Tbilisi. Today, the first, 2017 report of the Local Self-governance Index was published. According to the Index, important steps have to be taken in municipalities of Georgia to establish high standards in terms of transparency and accountability. Read more… Source:www.osgf.ge

Tbilisi. Runoffs of the 21 October 2017 local self-government elections will be held on November 12, in districts of Kutaisi, Ozurgeti, Borjomi, Khashuri, Martvili and Kazbegi. The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) was monitoring the election campaign process in all six districts through its long-term observers (LTOs). ''The monitoring found that the period between the first and the second round of local self-government elections was marked by instances of harassment/intimidation on political grounds and misuse of administrative resources in Ozurgeti, which threaten equal and free pre-election environment'', is noted in the statement. In full… Source: www.isfed.ge

Tbilisi. ''Transparency International Georgia'' (TI) has published a study of activities of the Self-governing Zugdidi City Council. Reporting period of the study covers the time frame from July, 2014 through August 18, 2017 and is based on the information both requested from the City Council and posted on its official website, as well as on observations of the organization. Read more... Source:The website of the organization

Tbilisi. Observer organizations call on law enforcement agencies to get interested in actions of Tianeti District and # 20 Precinct Election Commissions. ''After the court declared two resolutions of the Tianeti District Election Commission void, lawfulness of actions of members of the Commission should become a subject to investigation in order to clarify whether their actions were criminal'' – is noted in the statement. Read more... Source:www.isfed.ge

Tbilisi. The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (GYLA) publishes answers to frequently asked questions. See the full document... Source:gyla.ge

Guria. On July 23-26 Guria region hosted CHARRETTE event, which was opened with a Tourism Festival followed by multi-stakeholder discussion on the prospects of tourism development in Guria. On July 23rd, the Tourism Festival of Guria was held in Lanchkhuti, Chokhatauri and Ozurgeti with an interesting and diverse program. The exhibition of local artists was organized, the entrepreneurs introduced their products to the visitors, and a mobile application of touristic routesin Guria was presented. Special ethnographic corners were displayed in all three municipalities. The visitors and guests had an opportunity to ride horses, participate in falcon hunting, take a tourist maps as a gift, discover the local craft products, and of course, listen to the unique, polyphonic Gurian songs. Local residents as well as tourists in Ozurgeti, field experts, representatives of EU and local authorities attended the event. Representatives of the local self-government and the executive director of the project, Nana Tavdumadze addressed attendees of Guria Tourism Festival. They highlighted the significance of the project, tourism strategy and touristic potential of Guria. The representative of EU, Dominica Skubida underlined, that the EU is supporting four municipalities of Guria (Ozurgeti, Chokhatauri, Lanchkhuti municipalities and Ozurgeti City Hall) and two civil society organizations (Civil Society Institute and theYoung Scientists' Club of Ozurgeti) to create a tourism development strategy for the region. The strategy will be elaborated based on participatory approach in order to consider local needs and obtain more benefits for the local population from the natural resources of the region. The festival was followed by a multi stakeholder discussion on the prospects of tourism development in Guria. On July 24, 25 and 26 , in Ozurgeti, in the "Horizonti” College building, the central and local authority representatives, experts, citizens and stakeholders engaged in tourism, were involved in CHARRETTE Studio (participatory methodology developed at the National Charrette Institute -NCI, Michigan State University) – multi-stakeholder panel and thematic group sessions. As a result, the group jointly defined the strategic priorities of Truism strategy for Guria. The event was held within the framework of the 3-year project "Participatory CHARRETTE for the Tourism Development Strategy of Guria”, implemented by mutual cooperation of the Ozurgeti, Lanchkhuti, and Chokhatauri Municipalities, Ozurgeti City Hall, Civil Society Organizations the Young Scientists' Club of Ozurgeti and the Civil Society Institute, with the EU financial support. The project aims to promote sustainable and comprehensive tourism development in Guria through the joint efforts of central and local authorities, citizens and stakeholders interested in tourism. Read more…  Source: CSI’s web-page in a social network

Imereti. On July 28,2017, Local Democracy Agency Georgia held a presentation of the project - ''Voice of More Women in Local Self-Government''. ''The presentation was attended by representatives of political parties, non-governmental and media organizations in the Imereti region who will be involved in the project implementation process as the partners. The goal of the project is to support the promotion of important issues for female voters in the political parties and candidates' pre-election programs in Imereti region'', is noted in the statement. In full… Source: The organizations web-page in a social network

Tbilisi. Non-governmental organizations address members of the Parliament regarding a decision on abolishment of self-governing cities. ''...We call on members of the Parliament of Georgia to consider justified remarks of the President of Georgia and refrain from taking the decision that damages local self-governments'' – is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. The Management Systems Development Center conducted a survey – ''Public Participation in Local Self-government - Monitoring and Recommendations''. ''According to authors, problems have been revealed in both organizing general meetings of a community and its decision-making process'' – is stated on the website of the Open Society Georgia Foundation. Read more... Source: www.osgf.ge

Tbilisi. The National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia has prepared a long-term strategy for decentralization and self-governance development. ''This document is elaborated by a group of experts of the Association, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme. It is published for passing through public discussion and consultations with interested people'' – is stated on the website of the organization. Read more… Source: The website of the organization in a social network

Tbilisi. Transparency International Georgia publishes results of a study regarding functioning of citizen engagement mechanisms in municipalities of Adjara. ''The study has revealed that despite existence of citizen engagement mechanisms at the legislative level, involvement of citizens in Adjara local self-government activities is insufficient'' – is stated on the website of the organization. Read more... Source:www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. Non-governmental organizations address the Government and the Parliament regarding a legislative initiative on merging community municipalities and self-governing cities. ''We consider it inadmissible to carry out a preparation and implementation processes of such important changes behind the public. Therefore, we address the Parliament of Georgia, as well as the Ministry of Infrastructure, to conduct a meeting among representatives of the Government and civil society in the nearest days, before forwarding the initiative to City Councils, in order to discuss proposals, prepared by the Ministry, in regard to abolition of the status of self-governing cities and communities'' – is noted in the joint statement. Read more… Source: www.isfed.ge

Kvemo kartli. On May 3-4, 2017, Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili visited the Dmanisi and Gardabani municipalities of the Kvemo Kartli village, where he met with representatives of the local self-governments and the acting Governor of the region. ''One of the most important issues in the Dmanisi municipality is providing adequate housing for homeless people. The Public Defender visited vulnerable families, including children, living in poor conditions at the former hospital of Dmanisi. Although the local authorities use all the available resources to help the families, it is necessary the central authorities to allocate an appropriate building for social housing, which would be a long-term solution to the problem'', is noted in the statement. In full… Source: www.ombudsman.ge

Adjara. Roundtable meeting between the professionals working on children's issues was held on April 25 in Kobuleti. "The violence detection and referral procedures alongside with steps for strengthening the cooperation between institutions were discussed at the meeting. Roundtables are being held within the ''Human Rights for All'' project supported by European Union in Georgia and UNICEF", is noted in the statement. In full… Source: The Organization’s web-page in a social page

Tbilisi. The Coalition responds to a competition for selection of judges, which was announced by the High Council of Justice on February 17 of the current year to fill 84 vacant positions. ''Despite the existing vague and unpredictable legislative environment, the Council continues the process for selection of judges and attempts to fill current vacancies in the court system using the existing defective procedure before there are amendments made into the law'' – is noted in the statement of the Coalition. Read more... Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Transparency International - Georgia enquired how mechanisms of citizen participation in Samegrelo Zemo-Svaneti municipalities work. The organization requested the data on separate mechanisms from the municipalities... Read more... Source:transparency.ge

120 non-governmental and media organizations address a joint statement to the Chairman of the Parliament and the Prime Minister for 7 cities self-governing status of the possible cancellation. It is noted in the statement that "....reducing the number of self-governing cities will certainly be a step back as for a self-government reform, as well as for development of the country, in general. More importantly, this step will put a gap between population and the government, stop ongoing projects and reduce the standard of a local democracy. Based on all the above, we consider that it is completely unacceptable to abolish self-governing units created after 2014. We call on the government to formulate its position clearly and not make such a decision, which will stop an initiated process of development” – is stated in the address. Read more… Source: osgf.ge

Tbilisi. "Transparency International – Georgia” conducted a study to determine how transparently the representative and executive bodies of municipalities of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara work; how much the population is able to observe their activities. "The representative and executive bodies of municipalities often ignore the principle of access to information, which significantly determines the degree of transparency...” – is stated on the website of the organization. In full… Source: www.transparency.ge

Tbilisi. The Coalition for ''Media Advocacy'' responds to current processes at Public Broadcaster. ''The Coalition considers that none of the programs at Public Broadcaster should be closed until decision-maker individuals justify the decision on closure of programs and present a specific broadcast schedule that clarifies what they offer to TV viewers instead'' – is noted in the joint statement. In full... Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. On January 27, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association participated in a forum organized by the National Democratic Institute (NDI). ''At the meeting Irma Pavliashvili, a representative of GYLA, spoke about mechanisms of engaging citizens into a local self-government and challenges that accompany their implementation in practice'' – is stated on the website of the organization in a social network. See recommendations… Source:gyla.ge

Tbilisi. Civil Society Institute, with the financial support of the "Open Society Georgia Foundation”, has published handbooks for self-government servants, the author of which is Alexandre Svanishvili. In particular, a handbook: for staff of an executive body of a self-government unit and a handbook – for members of a City Council. Hereby, you can also find e-versions of the books. Handbook: for staff of an executive body of a self-government unit… Handbook: for members of a City Council…

Tbilisi. It has been several years since the Civil Society Institute offers online learning programs to various representatives of society. Among them is ''Basics of self-governance'', which was created for public servants. This year up to 500 applications were submitted to the mentioned distance learning course and 240 participants got registered within the frames of three study groups. During 2 months public servants, in parallel to their work, were attending the course, which contained both theoretical and practical parts of self-governance, and they were in constant communication with Irakli Melashvili, the lecturer. 158 servants from all three groups received a course certificate. Online learning program was created within the framework of a project – ''Distance learning for effective self-governance'', financial supporter of which is the ''Open Society – Georgia Foundation''. Under the same project, the Civil Society Institute has published handbooks for self-government servants (previously the Institute published similar handbooks in 2012). Namely: a handbook – for members of the City Council, a handbook – for employees of an executive body of a self-government unit. The author of both of them is Alexandre Svanishvili.