This paper will address the post-pandemic scenarios faced by museums across the world in UNESCO’s global report ‘Museum Around the World in the Face of COVID-19’, the need for museums to advocate for increasing ratifications of the UNESCO 1970 Convention especially in South-East Asia, and the new initiative by UNESCO for museums in ASEAN Sub-region.

   UNESCO has been on the frontline in supporting developing countries to use museums’ potential to foster social cohesion, notably among local communities and disadvantaged groups. During times of conflict, where museums have been threatened by lootings of valuable national and local treasures, UNESCO has intervened to secure, rehabilitate and empower museums. This includes several capacity-building programmes that UNESCO has launched for museum specialists in the conservation of collections and inventorying and documentation. Such kind of international assistance to local museums will not be fully possible, if there is no awareness from the country’s peoples in pushing forward the improvement of national heritage laws to be in line with UNESCO 1970 Convention to fight against illicit trafficking of cultural property.

   Building back from our loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have also seen an acceleration in the transformation of museums. The urgent need to adapt to new technologies has brought major challenges, such as the digital divide, and pressing need to improve inventories and storage area management. These are crucial not only to museums’ security, but also to their relevance to the present generation of their users. Responding to the global recommendation from UNESCO Second High-Level Forum on Museums (2021), UNESCO is launching a new project in South-East Asia to connect museums in different ASEAN countries together through digital technologies and collaborative design of a shared histories exhibition.

   Feng JING, Ph.D. is currently Chief of the Culture Unit of the UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok. He was a member of the senior management team and a Chief of the Asia and the Pacific Unit at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in Paris, France, where he led the implementation of the World Heritage Convention in over 47 Member States. In addition, JING also served as coordinator of the global capacity-building programme for the World Heritage Convention and ICCROM, as well as large-scale Funds-in-Trust projects, and was also the coordinator of the Silk Roads World Heritage nomination project from 2003 to 2022.