African leaders unite around heritage as an economic asset

Two decades after its founding, the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) has brought governments, multilateral bodies and investors to consensus that African heritage is an economic asset requiring African-led financing.

Africa’s leading institution supporting the implementation of Unesco’s World Heritage Convention used its 20th anniversary celebrations in Midrand this week to mobilise a $25m (about R410m) endowment fund to secure long-term financing for the protection and promotion of heritage sites across the continent.

Among those attending was Deputy President Paul Mashatile, who said in his keynote address: “Too many stories remain undocumented, and too many communities are yet to fully benefit from the heritage they protect.

“These realities serve as a call to action. Heritage cannot exist in isolation, confined to the cultural sector. It must be integrated into broader development frameworks. It must speak the language of investments, sustainability and economic growth. Heritage is also an economic sector.”

Mashatile pointed to the continent’s heritage sites as active economic engines that drive tourism, support local enterprises and create employment for guides, conservators and entrepreneurs.

“When managed effectively and financed sustainably, heritage contributes to diversified local economies, strengthens national identity, and enhances Africa’s global competitiveness.”

Mashatile closed with a direct call to mobilise the AWHF’s endowment fund, deepen partnerships across governments, finance institutions and the private sector, and reinforce the fund’s role as Africa’s central heritage mechanism.

During its existence, the AWHF has grown the number of African World Heritage sites from 113 to 154, invested more than $20m in heritage capacity-building across the continent and trained more than 1,500 professionals.

Additionally, 12 properties have been removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger sites, reducing Africa’s share on that list from 43% to roughly 30%.

Also in attendance was minister of sport, arts & culture Gayton McKenzie, who addressed the cultural dimension of the funding problem. He argued that for too long the civilisations that produced Africa’s heritage were absent from the story Africa told about itself.

McKenzie said this occurred not because the evidence was missing, but because the framework to value it was. “The centre of gravity of African heritage was set somewhere else, decided by someone else, on terms set by someone else,” he said.

McKenzie extended that argument to financing, saying that Africa has grown accustomed to relying on international support, even for heritage projects. “The fact that we are looking for funding and depending on others for something so important shows how we disrespect ourselves,” he said.

He welcomed outside contributions but said African-majority financing is the only path to African agency over its own heritage.

Despite the progress made in the past 20 years, the AWHF noted that Africa still accounts for only 12% of the 1,248 sites on the global World Heritage List, with nine African countries having no inscribed sites at all.

AWHF executive director Albino Jopela offered context for why Africa’s agency over its heritage has been slow to develop, saying that the continent’s under-representation stems from two historical realities.

Most African nations were newly independent when the World Heritage Convention was established in 1972 and lacked the institutional capacity to engage with its processes, he said. The convention’s early framework also favoured Western conceptions of heritage rarely applicable to an African context.

“The value and potential of heritage is immense,” Jopela said. “We have to think of it as a critical asset. Either one leaves it neglected, to vanish, or you calculate the risk, mitigate the risk, and use it as a catalyst for development.”

While natural sites currently attract broader economic networks than cultural ones, the underlying opportunity exists across both, he said.

Speaking directly to investors, Jopela stressed that heritage financing is not charity but a shared responsibility with collective returns. He said heritage should be measured not only in revenue but also in the quality and sustainability of the livelihoods it generates.

“It is not sustainable for us to ignore the core of who we are, as a community, or as a nation. That is not a sustainable blueprint for any development,” he said.

Boitumelo Mosako, CEO of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), said the bank’s involvement as a partner to the AWHF speaks to its broader mandate.

“As the host institution and strategic partner to the AWHF, DBSA provides the governance, financial strength and institutional capacity that underpin the fund’s credibility, transparency and impact across Africa,” she said. “You cannot build the future of a continent if you let its foundation crumble.”

Mosako added the bank’s voice to the call for contributions to the endowment fund. “Investing in the African World Heritage Fund is not charity. It is an investment in Africa, its dignity and its future.”

Business Times