# Greece, UNESCO Advance Cultural Heritage Cooperation Plan with Africa

> Culture Minister Lina Mendoni met with UNESCO's chief to discuss transferring Greek heritage expertise to African countries.

- **Section:** Policy
- **Published:** 2026-09-16
- **Publisher:** Voyage (https://thevoyage.gr)
- **Type:** our own summary of someone else’s reporting
- **Source:** GTP Headlines — https://news.gtp.gr/2026/09/16/greece-unesco-plan-cultural-heritage-cooperation-with-african-countries/
- **Keywords:** UNESCO, πολιτιστική κληρονομιά, Μενδώνη, Νικόπολη, Αφρική

Greece and UNESCO are developing a new cooperation framework to bring Greek expertise in protecting and promoting cultural heritage to African countries. The initiative was discussed in Athens between Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany and Deputy Director-General for Culture Nayef Al-Fayez.

Talks focused on ways to support documentation, safeguarding and promotion of heritage, particularly intangible heritage, through targeted UNESCO-coordinated projects. Identified areas of cooperation include museum replica production, museology and museum administration, training of cultural heritage professionals, and heritage protection during public works.

Mendoni briefed El-Enany on Greece's upcoming UNESCO nominations, including the archaeological site of Nikopolis, whose bid for the World Heritage List is at an advanced stage. Greece is also preparing a candidacy for Cycladic cheese-making on UNESCO's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The discussions coincided with a symposium at the National Gallery on the relationship between artificial intelligence and living cultural heritage. Mendoni said AI's possibilities for heritage "are not neutral, or free of risk," calling for a human- and community-centered approach that addresses data governance and intellectual property rights.

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This summary was written by Voyage based on reporting by GTP Headlines. The full article is at https://news.gtp.gr/2026/09/16/greece-unesco-plan-cultural-heritage-cooperation-with-african-countries/. Canonical URL of this page: https://thevoyage.gr/en/a/greece-unesco-advance-cultural-heritage-cooperation-plan-with-africa