Tbilisi. Public Defender made a Statement on the Death of a Minor Worker on 16 July 2019.  ‘The situation of safety at work remains a major challenge in the country. Improvement of the alarming situation is significantly hindered by the restrictions imposed for labour inspectors on the one hand, which will be lifted only from September 2019, and by the lack of human and financial resources of the Labour Conditions Inspection Department on the other hand’, - is mentioned in the statement.  Read more… Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. Europe Foundation responds to the Impact Assessment of Industrial, Technical Support, and Access to Finance Components for the ‘Produce in Georgia’ Program (2014-2018) published by LEPL Enterprise Georgia operating under the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia. “In August 2018, Europe Foundation commissioned a Gendered Assessment of SME Development Strategy of Georgia 2016-2020, which was later shared with relevant stakeholders. The assessment concluded that strategy development was not preceded by a gender analysis. Since needs, challenges, and opportunities vary for men and women, a gender analysis is necessary. Without this, SME Development Strategy will not lead to interventions that improve economic outcomes for women and men in the SME sector”, - Is mentioned in the response.  Read more Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. More than 500 delegates from more than 15 countries participated in the Annual International Investment Forum - Role of Good Governance Reform in Economic Development & Investment Attraction - held in Tbilisi.  It hosted about 50 speakers, including a well-known investment expert, Richard C. Wilson, who is known in the United States as the manager of investments accumulated by wealthy and ultra-wealthy families.  IDFI's Panel at International Investment Forum. A panel organized by the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) included a discussion on the Role of Good Governance Reform in Economic Development & Investment Attraction.  Read more Source: The web-page of the organization

Tbilisi. Elevate your Company through Women’s Empowerment! – On June 15-16 UN Women in collaboration with the Business Leaders`Federation ''Women for Tomorrow'' will host a two-day forum for women’s economic empowerment in Batumi. ''The two-day forum will highlight businesses’ role in women’s empowerment, showcase inspirational role models and share information about the training, grant and education opportunities available for women. The guests will have a chance to attend various indoor and outdoor events organized during the forum, including workshop sessions for women entrepreneurs and start-uppers'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: Social network

Tbilisi. The meeting entitled ''The Role of Effective Insolvency System for the Economic Development'' was held within the framework of the reform of the insolvency system in Georgia. ''The main purpose of the meeting was to show the economic importance of the regulation envisioned under the proposed legislation on insolvency'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. The Office of the Public Defender of Georgia releases a statement in regard to the International Day of Solidarity of Workers. "May 1 is the International Day of Workers, the Public Defender once again calls on the Government this day to take appropriate measures to address problems existing in the field of labor rights”, - is noted in the statement, - "growing statistic of casualties and injuries at work place is especially concerning. 59 people died and 199 were injured as a result of industrial accidents in 2018... There are no respective measures applied to take care of health of employed people, improvement of their qualification, provision of trainings in first aid. Besides, no sanitary-hygienic norms are observed... Monitoring of requirements stipulated by labor laws shows that in most of the cases duration of working hours is incompatible with terms stipulated by contract; rules of provision of annual leave and remuneration are violated... Labor rights, particularly those of vulnerable groups – women and disabled people, in terms of adhering to principles of equality are breached... The Public Defender, within the frames of her mandate, continues to study the state of protection of labor rights in the country and will apply all available means to improve existing situation”. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. With the support of Georgian Farmers Association and the UN Women, within the framework of the project - "A Joint Action for Women's Economic Empowerment in Georgia”, 65 more women entrepreneurs, living in Western Georgia regions, will participate in trainings for improvement knowledge and qualification. Read more… Source:The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC) demands from the government to take immediate actions in order to create a decent work environment for those employed and releases a special statement. ''... Despite elaboration of a respective supervision mechanism and tightening legislation, ineffectiveness of execution mechanisms and postponement of a deadline of enforcement of important legislative regulations for the future put lives and health of employees at risk daily'', - is noted in the statement released by EMC. Read more… Source:The website of the organization

Kakheti. EU-supported Training in Project Cycle Management was implemented for the representatives of Dedoplistskaro Local Action Group. During the trainings, participants had an opportunity to increase their knowledge and skills in the following directions: implementation of context analysis, identification of intervention strategy and related goals and outcomes; project design and planning; development of indicators for each level of the project; allocation of resources, budgeting and project monitoring; reporting and project close. Read more…  Source: http://enpard.ge

Kvemo Kartli. The European Union (EU), together with its partner organization CENN, officially launched a new rural development project in Tsalka Municipality. The "EMBRACE Tsalka” project aims to provide support to smallholders, entrepreneurs, women, youth and other local actors by improving access to knowledge and innovation, introducing best practices, creating public-private partnerships and business linkages, as well as generating new employment opportunities by utilizing the development potential of the area. Read more…  Source: http://enpard.ge

Tbilisi.  ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC) publishes an infographics regarding a number of those injured as a result of industrial accidents during different years.According to the data that EMC requested from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, the highest number of those injured as a result of industrial accidents has been detected in 2012, while that of casualties due to the same reason - in 2018. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Regarding to a statement of several Non-Governmental Organizations: Mamuka Khazaradze’s statement confirms suspicions regarding signs of state capture in Georgia. ''It is worth noting that this is not the first time in recent years that businessmen are talking about pressure coming from representatives of the government or from influential persons linked to the ruling party. If we put Khazaradze’s statement into a broader context, it will further reinforce the concerns we have expressed on numerous occasions regarding the signs of informal rule and a growing trend of state capture, which involves concentration of excessive power in the hands of the ruling party and informal groups of influential persons and their use of public institutions for private goals and interests'', is noted in the joint statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Zugdidi Regional Court made a decision to reinstate Manana Sagliani, dismissed from ''Center of Art and Culture of Mestia Municipality'', to her former job. The court abolished a resolution of Director of the center of art and culture of Mestia Municipality regarding dismissal of Manana Sagliani from her job, ordered the defendant to reinstate the plaintiff in the same position in and imposed to compensate forced loss. Interests of Manana Sagliani at court were represented by ''Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center'' (EMC). Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. ''Transparency International Georgia'' (TI) publishes a chronology of developments related to ''TBC Bank''. The material starts with May 11, 2018, when Bidzina Ivanishvili was elected as Chairman of ''Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia'', contains an issue of resignation of Giorgi Kvirikashvili from his position, news regarding TBC published in media, information about starting the case at the Prosecutor's Office, material related to inspections carried out by the National Bank and Revenue Service and etc. Read more… Source: The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia evaluates disrupted discussion about the TBC Bank in the Parliament. ''The meeting was attended by the shareholders of the TBC Bank Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze, who were not given the opportunity to offer additional explanations regarding this case of major public interest. As a result, the society at large lost the opportunity to receive information about the developments around the TBC Bank from the main actors, which has raised even more questions about the political motivations of the case'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia reacts on the investigation against the founders of TBC Bank. ''An investigation launched by the Prosecutor’s Office against Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze, the founders of TBC Bank, on a case of alleged money laundering together with other crimes that could be committed 10 years ago and disinformation campaign allegedly orchestrated by the ruling party-backed sponsored social network pages created a logical assumption that the mentioned investigation could be biased'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: www.transparency.ge

With the support of the European Union (EU), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia (MEPA) have developed a Market Information System for agricultural products. The system was launched in 2015 under the European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD). Monitoring the market prices of more than 100 agricultural products is conducted in 59 municipalities across Georgia. Data-collectors – the staff of the MEPA Information and Consulting Centres (ICCs) – in each region gather prices on each agricultural product on a weekly basis and upload the data to an online database, providing users across the country with the latest price-related information. The data are further processed by the ministry and used for policymaking. After three years of data collection, the system is being upgraded in 2019 to improve the data collection and analysis process. FAO has developed an online application to collect the data electronically through tablets and to transfer the collected data automatically to the ministry’s main server. These upgrades of the system significantly simplify the process of monitoring and reduces the chances of making mistakes. In full  Source: http://enpard.ge

Mtskheta. PIN continues to facilitate dialogue between Georgian farmers, businesses and representatives of state structures, which is important for improving agricultural policies in Georgia. This time, we organized a regional meeting in Mtskheta. ''The main discussion topics were: the opportunities that DCFTA offers to Georgia, and the government’s strategy for responding to the challenges of implementing the DCFTA Action Plan'', is noted in the statement. Read more… Source: The webpage of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Do you want to know more about the attitudes of the population and business entities of Georgia towards civil society organizations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes? Here are the main findings of the surveys conducted by the CRRC-Georgia in the framework of the "Georgian Civil Society Sustainability Initiative" project: 1.    "Attitudes of the Population of Georgia towards Civil Society Organisations, European Integration and Business Entities"  See more… 2.    "BUSINESSES IN GEORGIA: Attitudes towards Corporate Social Responsibility and Civil Society Organizations" See more… ”Georgian Civil Society Sustainability Initiative” was developed and is implemented by the consortium lead by the Konrad­-Adenauer­-Stiftung in cooperation with four Georgian Civil Society Organizations: Civil Society Institute (CSI), Center for Training and Consultancy (CTC), Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG) and Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC). The project is funded by the European Union and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

Tbilisi. ''Georgian Democracy Initiative'' (GDI) submits a suit to the Constitutional Court of Georgia demanding abolishment of forced engagement of citizens into the pension system and suspension of its functioning until a decision is made on the case. ''GDI considers that obligatory engagement into the accumulative pension system and imposition of a compulsory contribution into the pension fund unjustifiably restrict property rights of an employed, while for an employer it equals to deprivation of a property'', - is noted in the statement released by GDI. Read more... Source:The website of the organization