Imereti. Trainings are launched at the initiative of the Center for Electoral Systems Development, Reforms and Training and the Legal Department of the Central Election Commission. Topic of the training: electoral process and local self-government, inadmissibility of use of administrative resources. This time the training was delivered to the lawyers of the Kutaisi local self-government. Training participants got familiar with regulations that under the election legislation regulate their participation in the election process, as well as their duties throughout the elections.

Tbilisi. The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) presents fourth and final report of monitoring developments in municipalities following the 2012 parliamentary elections. The report entails information about political processes in self-governments, staff changes, protest rallies and legal persecution of self-government officials. For full text Source:isfed.ge

Shida Kartli. The Maintenance Teams established in the frames of the project – "Developing and Maintaining Homeowners’ and Tenants’ Associations” have helped many families, have done much work for common well-being and deserved high evaluation from the project donor organization – Chemonics – granting them with professional tool-kits. CHCA supports Maintenance Teams’ employment processes which in turn put the part of their income in the association’s common fund. At present the members of the Berbuki and Skra Maintenance Teams are involved in the reconstruction works carried out in the frames of the CHCA project -"Youth Participation and Development”.  CHCA will make the recommendation for the Maintenance Teams in front of other construction companies as well and will support their employment and income generation processes. Source:the organization's page in the social network

Guria.On June 5, Ozurgeti Civic Engagement Center organized a meeting of Self-Government Reform Advisory Council members Konstantine Kandelaki and Mamuka Abuladze  and the representatives of Non-Governmental Organizations. Konstantine Kandelaki and Mamuka Abuladze  reported on Council’s activities and  discussed the new draft Code on Self-Government.

Latest approaches to decentralization as a means to increasing democracy and citizen participation can be found at: www.eldis.org Source:participate.ge

Imereti. On May 23, the USAID Mission Director to Georgia Stephen Haykin has talked in the Kutaisi Civic Engagement Center about the importance of decentralization with the local authorities of Kutaisi, the opposition and CSO representatives. The meeting was organized as part of the project – "Democratic Governance in Georgia", and Mr. Haykin has discussed the project's importance as well. Meeting participants have discussed the issues of decentralization reform and the arrangement of rural self-governments, and which competencies should be delegated in Georgia. As it was noted at the meeting, similar discussions is a significant process in order to have a much better legislation fostering the development of self-governments in Georgia even further.

Adjara. On May 21, as part of the USAID program "Democratic Governance in Georgia", the Civil Society Institute has presented a new project in the Batumi Civic Engagement Center. The project foresees drafting of the city's strategic plan of urban development by the invited urban planning specialists in partnership with the local colleagues and specialists of the Sakrebulo and the City Hall. Local CSO and media representatives have attended the meeting, which aimed to inform and involve the invited guests into the processes, as well as to get them familiar with the methodology and details of the strategic planning.

Guria. On May 21, the organization "Women for Regional Development" have organized a meeting in the assembly hall of the Ozurgeti Sakrebulo with the village trustees. The meeting aimed at analyzing the problems that were identified through the problems map posted on the web page of the research and the organization. Village trustees have discussed areas that the amounts allocated from the Rural Aid Program can be spent on. At the meeting the parties have agreed that in the near future they will develop the text and send it to the Ministry of Infrastructure so that the normative act is amended and the threshold of amount is imposed that could be spent for implementation of projects such as the child safety. Source: wdrguria.wordpress.com

Tbilisi. On May 18, the Community Development Center (CDC) has organized in the exhibition hall of the Caucasian House the exhibition-sale of items created in the Nukriani and Napareuli workshops - social enterprises. The Nukriani and Napareuli workshops are the social enterprises. Currently up to 15 women work in the workshop. CDC aims to support the strengthening and development of workshops as social enterprises, which is a precondition of activation of the women's community and their greater participation in the rural development. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Tbilisi. The Caucasian Economic and Social Research Institute implements the project "Public monitoring for the transparency of self-government". The project aims to share the experience of monitoring with the NGO and media organizations operating in the self-government cities of western Georgia and thus to promote the efficiency of monitoring of the self-government activities in the regions. Project locations are the self-governing cities: Batumi, Poti and Kutaisi. Project duration is 9 months and it is implemented with the financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Tbilisi. On May 1, the Public Council Secretariat of the current self-government reform and the new web page – www.droa.ge – were presented in the office of the "Open Society - Georgia" Foundation. Representatives of the authorities, international and CSO organizations have attended the presentation. "It's the Self-Government Time" – is the motto of the advisers' public council Secretariat, which aims to promote the current self-government reform and coordinate the work of participants involved in the reform. The adviser's public council Secretariat was set up with the support of the US Agency for International Development and the Management Systems International. The project is implemented by the "Open Society – Georgia" Foundation. Function of the Secretariat is to timely and adequately provide and exchange information among the participants involved in the self-government reform process. On the web page www.droa.ge the interested persons can get familiar with all necessary information on the reform.

Imereti. The Imereti Branch of the Georgian Young Economists' Association has studied the degree of satisfaction of the Kutaisi population with the municipal services. Study results were presented on April 25 in the Kutaisi Civic Engagement Center. The study was carried out in two stages. The first stage was carried out in July 2012, and the second stage in April 2013.

Adjara. On April23, the Adjara Branch of the Civil Society Institute has organized in the Batumi Civic Engagement Center the presentation of the City Hall's budget report for 2012 by the Advisory Council functioning with the self-governing city Batumi's Sakrebulo. Presentation was headed by the Head of the Financial-Budgetary Office of the City Hall. According to the report, infrastructural projects were identified as the priority sectors of 2012, as well as the employment of the population based on investments and implementation of various programs. Students, state and NGO sector representatives and other interested persons have attended the meeting, which aimed to inform public about the report and discuss it publically. The Batumi Sakrebulo will hear the City Hall's budget report for 2012 in the nearest future.

Guria. On April 21, the Guria Youth Resource Center has hosted the youth forum. The forum was organized as part of the Civic Education and Teacher Training Program and 33 schoolchildren and 6 civic education teachers from the 33 target schools of the project have participated in it. The forum aimed at engaging the youngsters actively in the process of identification of current problems in their communities and the development of ways for their solution. At the end of the forum, 8 project ideas were developed with their active participation, implementation of which is planned with intense cooperation with the local self-government.In the coming days the meetings are planned in all three municipalities of Guria between the initiative groups of the projects and the responsible persons representing the self-governments, at which the partnership opportunities will be discussed in details.

Kakheti. On April 17, the discussion was held in the Telavi Civic Engagement Center over the draft law on the local self-government reform. The Executive Director of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG) Davit Melua has answered questions about the draft law and presented respective recommendations.The discussion on the draft law about local self-government reform aimed to inform broad public about the positive and adverse aspects of the reform included in the draft law, the possibility to implement the reform, its effects and adverse effects, challenges and advantages.

Tbilisi. Presentation of the coalition "For the Development of Local, Regional Self-Governments and Local Civil Actors" was held in the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA). Member organizations of the coalition are: the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs, the Georgian Young Economists' Association, the Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia, the foundation Liberal Academy - Tbilisi and the Caucasian Institute of Economic and Social Research. The coalition's mission is to promote the development of local self-government and the local democracy.Source: page of the Georgian Young Economists' Association in the social network.

Kakheti. A meeting was held on April 8 in the Telavi Civic Engagement Center between the representatives of the Telavi Municipality's self-government and NGOs. The meeting aimed at promoting the transparency of the self-government activities, as well as enhancing communication between the self-government and the NGO sector. Representatives of the initiative groups and public unions and ordinary citizens have attended the meeting.

Tbilisi. The Eurasia Partnership Foundation has produced a documentary as part of the program "Co-participation and Monitoring for Changes”. The project, which is described by the documentary, is one of the 34 projects that were implemented as part of this program of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation. The program aims at actively engaging the community groups, CSOs and media outlets in the political and economic decision-making process in their own regions.The documentary: "Co-participation and Monitoring for Changes”.  

Tbilisi. ISFED has released the statement, according to which the publicity of sittings of the Tbilisi Sakrebulo is not secured. "The organization finds it unacceptable that the representative, who went to the March 29 sitting for observing purposes and obtained the pass from one of the Sakrebulo members through the usual procedure, was prevented from entering the Sakrebulo sitting by the security officer. Problem was resolved only after the direct involvement of the opposition deputies of the Sakrebulo," says the statement. The organization does not concur with the Sakrebulo's argument that the attendance of ISFED's representative was impossible due to the limited space. The organization calls on the Chairman of the Tbilisi Sakrebulo to secure the publicity and transparency of the Sakrebulo sittings for the interested persons. For the full text. Source: the organization's page in the social network.

Adjara. On March 27, the "Civil Advisory Council" and the City Hall of the Self-governing City Batumi has organized an open door day in the Batumi Civic Engagement Center, where they have presented the 2014-2017 priorities of the self-governing city Batumi. 5 major priority areas were discussed at the meeting, namely: the city's economic development; construction, rehabilitation and exploitation of the city's infrastructure; education; culture, religion, youth support and sports; public health protection and social protection. This meeting aimed at preparing the information for the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Adjara. In addition, the document will be submitted to the Sakrebulo of the self-governing city Batumi.

Kakheti. On March 18, the Georgian Young Lawyers' Association and the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy have held a joint meeting in the Telavi Civic Engagement center.Representatives of NGOs, civil sector, local self-governance and mass media have participated in the meeting.Meeting organizers have presented to the audience the report on the monitoring of post-election processes in the local self-governments.

Adjara.On March 5, the Association "Independent Journalists' House" has held the discussion in the Batumi Press Cafe on the strategy of the Government of Georgia for decentralization and the self-government development.This strategy provides for the formation of public self-government in each settlement, territorial optimization and empowering of municipal self-government, introduction of self-government elements in the regional authorities, creation of effective mechanisms of the state supervision, and the legal, technical and resource support of the reform process.The discussion was held as part of the NED-funded project "Development of Democratic Ideas".