Small Island Developing States are home to some of the world’s most distinctive cultural, natural, marine, coastal, and landscape heritage. Their heritage reflects ocean civilizations, living traditions, biodiversity, climate resilience, community memory, and the deep connection between people and place.

UNESCO recognizes 39 SIDS, representing more than 70 million people across the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Caribbean and Pacific regions. Yet, as of January 2026, only 24 SIDS had World Heritage sites, with a total of 38 UNESCO World Heritage properties across SIDS. This shows an important gap: many SIDS still have limited or no representation on the World Heritage List, despite holding heritage of potential Outstanding Universal Value.

UNESCO is already working to address this challenge. UNESCO provides the global framework, standards, procedures, and international platform through which countries engage with the World Heritage Convention.

The World Heritage Pathway Capacity-Building Programme, led by the Chartered Culture and Education Institute (CCEI) and sponsored by the Republic of Azerbaijan, is designed to complement this important mission.

This programme adds practical, early-stage, country-focused support. It helps countries prepare before they enter the most demanding stages of the nomination process. It does not replace UNESCO procedures or national decision-making. Instead, it helps countries build the expert capacity, documentation readiness, institutional coordination, and confidence needed to move toward a stronger World Heritage pathway.

A Practical Pathway from Heritage Potential to Nomination Readiness

Many SIDS do not lack heritage. They lack a clear pathway.

The first challenge is often knowing how to begin: which sites to prioritize, how to assess potential Outstanding Universal Value, how to prepare or revise Tentative List entries, how to train national experts, and how to organize a credible readiness roadmap.

This programme responds to that need by offering a structured pathway from early interest to practical preparation. It combines country-level support, in-country or hybrid training, e-learning, diagnostic review, expert mentoring, and practical tools.

Two Ways to Participate 

There are two separate forms in this programme for submitting your interest:

Form 1: Country Expression of Interest
For SIDS countries that wish to be considered for Tentative List and Nomination-Readiness Support. In the first stage, 3–5 countries will be selected for deeper technical engagement.

Form 2: Heritage Management Professional E-Learning Registration
For SIDS countries that wish to register up to 3 participants for the Heritage Management Professional E-Learning Programme. Approved participants will receive a special coupon code to register for the programme free of charge.

About CCEI

The Chartered Culture and Education Institute (CCEI) is a global capacity-building, certification, research, and advisory institution working across culture, heritage, education, leadership, governance, and sustainable development.

CCEI develops professional learning programmes for cultural institutions, heritage authorities, governments, municipalities, universities, creative industries, and international organizations. Through its scalable digital learning platform, CCEI enables thousands of cultural and heritage leaders, experts, professionals, and learners to benefit simultaneously from e-learning, live sessions, assessments, certificates, learning communities, and country-specific capacity-building pathways.

CCEI also provides consultancy and technical advisory support to UNESCO Member States and national institutions in areas such as World Heritage Tentative List preparation, World Heritage nomination readiness, Intangible and Living Heritage nominations, Creative Cities nominations, Outstanding Universal Value development, comparative analysis, management readiness, and expert training.

In addition, CCEI is developing the World Heritage Index as a knowledge and analytical initiative to support better understanding of heritage representation, nomination readiness, institutional capacity, innovation, inclusion, sustainability, and global visibility.

The added value of CCEI is its ability to combine international expertise, digital learning at scale, professional certification, localized content, practical toolkits, institutional diagnostics, and expert consultancy. Through this model, 10,000+ cultural and heritage professionals, leaders, and learners can strengthen their knowledge and capacity at the same time.