The EUNIC Cluster in Tunisia would like to present the Action Workshop project, developed on the idea of heritage as an instrument for democracy. It will take place at Sbeitla between the 27th and the 30th of June 2013.

The round-table discussions organised in July 2012, at Bizerte by the EUNIC Cluster in Tunisia have brought to light the successful idea of Cultural Centres as incubators for regional/local initiative. The outcome of this discussion was an open invitation to conceive a more ambitious project, developed by EUNIC Global, which would benefit cultural organisms (public, private and associations) from the Maghreb area and the rest of the Arab world.

The EUNIC Cluster in Tunisia facilitates the formation of partnerships between European Cultural institutes, reunited under one banner, and Tunisian cultural organisms.

The EUNIC Cluster in Tunisia sees itself as a privileged partner of the European Union Delegation in Tunisia, notably in the sphere of culture. In this sense, culture is defined as an instrument for democracy, a factor of social integration and of human development, an emancipating element of positive urban integration.

After conducting a survey among the cultural organism dealing with the democratic transition in Tunisia, and in particular within the Azer Association for Durable Development (Sbeitla), the EUNIC Cluster in Tunisia has assumed the organising of an action workshop by June 2013. The workshop would concentrate on cultural heritage as an instrument for democracy.

Targeted public
The co-ordinators of historic and archaeological sites; associations who work on local development by restoring medinas and urban centres; regional and local cultural centres; youth organisations; co-ordinators of educational institutions that deal with cultural heritage. Among them is the director of the Office of MidWest Development, Faouzi Ghrab.

The objective is to:

• Assess monuments and sites in their social environment; asses companies and their co-ordinators; asses elected leaders, the public services, the educational institutions and associations.
• Consider historical and archaeological sites in the context of integral regional development.
• Pool resources and incite partnership among associations, educational institutions and cultural organisms.
• Support the co-ordinators of educational institutions in their promotion of cultural education that can later be translated into a career.
• Support contemporary projects involving heritage sites, permitting thus a reassessment of historical values and the attraction of new public.

To find out more about the project, see the EUNIC website.