Expanding Community-led Cultural Property Protection in North Africa
August 19, 2025 | by ASOR Staff
This post is part of a series highlighting projects completed by ASOR’s Cultural Heritage Initiatives (CHI) with support from public and private partners. The series provides project-specific overviews of activities and outcomes achieved by ASOR CHI and its partners.
From September 2021 until September 2023, ASOR led a project—with support by the U.S. Department of State—to expand community outreach for heritage protection in Libya and to extend our efforts regionally to Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. The project pursued four main objectives:
- Disseminate ASOR’s existing outreach materials to a broader regional audience.
- Localize these materials to address country-specific needs.
- Raise awareness of heritage protection through public outreach events.
- Support community-led heritage initiatives in Libya through a micro-grants program.
This work strengthened ties between local communities and their national heritage authorities, fostered new connections between heritage practitioners across the region, and empowered community-led heritage protection efforts. The results and partnerships achieved through this work have provided the foundation for continued collaboration in recent years.
Activity 1:
Disseminating Existing ASOR Heritage Outreach Materials
ASOR distributed heritage outreach materials to professionals and civil society members in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. To encourage exchange and collaboration, ASOR hosted recurring virtual meetings connecting participants from Libya, Tunisia and Morocco. These sessions allowed organizations to share successful practices, highlight local projects, and identify opportunities for collaboration.
Beyond the outreach events (detailed under Activity 3), these discussions showcased five projects in Morocco, two in Tunisia, and—broadening the regional scope—two in Lebanon.
Activity 2:
Localizing Outreach Materials
Regional colleagues reviewed ASOR’s outreach materials and provided input on adapting them to meet local contexts. Some partners joined ASOR’s Annual Meeting to present their own work and explore varied outreach approaches with heritage peers from across the region.
Activity 3:
Raising Heritage Protection Awareness Through Outreach Events
ASOR partnered with local organizations to host multi-day outreach events across Tunisia and Libya. Each event featured lectures, discussions, and field activities focused on heritage protection and community engagement.
| Location | Date | Participation |
| Oudna, Tunisia | May 20–22, 2022 | 117 participants |
| Tobruk, Libya | Nov. 14, 2022 | 111 participants |
| Hun, Libya | Feb. 27–Mar. 5, 2023 | 105 participants |
| Ghat, Libya | Mar. 9–18, 2023 | 140 participants |
| Zliten, Libya | May 25–27, 2023 | 110 participants |
For more details on individual events, see our separate posts on Oudna, Hun, and Zliten.
Activity 4:
Supporting Community-Led Heritage Protection in Libya
Through an open call and collaborative proposal refinement, ASOR awarded eight mini-grants to support heritage protection efforts across Libya. These projects—aligned with the bilateral cultural property agreement between Libya and the U.S.—included conservation interventions, museum upgrades, and public outreach programs.
These grants spanned the country geographically and marked the first formal international partnership for most of the grantees. The strong results demonstrated the potential of small-scale funding to enable impactful heritage protection and to position local organizations for future projects.
| Organization Name | Project Title | Project Location |
| Adrij Organization for Culture and Heritage | The Maintenance and Restoration of a Local Historic Traditional House | Derj, Libya |
| Awjila Heritage Society | An Emergency Restoration of the Old Mosque in Awjila | Awjila, Libya |
| Community Partnership Organization | Enhancing Community Participation to Preserve the Heritage | Bani Walid, Libya |
| Ghat Women’s Union | Sustaining and Reanimating Historical Cities: the Museum of Kaswa | Ghat, Libya |
| Impact Platform | The Need of Knowledge for Protection | Benghazi, Libya |
| Laba Women’s Charitable Society | The Conservation Project of Traditional Architecture in Jalu (the Jelawi House) | Jalu, Libya |
| Hun Dakirat al Medina | Collection Storage/Presentation Upgrades at Local Museum | Hun, Libya |
| Benghazi Multi Cultural Society | Conservation of Threatened Mosaic Panels | Benghazi, Libya |
