Tbilisi. The Civil Society Institute has released the best story identified as part of the results-oriented project management training cycle. 6 workshops were organized as part of the project with participation of CSO representatives working in Tbilisi and regions. At the closing meeting of the project the participants have presented the stories of changes within their organizations, which described positive results achieved by applying the knowledge gained at the trainings in practice. The participants have themselves selected one of the presented stories - that of representative of CSO "Stepantsminda". A story of changes, CSO "Stepantsminda" (GEO)

Kakheti. The European Center for Minority Issues Caucasus (ECMI) is delivering trainings for ethnic minorities residing in the Kakheti Region in Georgia's Euro-integration processes and the engagement of ethnic minorities in them.On August 26, the organization has delivered trainings for representatives of ethnic minorities residing in the Pankisi Gorge, including the Kists and Ossetians.The trainings aimed at raising the competence of ethnic minority representatives and community organizations in the role of Euro-integration and engagement of ethnic minorities in it. Participants were informed about functioning of the EU, Eastern Partnership and the Georiga-EU bilateral relations.

Tbilisi. U.S. National Democratic Institute (NDI) released on August 25 its commissioned public opinion survey, which shows respondents’ attitudes towards broad range of policy and current issues.The survey was fielded by the Caucasus Resource Research Centers (CRRC) for NDI after the second round of local elections in a period between July 23 and August 7 and was funded by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The survey was conducted through nationwide face-to-face interview with 3,338 respondents and has a margin of error plus, minus 2.9%. For the Full text... source: civil.ge

Tbilisi. The Civil Society Platform has posted information on the European Voluntary Service. Web page provides information on the essence of the service, its objectives, who it is designed for and how can one participate in the project. For the full text. Source: cspinfo.ge

Kakheti. The Georgian Red Cross Society has delivered a training in the Sagarejo Civic Engagement Center for the organization's local volunteers.Volunteers were trained in the fire-fighting and emergency issues. According to the attending volunteers, it is important that all youngsters get familiar with these issues.

Tbilisi. Jumpstart Georgia published a visualization - "Who is Georgia's #1 Public Official?". "Following the constitutional changes which came into force after the 2013 Presidential Election in Georgia, the power of the President was limited and distributed among all branches of government. However, these changes caused confusion about the roles and responsibilities of both the President and the Prime Minister among the public as well as among public officials. This confusion became all too clear when signing the Association Agreement with the European Union. Neither the President nor the Prime Minister could decide who was ultimately responsible for signing the Agreement". The Visualization Source: feradi.info

Tbilisi. 60 Georgian and foreign youngsters interested in conflict transformation, human rights and international relations, have an opportunity to participate in a 5-day forum planned on September 20-26. For those interested, registration has been launched and for the full information please see... The Peace Camp is organized by the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy together with the International Center on Conflict and Negotiation, with financial support from the Children and Youth Development Fund. Source:fondi.gov.ge

Tbilisi. For summer holidays the Open Society Georgia Foundation will be closed during August 18 through August 30. Source: osgf.ge

Adjara. Members of the Coordination Council working on the problems of persons with disabilities have met with Giorgi Ermakov on August 19 in the Batumi Civic Engagement Center. The meeting aimed to inform the Mayor about the problems of persons with disabilities, as well as the vision of CSOs on the solution of problems. Together with the Head of the Infrastructure Service, the Mayor has talked about future plans of adapting the city to persons with disabilities, and stated in addition that by the end of September it is planned to recruit an advisor to better get familiar with the problems of persons with disabilities.

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia released a statement. "The media recently reported on the closure of Parliamentary Minority Leader David Bakradze and his spouse’s account in one of the British banks on 14th of July 2014. ...A Member of the Georgian Parliament is obliged to annually fill out a financial declaration on his/her and his/her family’s property and financial conditions ... Information on the aforementioned bank account is not presented in the financial declaration submitted by David Bakradze on July 3, 2014. ...Moreover, it is possible that this case involves another type of infringement of law. Client-bank correspondence constitutes personal information and thus it is punishable by Article 157 of the Criminal Code of Georgia to obtain or re-use it. It is important that law enforcement agencies investigate as to how this information was obtained. For the full text Source: Organization's page in the social network

Tbilisi.  The  Human Rights  Education  and  Monitoring  Center  has  presented  thestudy "Non-Recognition, Inaction and Repression in Exchange of Accommodation".The study analyzes the rights of socially unprotected, homeless families occupyingthe state buildings and the state policy, and it was carried out with support of "Policy, Advocacy and the Civil Society Development in Georgia" (G-PAC) program ofthe East-West Management Institute. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi.  "Transparency International  -  Georgia"  has published a blog post  -  "Thesystem of remuneration of expenses borne for discharge of powers by the Sakrebulomembers requires improvement". For  the  full  text Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center has reacted to an amendment made to the 5 December 2000 Order of the Minister of Labor, Health and Social Welfare of Georgia "on the Provision of Operative Information from Medical Institutions to the Agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs". For the full text Source: emc.org.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International - Georgia has published Gigi Chikhladze's blog post - "What will the new regulation on awarding bonuses in civil service be like". For the full text Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Women's Information Center has released the Georgian translation of final recommendations of the Committee for Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The document was presented based on Georgia's fourth and fifth integrated periodic report."We hope getting familiar with these recommendations will be interesting and useful for your future activities aimed at protecting women's rights and gender balance", says the organization's page in the social network. For the full text. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. CSO Identoba has published a blog post - "Who visits Identoba's web page and why?". "identoba.com exists for three years now. During this period the number ofvisitors of the web page from Georgia and many countries globally has exceeded million. ... Taking into account the current data and counting the daily, monthly and annual statistics, Identoba's most readers are from Georgia", says the blog post. For the full text. Source: identoba.com

Tbilisi.  The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association has released information on itssuccessful  cases  in  July.  Information  covering  eleven  cases  was  posted  on  the organization's web page. For the full text. Source: gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information has released a blog post "Statistical information on secret surveillance by the Prosecutor's Office"."We urge the Parliament of Georgia and the initiators of the new draft Law "on theState Secret" and Mr. Irakli Sesiashvili personally, to correct the article of the draft Law, which allows classifying of statistical information related to operative-search activities as secret, because this will be a step backwards in terms of publicity and access to information,  and will  weaken public  control  mechanisms in respect  of secret surveillance issues," says the blog post. For the full text Source: opendatablog.wordpress.com

This year, for the first time after 2011 OGP steering committee was elected by the member states. 11 states had been competing for 8 seats, including Georgia. The results of the elections, which took place on July 30, had been declared on August 4. USA, Brazil, UK, Philippines and Tanzania got re-elected, while Georgia, Croatia and France joined the committee for the first time.This year, for the first time after 2011 OGP steering committee was elected by the member states. 11 states had been competing for 8 seats, including Georgia. The results of the elections, which took place on July 30, had been declared on August 4. USA, Brazil, UK, Philippines and Tanzania got re-elected, while Georgia, Croatia and France joined the committee for the first time. For the full text source: ogpgeoblog.wordpress.com

Samtskhe-Javakheti. Photo artist Natela Grigalashvili came up with the idea of establishing photo clubs in rural areas, and has started implementing it in village Gorelovka of the Ninotsminda Municipality with support of the "Open Society - Georgia" Foundation. As part of the project funded by the "Open Society - Georgia" Foundation - "Village Photo Club - Gorelovka", interested persons were selected and the photo club was established, uniting 12 Georgian, Russian and Armenian amateur photographs of 15-62 years of age. Participants were provided with photo cameras; Photo artists Guramtsibakhashvili, Tea Soselia and Natela Grigalashvili have delivered workshops and seminars; photo tours were organized. The exhibition of works of the village photo club members was organized on August 4 in the Culture House of village Gorelovka. For the full text (geo) Source: osgf.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) has released statement, according to which the family of founder of the partner organization "Freedom of Information Fund" faces the risk of deportation from Russia. IDFI extends its support to the family of partner organization's founder and the Russian Freedom of Information Development Fund. For the full text. Source: idfi.ge

Tbilisi. The Institute for the Development of Freedom of Information has published the Open Governance Action Plan for 2014-15. Georgia has joined the Open Governance Partnership in September 2011. Importantly, the Action Plan for 2014-15 was drafted through coordinated work of the Government, CSOs and the civil society. For the full text. Source: idfi.ge