2016 ENCATC Young Researcher's Forum

Fatin Farhat, PhD researcher in cultural policy at the University of Hildesheim in Germany. Fatin has been active in the cultural sector in Palestine as Founder and Managing Partner of the Palestine Observatory of Cultural Policies (Task Force for Cultural Policy, Palestine). She is an expert for Med Culture on cultural policy (2015-2017) and is a member of the UNESCO expert facility (2015-2017) on Convention 2005 (Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions). Currently, Fatin advises the Ministry of Culture Palestine on the methodology of drafting the Palestine Cultural Strategy for the years 2017-2022 and is a part of the team evaluating the Drosos Foundation’s Creativity and Youth program in the MENA region. Fatin has an extensive experience in cultural management and policy (specifically in city cultural development) and has engaged in numerous research and evaluation projects with the ECF, CKU, Al Mawred Al Thaqafi, Med Culture, Welfare Association, and Ministry of Culture among others. Session II: The experience of Arab Culture Policy Groups: mapping and research, challenges and set backs Abstract Post the Arab Spring era and as a result of the rapid political changes occurring in the Arab region, there existed an immense need for the development of the environment of the cultural work in order to empower the cultural sector to play an effective role in the process of democratization. For this reason, Culture Resource (Cairo) launched an initiative that aims to improve the system of cultural work in countries undergoing democratic transformation, through providing alternative cultural policy proposals to the Arab governments, creating a channel for dialogue with the state, to empower the independent cultural sector and civil society to play an important role in the development of new cultural policies. National cultural policy groups were created for pressure and awareness in 13 Arab countries (Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Tunisia, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, and Syria). The national groups have made significant strides in drafting proposals for new national cultural policies in preparation for presenting them to official government bodies. In addition National cultural policy groups managed to stimulate dialogue on cultural policy between different Arab countries through research, publications, focus groups, and regional conferences. The presentation will present the initiative, methods of operation, successes and challenges and future recommendations.