The State Party of Djibouti ratified the World Heritage Convention in 2007 and established its first Tentative List in 2015 with 10 sites. However, Djibouti remains one of the twelve African countries without property inscribed on the World Heritage List.

In the framework of Priority Africa and under the “Capacity-building programme for the nomination of World Heritage sites in the Africa Region” supported the by the Government of Japan, UNESCO assists Djibouti in building capacity to its local experts in view of developing the first World Heritage nomination dossier. In April – July 2022, in collaboration with ICOMOS and IUCN, UNESCO organized two online workshops with the national experts in Djibouti, to evaluate the potential and challenges of four sites on the Tentative List proposed by the State Party for nomination, namely Les Gravures Rupestre d’Abourma, Le Lac Assal, Les paysages naturels de la région d’Obock, Lac Abbeh : son paysage culturel, ses monuments naturels et son écosystème .

Following this workshop, the national experts collect more specific information and data, which were discussed during the second session organized in July 2022. A joint report provided by ICOMOS and IUCN was finalized in December 2022, providing concrete recommendations to the State Party for the selection of the site for the first nomination and gaps to be addressed.

The State Party of Djibouti highly appreciated the support from UNESCO and the Government of Japan. UNESCO World Heritage Centre continues to support Djibouti in elaborating and preparing the first nomination dossier to strengthen the representativity of the Africa region on the World Heritage List.