The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Audrey Azoulay, underlined, on Tuesday in Paris, the commitment of HM King Mohammed VI to strengthen cooperation between Morocco and the UN organization in several areas, in particular that of the preservation of the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity.
“We know all that this cooperation between Morocco and theUNESCO owes it to the commitment of His Majesty the King and the Royal Family,” said Ms. Azoulay in a speech on the occasion of the signing, chaired by HRH Princess Lalla Hasnaa, President of the Foundation for the Safeguarding cultural heritage of Rabat, of a partnership agreement between UNESCO and the Foundation.
Within the framework of this cooperation between the Kingdom and UNESCO, she recalled the holding last November in Rabat of a “particularly rich” session of the Intangible Heritage Committee, stressing that this heritage has been the subject of important announcement by His Majesty the King, with the forthcoming establishment of a National Center dedicated to intangible heritage.
The Director-General also recalled the organization in Marrakech a few months earlier of an International Conference on Adult Education, also highlighting the fundamental archaeological discoveries made in Morocco: the oldest homo sapiens fossil at Djebel Irhoud in 2017 and the ornaments from the Bizmoune cave, which opened up new perspectives on the origins of humanity.
Azoulay did not fail to highlight the commitment of HRH Princess Lalla Hasnaa, President of the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, which has been supporting UNESCO since 2016 in its actions aimed in particular at safeguarding the Oceans and develop environmental education as well as the work provided by the Foundation for the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage in Rabat, which His Royal Highness chairs.
According to the Director-General of UNESCO, the city of Rabat embodies the spirit of the UNESCO Convention for World Heritage: a dialogue between the old and the new, understanding and valuing the legacy of centuries, while by being fully in modernity.
Rabat also shows all that a World Heritage listing can bring, in just ten years, in terms of the dynamics of cultural policies, urban transformation, reasoned tourist development and opportunities for local communities, she said. raised.
”It is thanks to this dynamic in particular – and we had the opportunity to celebrate together the 10th anniversary of Rabat’s inscription on the World Heritage List – that Rabat was chosen to be both the cultural capital of the world Islam and the first African capital of culture”, welcomed Ms. Azoulay.
“These successes owe a great deal to Your personal commitment and to the work carried out by the Foundation”, she said to His Royal Highness, welcoming the signing of a first formal cooperation agreement between UNESCO and the Foundation. , although the two institutions have already started to work together.
This agreement, Ms Azoulay specified, opens new perspectives, not only in Rabat, not only in Morocco, but also more generally in Africa, which is one of UNESCO’s strategic priorities and which is “the ambition of the projects supported by the foundation”, rejoicing at the success of the “I discover our heritage” program, which has already benefited, thanks to the efforts of His Royal Highness and the Foundation, nearly 4,000 schoolchildren from more than 60 schools in Rabat, an activity that will extend beyond Rabat to the whole country and which also serves as a model in other African countries, and not only.
“Another axis of our common work, in Morocco and here once more on the continent, will be to respond to the need to have a new generation of professionals, well trained and specialized – a pressing and particularly decisive need, for which the UNESCO and Morocco, particularly through the foundation, cooperate in the service of our priority for Africa”, she said.
