On 9-12 September 2016 the Council of Europe facilitated organisation of four-day training on participatory democracy in Kobuleti, Georgia. Public Movement "Multinational Georgia" (PMMG) – a local non-governmental organisation focusing on civic integration of ethnic minorities in Georgia – carried out the training for 22 women educators from Samtskhe-Javakheti.

The topics discussed during the training include the forms of political engagement and their importance, common types of electoral violations with a special focus on “family voting”, contemporary challenges facing women’s participation in the electoral processes, and electoral behaviour of ethnic minorities as observed in the past general elections. PMMG targeted women from Samtskhe-Javakheti with wide-ranging backgrounds who had had little to no prior experience of participation in workshops aiming to raise civic awareness.

The training was conducted in the framework of the PMMG Project “Support to engagement of women from Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli regions in a political and electoral process in Georgia” with financial assistance from the Council of Europe “Programme to support Georgia in view of the 2016 (parliamentary), 2017 (local) and 2018 (presidential) elections”. One of the objectives of the project is to strengthen the capacity of 40 women from ethnic minorities on the participatory democracy so they can act as Educators and advocate for active political and electoral engagement of women voters in Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Karli regions of Georgia by conducting informational-awareness raising meetings. PMMG will conduct one other training from 29 September to 2 October in Bakuriani, Georgia, this time for a group of women educators from Kvemo Kartli.