The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
Supporting the rehabilitation and development of the Great Zimbabwe UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Great Zimbabwe Development project will help preserve the cultural heritage of and improve the conservation of the largest dry stone structure in sub-Saharan Africa.
This article was originally published in August 2022 and has been updated to reflect recent project developments.
Project updates
17 June 2024
Specialized documentation, conservation equipment and computers to facilitate onsite data processing and storage have been handed over to the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.
This will be crucial for preserving the Great Zimbabwe World Heritage Site for future generations.
Read more here.
As part of the project, UNOPS will renovate and upgrade infrastructure at Great Zimbabwe with a new interpretive system and new visitor facilities. This will help strengthen the site's cultural heritage as well as increase national capacity for heritage enhancement and related economic development activities.
"[Greater Zimbabwe] is the physical embodiment and expression of our national identity," said President Emmerson Mnangagwa. "This cooperation must continue to weave the intricate link between culture and sustainable socio-economic development."
UNOPS will work together with the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe to implement the three-year, $3.4 million project funded by Agence française de développement (the French Development Agency).
This project will support the protection of Zimbabwe's cultural heritage while also promoting sustainable and inclusive tourism.
UNOPS will also help increase the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe's capacity to carry out conservation and documentation activities at the site. In addition, UNOPS will develop a rural land management plan to improve community-based management of natural resources and risks.
"This exceptional site offers a very important potential to diversify the national and regional tourist offer and to boost the local, national and regional economy while exerting a major development lever on social, gender and youth issues," said the Ambassador of France to the Republic of Zimbabwe, H.E. Laurent Chevallier.
