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While the number of UNESCO designated sites (World Heritage sites, Biosphere Reserves, Geoparks, Creative Cities) is continuously growing in the region, management systems still need to be improved for many sites, in particular for what concerns a better integration of a Sustainable Development perspective in their management. Building on the positive experience developed in recent years, capacity-building efforts will be continued towards the improvement of management practices but also the enhancement of international exchanges of experience and good practices in the view of contributing to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

To achieve this, capacity-building workshops are complemented by on-site demonstration activities based on the concept of integrated and participatory management, involving local stakeholders (communities, civil society organizations, the private sector), with a particular attention to gender equality, leading to the enhancement of socio-economic benefit and, more generally, the promotion of UNESCO designated sites as laboratories for sustainable development.

In the framework of the IHP (VIIIth phase), UNESCO is supporting decision- and policy-makers for a sound management of shared water resources and related ecosystem services in river basins, with a particular focus on transboundary ones. This will be achieved mainly through the support provided to IHP expert groups and the implementation of training or capacity-building workshops.

Most pressures in a river basin occur along river corridors, challenging the sustainable water and riparian land use. When river corridors belong to shared river basins – which are prevailing cases in SEE countries - cooperative management of transboundary water bodies and the related ecosystems is an obligatory condition. 

91�鶹������Ʒ���� been requested in several contexts to continue providing a neutral platform for improving co-management schemes in transboundary contexts and to mobilize scientific knowledge in support of decision-making and policies, particularly referred to the Drin River Basin (and its three sub-basins flowing into the Ohrid-Prespa and Skadar lakes), the Sava River Basin (an important tributary of the Danube River); the lower Danube-Prut River Basin (where hopefully a first BR in Moldova could be located) and the Drava-Mura-Danube corridor (the so-called “Amazon” of Europe).

A key priority for the region is promoting an integrated disaster risk reduction for resilience and preparedness for effective response, considering in particular the frequent floods threatening transboundary river basins, but also the seismology of the region, which puts at risk lives and important cultural heritage.

Building on previous successful experiences in Albania (2011), Malta (2015) and Mostar (2016), 91�鶹������Ʒ���� continued implementing training workshops for site managers (World Heritage sites, Biosphere Reserves and Geoparks) and emergency responders in the field. This, to provide them with the knowledge on current thinking, methods and tools available for the preparation of Disaster Risk Management plans to be further integrated in their sites management systems. As far as Flood Risk is concerned, UNESCO works with relevant River Basin Commissions (ISRBC for the Sava, ICPDR for the Danube) and other trans-national platforms (such as the Drin Dialogue - CORDA), making the best use of approaches and tools developed in the framework of EU funded projects in which UNESCO is a partner such as SHELTER and GEO4CIVHIC.

Science, due to its international and universal nature, has the power to cross borders and connect different peoples, communities, and societies. Science diplomacy builds on this, using science as a tool to achieve international (and in this case regional) cooperation and to promote peace and sustainable development. UNESCO plays an important role in the field of science diplomacy that builds its on International Science Centres, such as the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), in Trieste, Italy, as well as the work on its International Science Programmes, such as Man and Biosphere Programme (MAB), the International Hydrological Programme (IHP), and on the participation in International Science-Policy Interfaces, such as the World Science Forum.

Activities under this line of work built on previous years and aiming at: (i) enhancing the role of science and science education in country policies and strategies for socio-economic development; and (ii) promoting bilateral and regional cooperative agreements, within the SEE region and beyond.