The direct target group:

• Independent arts and culture institutions and organizations, exhibition platforms, and spaces (with or having potential wide outreach and connectivity)
• Civil society organizations that focus on culture
• Cultural industry enterprises
• Academic and training institutions focusing on culture and/or the arts

The end beneficiaries:

• Young or emerging women and men artists
• Cultural practitioners and technicians working in the production, preservation, and distribution of local artistic works

The Indirect beneficiaries:
Individuals of all nationalities, ages, and gender throughout each of the five countries of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco, neighboring countries and diaspora communities.

1. Arts and culture organizations in North Africa are strengthened as a result of improved institutional capacities, meaningful and relevant programmatic offerings, and better positioning within the cultural landscape.

2. North Africa's arts and culture landscape witnesses increased understanding of the common regional themes, appreciation of artistic and cultural works through regional collaborations, joint productions, and distribution.

3. The arts and culture landscape in North Africa shifts towards more professionalization through tailored skills and capacities that ensure local arts and culture organizations are able to prosper internally and locally and thrive regionally.

4. The cultural ecosystem in North Africa is further connected through exchange and building alliances, and aligned vis-à-vis cultural policies and cultural rights.

5. North African arts and culture organizations and initiatives are more aware of and more proactive in their social and economic contribution.

Principaux résultats attendus:  

1. Up to 18 new arts and culture institutions and spaces (not previous NACP grantees) are supported with core funding.
2. Up to 6 continuity grants are distributed to previous NACP grantees
3. Supported institutions strengthen their internal capacities in identified areas for improvement
4. Supported Institutions expand/create/upgrade their programs
5. Supported Institutions create local partnerships
6. Up to 15 joint regional projects are created regionally
7. Up to 8 new collaborations are supported with seed funding
8. Out of the 8 seed funding projects are supported further to create joint artistic projects
9. Supported projects are distributed, disseminated and circulated to audiences regionally
10. Up to 12 small- and medium-sized institutions benefit from an in-depth needs assessment workshop
11. Up to 12 small- and medium-sized institutions receive tailored support and mentorship in areas identified through needs assessment workshop
12. Up to 8 new collaborations (RCCF Seed Funding) benefit from accompaniment and partnership development training
13. Up to 30 cultural managers (representing the arts and culture institutions supported through national and regional funds) receive a leadership training program
14. Up to 6 local alliances are supported
15. Peer-to-peer exchange and learning takes place through facilitating staff swap and mobility among supported institutions/projects
16. Up to 3 local network meetings at country level takes place annually per country or by proxy (in the case of Libya for example)
17. Up to 3 regional convening are organized over the program duration bringing together program grantees and stakeholders
18. NACP online platform is further developed and updated as a tool for knowledge, exchange, visibility, and advocacy
19. Supported organizations and projects demonstrate inclusivity ( for women, youth and geographic spread outside central cities) at the level of involved team members, targeted beneficiaries, and outreach
20. Supported organizations and projects create job opportunities for the youth and otherwise
21. A number of supported organizations/projects are able to build evidence about their social impact

Principaux résultats antérieurs:  

During the first phase, the effectiveness of the program was mainly palpable in sustaining cultural institutions with funds, tools, and resources through long-term organizational and collaborative support.

The opportunity of designing 3-year-long projects helped organizations have the needed time to create meaningful and tailored interventions, whether on the levels of their organizations or that of collaborations.

The program operated on three levels in the two funding strands it offered: institutionally, programmatically, and collaboratively.

Institutionally: Core support grants allowed institutions the space to strategize, build teams, grow impact, and rehabilitate. Arts and culture institutions were supported with core funding, which resulted in strengthened and sustained capacities in programming, diffusion, audience engagement, and outreach. This was translated into sustainability planning, protecting and renovating cultural spaces, protecting archives, and strategic planning to set up organizational structures.

Programatically: Activating networks, archives, and socially engaged arts and culture initiatives were a strong priority for the NACP grantee organizations' programmatic focus in its first phase, in addition to their consolidated work around organizational structuring and development. Cultural spaces were supported for increased engagement and artistic programming that focused on research, rethinking and criticism, and the diversification of artistic and disciplinary mediums.

Collaboratively, and at the level of promoting collaborations and partnerships, the program responded to the need for more joint artistic projects to be created regionally, where artistic works and productions are distributed, disseminated, and circulated to broad audiences. This increased the understanding of common regional themes and appreciation of artistic and cultural works by enabling joint productions and distribution, as well as increased the professionalization of arts and cultural practices, infrastructure, and resources.

On the other hand, and based on the results of the mid-term evaluation, AFAC is rethinking the offerings of the national fund support scheme. The latter will still support institutional and programmatic areas, with a focus on entities that have strong public programs, with diversification of supported entities between the center and peripheries, and with an eye on the absorption capacity of each entity that translates into the grant amount and its percentage from the overall budget. A special approach will be developed for previous national fund grantees from phase 1 in an attempt to make space for new potential grantees without losing the connections created in phase 1. As such, national fund grantees of phase 1 will be eligible and can compete for three support options: a final top-up grant; a consortium of institutions resulting from the networks formed on the local level during phase 1; or the collaborative regional fund.

To ensure supporting solid organic collaborations that preceded the opportunity offered by NACP while working towards developing new solid collaborations in a mindful unrushed manner, and after monitoring closely the collaborations offered by the program in the regional fund, some modifications will be done in the regional fund support scheme, where it will devise a two-tier support approach:
(1) seed funding for new collaborations over 6 months after which they become eligible to apply for a larger amount
(2) bigger support to existing collaborations before NACP calls

Connecting the two support schemes, and emanating from learnings and recommendations from phase 1, additional elements will be implemented such as:

• needs assessment (based on Organizational Mapping Tool – OMT) followed by the design of tailored capacity-building and professional support for each supported entity under both schemes
• annual meetings to share practices, exchange knowledge, build synergies, and connect with policymakers and stakeholders from the other sectors
• planned residencies that allow for peer-to-peer learning institutions by swapping team members
• incentives for sub-grantees who wish to form/activate networks on local and/or regional levels
• further exploration of the NACP digital platform developed during phase 1 as an active documentation tool and resource

1. Swiss Embassies’ in the region
2. Swiss institutions providing support to culture in the region will be consulted and, provided opportunities arise, associated to the program (e.g. Pro Helvetia, Drosos)
3. Other donors such as: Culture Resource (Al Mawred Al Thaqafi), EU Creative Europe Program, EU Media and Culture for Development in the Southern Mediterranean Region Program, the British Council, Goethe Institute, Rosa Luxembourg Foundation