangible values attached to their heritage. This further helps to provide support to the existing management system as well as exploring new methods, taking us down new directions, which will continue beyond the project itself and into the future. 

We have so far established and brought together such heritage teams in Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa and Hong Kong. As part of our Maritime Archaeology Development programme with South Africa, CIE helped to establish the African Centre for Heritage Activities- ACHA, who work especially with maritime cultural heritage, which previously fell outside of the jurisdiction of other heritage bodies in the country. 

There are many aspects of our Culture and Development programmes which include the rehabilitation of infrastructure, renovation of buildings using local expertise and techniques, working with museums and local organisations.