ABSTRACT
The experience of each post-communist country in moving to market economies and pluralist democracy will be different. Each country has its own historic experience and has a different level of economic and political development. Thus lessons drawn from the experience of the CSFR, Hungary and Poland are not always applicable to other post-communist states. In the long term, technical assistance is the vehicle for the transfer of the skills and experience needed to create or revive the mechanisms and processes which will introduce radical change in social, political and economic thinking. The Task Force hopes that the following twelve lessons drawn from the experience of assistance to transition in the CSFR, Hungary and Poland might be of use for all partners as the other post-communist states begin their own transition process. The Polish experience underlines the importance of ensuring that such funds are rapidly utilized. Support for the improvement of distribution systems should be considered a form of humanitarian assistance.
