Dr. Sophia Labadi has just finalized for UNESCO a draft policy on World Heritage and Sustainable Development, to be presented to and discussed by the World Heritage Committee at its 39th Session in Bonn, Germany, in 2015. This policy took two years to draft; it saw the involvement of experts from all over the world.

The overall goal of such a policy would be to assist States Parties, practitioners, institutions, communities and networks, through appropriate guidance, to harness the potential of World Heritage properties, and heritage in general, to contribute to sustainable development, and ensure that their conservation and management strategies are appropriately aligned with broader sustainable development objectives.

The process leading to the development of a sustainable development policy reflects a general trend to make the World Heritage Convention more relevant to challenges of the 21st century, and to align itself with other multilateral environmental agreements. It is also part of the broader efforts by UNESCO to integrate culture into the UN’s Post 2015 sustainable development agenda, which is to be agreed in September this year.