18 Recommendations for cultural and creative industries development in Belarus

Over the past six years the Eastern Partnership has engaged a wide range of tools to review and analyse the key challenges facing the Culture and Creative Industries Sector. In Belarus the two phases of the EU Programme have developed the tools and skills to research the sector at the national, local and professional sub-sector levels. Do the conclusions of this work tell us anything?

The table brings together an overarching view of what all of this research has recommended to date. This is by no means comprehensive, but the table attempts to identify if there are unifying, top level and consistent recommendations in Belarus.

 

According to the experts over the past six years there is one top priority in Belarus:

  • Inclusive and open dialogue

This priority applies equally to the state, private and non-state sectors. If culture is an expression of society, then no one professional sector can own or prioritise what audiences need. The division of CCIs into parallel (state and non-state) sectors halves the effectiveness and potential of their contribution to economic and social development. Dialogue, discussion, understanding will start to resolve those issues.

The next group of recommendations are more specific and look at tools and structures that will be needed to develop the sector. They include improving:

  • Administrative and financial barriers

  • Collaboration and clusters

  • Audience development

  • Legislation

These are logical steps once open dialogue has developed a joint strategy. All of these points would be enablers that could help the sector flourish.

The next set of recommendations go deeper into practical steps:

  • Strategic Vision

  • Private Sector Engagement

  • Cultural management

The phrase “strategic vision” is essentially the product of the most pressing recommendation of inclusive and open dialogue. However, if one were to consider this as a shorter-term action plane then these three recommendations fit neatly into what a business plan would need to tackle in Belarus, namely having a clear set of priorities, a broader palette of funding and improved management skills in the cultural sector.

The final group of recommendations look at the specifics of any strategy, i.e. where to focus effort and include:

  • New body for heritage

  • Cultural Mapping

  • Hubs

  • CCIs collaboration with the IT sector

  • IP awareness education

  • Greater access to public space

  • Arms-length state funding body

  • School curriculum

  • Promote CCIs internationally

At this level there are suggestions on what specific actions the sector needs to focus on. To be successful, all of these actions rely on the previous three sets of preconditions to be in place. Some can be tackled without dialogue and strategy, but many would lack authority and ownership without full backing across the sector and society.

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