Experience from the region

Living Heritage Programme Innovative approach towards the local development

 

The Living Heritage Programme invests not only in the heritage, but most of all, in people. It helped people to look around and work together and find the solution to their problems in what they possess – the authentic heritage of their community, the human capital and other resources. 

 

“For two months, the only thing I thought about as soon as I woke up, was the waterfall, and what I was going to do that day”; “This introduced a new way of thinking in our community”; We realized our flaws on what needs to be done in order to plan in a more realistic way”, I did not know that the waterfall is so important for the village. We should have done this 20 years ago”; We used to spend seven times more time on other projects not accomplishing part of the influence we have accomplished now”… These are only some of the opinions of the people who worked on some of the projects in Macedonia, supported by the “Living Heritage” programme of the King Baudouin Foundation from Belgium and the Open Society Institute Macedonia Foundation. The inhabitants of about 35 local communities – villages and small towns in Macedonia, in the course of the five years of this programme’s implementation, have become part of the “brotherhood” which cherishes a special, innovative approach towards the heritage. Encouraged by the philosophy of the “Living Heritage” programme, they started considering the heritage a resource for sustainable development of their communities, and, at the same time they have learnt how to respect it more. They realized its multiple role: it can provide economic prosperity, attract tourists and visitors, improve the human relationship the community, promote and unite, strengthen the local democracy, create human, economic and social capital, define better the community’s identity, raise the moral values on a higher level, reduce the migration and many other things. This programme is different from the other programmes by many things. One of them is the fieldwork, in direct contact with the local inhabitants. “The Living Heritage Programme invests not only in the heritage, but most of all, in people. Those who had never before faced the challenge of working on a project, learnt how to do that. They were trained to implement a project cycle, to raise money and approach the donors, to work in nets and to advertise their community. The programe encouraged the volunteer work and helped people to look around, work together and seek for solutions to their problems in what they possess – the authentic heritage of their community, the human capital and other resources. With the same approach and the same principles, the programme has been implemented in three other countries from the region. After Macedonia, where it initially started, and was in a way tested, it has been implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Romania. The experiences gained by the four countries were presented at the international conference “Living Heritage – learning from innovative practices in culture and community development in south east Europe” that took place from 13 to 15 October 2005 in Skopje. The lessons learnt from the work on about 140 local projects in these four countries were presented at the conference. However, it was interesting to hear the similar initiatives that are being implemented in other European countries – Serbia and Montenegro, Poland, Turkey, France, Holland…The book called “Living Heritage” by Francois Matarasso, a consultant from Great Britain, was also promoted at the conference. The author of the book is a man who contributed in determining the programme’s philosophy, its development, and especially in defining the principles upon which it is based. The book describes the development of the programme, as well as the effects and the influence it accomplished. (For more information on this programme visit: www.zivonasledstvo.org and www.living-heritage.org).

M. Ivanova