The British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund, set up in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, is directly responding to the threat to cultural heritage in and around the Middle East and North Africa, whilst promoting opportunities for sustainable social and economic development in the region. Utilising £30m in Official Development Assistance from the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the Cultural Protection Fund offers grants to organisations to deliver projects that protect, record, conserve and restore cultural heritage at risk. In doing so, we are creating opportunities for sustainable development through providing skills; increasing capacity in the heritage workforce; and supporting communities to better understand, value and benefit from their heritage. Grants have been awarded to 51 initiatives taking place across the region. By 2020, over 3000 people in the cultural heritage sector will have received training and developed new skills as part of CPF projects and thousands of new records for threatened heritage sites have been created and are being monitored across the region. Over 10,000 people have undertaken activities that increase understanding of, or engagement with, cultural heritage.
