Unpacking the GCRP2024

The Cultural Relations Platform (CRP) brought together 37 professionals from the fields of culture and creating safer societies (such as peace building, human rights and rights-based initiatives, working with marginalised groups and post-conflict trauma healing) for four days – 25 to 28 November 2024 in Marrakech.
The Global Cultural Relations Programme 2024 (GCRP2024) participants had the opportunity to develop lifelong skills, increase their knowledge, build their international network, and engage in interdisciplinary cross-cultural collaboration.
“GCRP is a powerful tool, a powerful program to capture the hearts and minds of cultural professionals, artists, creators coming from different continents and fostering connections and establishing links among themselves and with the European Union.” – Pilar Campos Guiu, Programme Manager at EU Commission (FPI)
Here are some key takeaways from the seventh edition of the programme!
What’s the link between culture and creating safer societies?
GCRP 2024 explored the complex relationship between them, looking into how each sector influences the other. Participants shared how much they knew about each other’s fields, the obstacles, tensions, and opportunities that can be found in between. The group learned about “Theatre for Conflict Transformation” in a presentation by Hjalmar Jorge Joffre-Eichhorn, and explored ideas on using theatre for peace building, conflict resolution and community building. The theatre performances revolve around questions rather than answers, focused on empowering communities to find their own solutions.
“GCRP is not any programme. It’s a very particular and unique programme. It is not a training programme, neither a teaching programme. It’s a learning programme. The experts in the room are the participants. The content is within the experts and anything we do within the programme, it comes from the experts.” – CRP Team Leader Sana Ouchtati.
During the four-day programme, participants deepened their key skills in active listening, trust-building, non-judgement and inclusive practice. They worked with stories and narrative as ways of creating connection between people, spaces, heritage, culture and communities. Sharing ideas for collaborative working, the group reflected on their journey and made action plans for living the workshop forward.
What’s next? GCRP 2024 is an experience that keeps on giving. While the four-day programme is over, we look forward to the collaborations that it will spark, if not already. Each participant will have the opportunity to become part of our community of GCRP alumni from around the globe. This alumni network promotes continued exchange and idea-sharing. It also facilitates connections with European Union and international institutions, networks, platforms, and key stakeholders, offering engagement with diverse worldwide programmes.
Visit our GCRP page to learn more about the programme.
Listen to participants as they share their thoughts on the relationship between culture and creating safer societies.
Click here to access all the videos on GCRP 2024 from daily highlights to participants sharing about their experiences.