The National Heritage Conservation Commission Act has been in existence since 1912 when Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) had just come into being. The Act has helped to protect and manage several heritage resources by declaring them national monuments. The Act was transformed in 1989 when National Monuments Commission changed name to National Heritage Conservation Commission. The Commission has become more responsive and accountable to prevailing socio-economic, cultural, political and environmental expectations both at national and international levels.

The Comission is under the Ministry of Tourism, and its board consists of representatives from ministries, the university, Wildlife Conservation Society, Monuments Board and the private sector. NHCC receives government funding for its operational expenses, but is dependent on donor funding for bigger projects. EU and NORAD have so far been the main funders.

In 1996 NHCC embarked on a restructuring exercise which changed NHCC from a large and highly centralised organisation to a smaller decentralised and result oriented one. NHCC has currently a staff of 120, of which 30-40 are professionals. The headquarters are in Livingstone, and four regional offices are being established: the South Western in Livingstone, the North-Western (including the Copperbelt) in Solwezi, the Central-Eastern in Lusaka and the Northern in Kasama.

NHCC’s mandate is to preserve and develop the natural and cultural heritage of Zambia. They have registered more than 2000 archeological sites, 550 historical buildings and several hundred traditional sites. Restoration, registration and information are the most important areas of work of the institution.

All buildings in Zambia from before 1924 are protected by the National Heritage Act, and the owners of such buildings cannot do any alterations to the buildings without the consent and supervision of NHCC. Over the last four years NHCC has restored a number of heritage structures, including the Lusaka Boys School and the Mbereshi and Mwenzo Mission Stations with NORAD funds.

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The objective of the NORAD-funded Capacity Building and Enhanced Heritage Conservation and Management programme is to develop capacity within the NHCC and the regional offices. Expected outputs are enhanced heritage conservation and management, capacity building in NHCC regional offices and headquarters, establishment of conservation laboratories, upgrading of the documentation centre and information management.

In September 1999 representatives from NHCC visited the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage (NDCH) and other relevant institutions in Norway to give NHCC an idea of how and within which professional areas the NDCH have experience and know-how that could be of use and to obtain a mutual understanding of an agreement on institutional co-operation.

After visiting a variety of institutions, NHCC concluded that they could benefit from the skills NDCH possess in Documentation, Conservation and Information Technology. The work of the Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger (AmS) was found to be very interesting, especially in the fields of conservation and documentation.

In September 2000 the co-operation began and a feasibility study was made by a team from NDCH in close co-operation with representatives from NHCC. The aim was to assess and specify in a more focused and realistic way the information technology, documentation system and conservation laboratory needs of NHCC.

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The NORAD-funded Capacity Building and Enhanced Heritage Conservation and Management programme has a financial frame of NOK 4.5 million, including the costs for the institutional co-operation between NHCC and NDCH.

In September 2000 a feasibility study was made by a team from NDCH, consisting of Bitten Bakke and Mari Høgestøl from the Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger, and Clifford Long and Inger A. Heldal from NDCH in close co-operation with representatives from NHCC.

Three working groups were set up to cover the three specified topics and visits were made to several sites both in Livingstone and Lusaka. A boat trip on the Zambezi river gave an insight into some of the problems facing the Zambian heritage authorities with regard to the growing tourist industry in the neighbouring Zimbabwe.

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A report from NDCH with recommendations for follow-up and priorities was given to NHCC in November 2000. The aim was to have new basic structures within documentation, conservation and IT in place before July 2001, but the implementation has been delayed.

The NDCH and the NHCC have been working closely together to define the lay-out of the documentation centre and the conservation laboratory. When the equipment is in place, the team from NDCH will assist in installing the new equipment, and to train people in the use of it. People from NHCC might also go to the Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger for internship and on-the-job training.

The institutional co-operation will continue for the whole programme period, and so far the co-operation has been a very good learning experience for all parties involved.

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