Phase 2 - Gathering information
To adequately assess what is working well and what is causing challenges, it is crucial that you base the assessment (as far as possible) on existing, well-documented information. Therefore, you need to collect relevant documents and data that can be used to complete the worksheets associated with the assessment tools. These may include legislation, regulations, management plans and other planning documents, monitoring reports, impact assessment reports, disaster risk assessments, research projects and operational plans. For World
properties, this needs to include the nomination file, the
’ evaluations, the World
Committee’s decisions, Periodic Reporting documents, State of Conservation reports and Reactive Monitoring mission reports, where applicable.
For heritage places with traditional management systems, customary practices and norms, the appropriate sources of information need careful consideration. Accessing, collecting and storing this information from a range of actors raises a number of issues (e.g. intellectual property rights) that need to be carefully addressed from the outset (see Phase I). The Facilitator’s Manual includes further guidance on this matter.
As you are collecting the information, you may realize that there are important gaps that cannot be addressed immediately and that can have implications for the level and scale of the assessment – particularly if this is the first time you are undertaking a management effectiveness assessment using the EoH 2.0 Toolkit. However, you should not feel discouraged or see information gaps as an obstacle to moving forward with the assessment. Instead, you should carefully consider how to tailor the assessment to take into account these constraints; the Facilitator’s Manual includes information to help you with this. At the same time, you can use the assessment as an opportunity to highlight information gaps and how they will be addressed in the future.
Figure 4.2: The process of collecting relevant information and data.