World Heritage and the World Bank: Culture and Sustainable Development

This article comments on a recent initiative by international agencies, which focuses on heritage tourism in developing countries and draws on a comparative study of world heritage sites (WHS) undertaken by the author and colleagues (Evans 1998). The attention now awarded heritage sites can be gauged by a recent initiative by the World Bank, in collaboration with UNESCO and the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) entitled Culture and Sustainable Development. This programme seeks to develop a cultural agenda as part of the Bank’s financing of projects in developing countries and post-conflict regions, particularly where heritage and “at risk” monuments are located. Currently, 36 separate “projects in partnership” in 30 countries are being supported under this initiative, reflecting the acceptance that heritage conservation, tourism and economic regeneration are mutually supportive and viable strategies for development.