Accra, May 19, GNA - Mr Alex Asum-Ahensah, Minister for Chieftaincy and Culture, on Tuesday called for private partnership and support for the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) in the preservation of the nation's cultural heritage.

He said most of the country's forts and castles, which were built around the 18th Century, were in deplorable conditions and artefacts that could be displayed to attract visitors needed proper storage facilities as well as the right calibre of staff to deliver the needed services yet the Board lacked the required funding for its programmes. Mr Asum-Ahensah, who was speaking at the opening of a 10-day capacity building workshop for 22 management staff of the GMMB, said the knowledge acquired would enable participants to operate monitoring systems and interpret important environmental changes. The workshop which was supported by the Italian government through Ricerca e Cooperazione, an Italian organisation, is also aimed at ensuring protection, conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage, with a focus on the forts and castles. The Minister said the mandate given the GMMB entailed being responsive to the expectations of their clients and stakeholders within the constraints of the national budget and thanked the Italian government for the support.

He said: "The benefits of the workshop should manifest in the satisfaction of your clients who visit the various sites of the forts and castles because your service delivery will be improved and there should be a high turnover of internally generated funds." Ms Gianna Da Re, Country Representative of Ricerca e Cooperazione, explained that the workshops were implemented in the framework of a three-year capacity building and institutional support project. She said the project had a budget of 1.537 million Euros and mentioned some of its activities as the supply of equipment to GMMB head office and a search, collection and storing of documentation regarding castles and forts towards the implementation of a database for immovable cultural heritage.

Other activities to be implemented include the construction of small infrastructure for the GMMB at Princes Town, tour guiding training and skill training for unemployed youth in Cape Coast and Princes Town as well as the development of publications, a website and promotional materials by the GMMB on cultural heritage in Ghana. Ms Da Re said the promotion and piloting of eco-cultural community-based tourism in Cape Coast and Princes Town and facilitating the development of linkages between the GMMB and other cultural institutions, universities, development partners and the global and local communities for effective and rewarding cultural heritage enhancement would soon be implemented.