On 28 November 2023, more than 150 representatives from the Georgian government, municipalities, civil society organisations (CSOs) and international organisations gathered in the Tbilisi City Assembly to celebrate the closure of the project "Strengthening Participatory Democracy and Human Rights at Local Level in Georgia”.
Two panel sessions and an exhibition presented by partners and beneficiaries of the project gave the opportunity to look back on the success achieved in strengthening civil participation in the political decision making and protecting rights of the vulnerable groups in the 18 pilot municipalities who cooperated within the project.
Since the project was launched in December 2020, and thanks to the generous support of the Austrian Development Cooperation and to the successful cooperation with, among others, the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure, the Public Defender’s Office, NALAG, the Georgian Parliament and several CSOs, considerable progress was made in raising awareness on the benefits of citizens’ engagement and building the capacities of CSOs and local authorities to effectively collaborate and find solutions.
Substantive results have been reached especially regarding the participatory development of numerous municipal strategies and policies. Pilot municipalities received tailored support from Council of Europe to engage citizens in drafting their policies, for example for the medium-term development strategy (2024-2027) of the municipality of Oni, where 406 citizens have been consulted in various rounds. Other municipalities like Gori, Telavi and Akhmeta used the Council of Europe “Civil Participation in Decision-Making Toolkit” to include citizens from different sectors in the development of their Economic medium-term development strategy.
Among the most significant achievements in the field of civil participation was the successful conduct of the two first citizens’ assemblies in the country, allowing citizens to deliberate and develop recommendations on possible ways to improve the parking system in Ozurgeti, and on the development of a floodplain forest area in Rustavi. Based on these recommendations, the municipality of Rustavi developed a strategy for the floodplain forest area, the municipality of Ozurgeti is planning on improving the parking system based on the expressed needs of citizens.
The project also focused on enhancing youth participation through the targeted information campaign “Change the scenario – play your role”, the first youth camp on Participatory Democracy and the Civil Participation Toolkit in Tbilisi and Zestaponi municipalities. “When we saw during a study visit to Austria, how successfully school participatory budgeting is applied in Austrian schools to enhance youth participation, we quickly decided in Oni municipality to create a sub-programme in the budget, to make a similar application of the school PB in Oni possible.”, said Tamar Khomasuridze, civil participation adviser to the mayor of Oni municipality.
CSO representatives and local authorities benefitted equally from workshops and trainings on Council of Europe civil participation tools (UChange, CivicLab, Civil Participation Toolkit) aimed at encouraging citizens’ engagement and supporting the development of civil participation initiatives. “Becoming a participant of the Winter School on Participatory Democracy Tools in 2021 changed my life as a City Councillor. The school introduced me to innovative methods of citizens engagement, which we have been applying since in Ozurgeti receiving amazing feedback from my fellow citizens”, said Nana Tavdumadze, Chief of Staff at Ozurgeti City Council.
The planning for a next project to further develop and expand participatory democracy in Georgia to all governance levels and to ensure the sustainability of the results is underway.
