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.