Building stronger cooperation with the African National Committees of the Blue Shield

The German National Committee of the Blue Shield is excited to announce that it will enter into a new phase of cooperation with its counterparts on the African continent, i.e., Blue Shield Senegal, Blue Shield Mali, and Blue Shield Cameroon. In addition, the group is joined by the representatives of Blue Shield in Niger and Mozambique.

For 2021, the project partners look forward to building their relations and are dedicated to learning about the challenges faced by the National Committees in their respective countries. These findings will contribute to a joint publication introducing the African National Committees of the Blue Shield and highlighting the continued necessity for cultural property protection in their regions. This first step aims to showcase the activities of the Blue Shield network in African countries.

The cooperation project and the activities planned for 2021 are made possible by a project grant from the German Federal Foreign Office.

Launch of the Brochure "Protecting Heritage in Crisis - Blue Shield in Africa"

As a result of the first phase of cooperation, the project partner jointly developed a bilingual brochure (in English and French) highlighting the activities of National Committees in Senegal, Mali and Cameroon, as well as those of the National Correspondents in Niger and Mozambique. They illuminate the challenges cultural heritage faces in these five African countries and showcase the contribution of the Blue Shield movement to its protection.

Authors: Babacar Ndiaye & Hamady Gaye (Senegal), Mamadou Samaké (Mali), Christian Nana Tchuisseu (Cameroon), Adamou Danladi (Niger), Daniel Inoque (Mozambique), Susann Harder (Germany)

The brochure is available for download here.

Kick-off Meetings June/July 2021

The project started with the virtual Kick-off Meetings on 17 June and 01 July which were attended by altogether 16 members of the National Committees in Mali, Senegal, Cameroun and Germany, as well as the representatives in Niger and Mozambique. The meetings were also joined by representatives of Blue Shield International, including its president Peter Stone.

During the meetings, the National Committees had the opportunity had the opportunity to introduce themselves to each other by sharing information about their formation process, their recent actiities and the various challenges they have to address. Also, they agreed on the project plan and discussed the content as well as individual contributions to the planned publication about Blue Shield acitivities in Africa.