The European Cultural Foundation and The German Marshall Fund of the United States have
begun a process of cooperation with the aim of supporting the capacity of cultural actors to be
effective agents of change in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. As a first step in designing their
approach and programming to underpin the efforts of those cultural actors working towards the
democratisation, modernisation and Europeanisation of each of these countries, an East
European Reflection Group process has been established. This process included three distinct
phases – the preparation of situation assessments for each country concerning the capacity of the
cultural community to contribute to processes of transformation, the corroboration of the
findings presented in each of the reports with influential cultural actors and stakeholders in each
of the countries at country consultation meetings and the elaboration of a synthesis of the results
of these two phases as a basis for the development of strategic action on the part of ECF and
GMF (and potentially a selection of other donor partners) in support of cultural actors of change
in the three countries concerned. Three country specific reports outline the needs of each cultural
community and specific measures that could improve the local situation of the independent
culture sector. This report outlines umbrella lines of action that are drawn from the country
situations identified.
Important as country specificity is and even taking into account the very different socio-political
situations apparent in each of the countries today, the East European Reflection Group process
has identified several significant ways in which an ECF / GMF partnership, enriched with
support from other members of the donor community, could provide much needed support to
the positive functions that the cultural communities in each of these countries play for processes
of democratisation, modernisation and Europeanisation.
While in each of the countries, the cultural community is playing a significant role for the
development of a democratic political culture, for the opening up of debates in the public sphere
that would otherwise be marginalised and for bringing together people from diverse
backgrounds, social groups and political affiliations to discuss issues of importance to the
development of their societies, each has some important weaknesses that are limiting their
effectiveness to be positive agents of change. It has become apparent that the cultural
communities face similar challenges in extending their ability to be cultural actors of change. In
particular, these are related to a lack of resource sustainability, difficulties in communication
between the governmental and non-governmental cultural sectors, the need for better capacity in
advocacy, fundraising, sustainable project management and other technical skills, the difficulty of
developing consensus inside the cultural community itself concerning its role and priorities and
the need to reach beyond the minority constituencies independent cultural communities often
address.
In an attempt to indicate direction for further action, the synthesis presented indicates several
lines of action that the ECF / GMF partnership could consider to pursue in the coming years in
support of cultural actors of change in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. Additional support from
and partnership with other members of the international donor community will be essential to
ensure sustainable and coordinated action in areas such as advocacy towards European and
international institutions, research into the situations, concerns and needs of the cultural
communities in terms of their capacity to be cultural actors of change over time and capacity
building within the international donor and institutional community for working with and on the
cultural contribution to processes of change and transformation in Belarus, Moldova and
Ukraine.