Tbilisi. CSOs have released a statement on the introduction of forms of citizen participation in the exercise of local self-government. "In 2014 the authorities have started drafting the amendments and supplements to the Self-Government Code of Georgia, including Chapter XI, which concerns the introduction of additional forms of citizen participation in the exercise of local self-government. ... The initial version of the draft Law provided for the population's self-organization and the form of citizen participation in the exercise of self-government. ... Given the above, we ask the Parliament of Georgia to revisit this issue and make the final decision only after consulting with the CSOs accordingly", the statement says. For the full text... Source: cida.ge

Tbilisi. The International Center for Civic Culture and the ''Open Society - Georgia'' Foundation have presented a report on local self-government. The joint report describes local self-government reforms implemented in 1991-2015. First section of the document illustrates development trends of a self-government system in Georgia in 1991-2012. In addition, the development process of decentralization is assessed... For the full text... Source: the organization's web page in the social network.

Tbilisi. The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy has released the monitoring report of web pages of local authorities. The report covers the period from 1 November 2014 until 1 May 2015. The organization has observed web pages of the executive (local administration/city hall), representative (local council) authorities, as well as the social network (Facebook) pages of the local authorities. For the full text... Source: isfed.ge

Shida Kartli. The draft law on citizen participation was examined on June 19 in the Gori Civic Engagement Center hall, attended by the local self-government, public and media organizations. Discussion was moderated by the Director of ''International Center for Civil Culture'', Konstantine Kandelaki. He has provided a brief overview of current legislative base, its positive and negative aspects and presented initiatives, introduction of which would have activated citizen participation process in the exercise of self-government. Special focus was made on holding the settlement assemblies, their powers, and drafting of petitions. Discussion has triggered vast interest among the audience engaged in an hour-long active debates. The meeting was organized with support from the ''Open Society - Georgia'' Foundation.

Tbilisi. Transparency International – Georgia has released a publication on bonuses and salary extras issued in municipalities of Georgia in 2012 - 31 December 2014 inclusive. The organization has requested information from 59 municipalities and 12 self-governing cities. "Bonuses and salary extras of over 100 million GEL were issued in self-governments of Georgia in 2012-2014. Taking into account that individual municipality local councils and local administrations/City Halls have not provided the requested information at all, we can assume that the volume of issued bonuses and extras exceeds the above-given data", the publication says. For the full text... Source: transparency.ge

Adjara. Public discussion of the 2016-2019 priorities, organized jointly by the Civil Advisers' Council and the Batumi City Council, has completed. Three-day public meetings were hosted by the Batumi Civic Engagement center. Members of the Public Assemblies and the Civil Advisers' Council, as well as youngsters have heard the priorities developed by the local authorities. Attendees have expressed comments and opinions over presented priorities. Problems and initiatives are being studied and analyzed currently. Once this process ends, the Civil Advisers' Council will produce a written recommendation and present it to the City Hall's relevant agencies.

Samtskhe-Javakheti. Association "Tolerance" and the Akhaltsikhe Civic Engagement Center have organized a lecture-seminar "Strong Village – Strong State" on May 8 in Akhaltsikhe. Civil society representatives, farmers and village trustees have discussed rural problems. At the end of the lecture the participants have filled out special questionnaires, through which the project management will get familiar with prevailing problems in rural areas and learn about economic potential. "Strong Village - Strong State" is a continuation of the 2014 cycle of lectures "Future Village". A lecture-debate format facilitates exchange of information as well as eases the involvement of rural residents in an interactive dialogue and an open dialogue around business initiative ideas.

Kakheti. With support of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Radio "Hereti" has launched a new project. As part of the project, citizens will exercise effective monitoring of self-governments through radio blogs. Radio station will train 10 bloggers in Kakheti over 8 months. They will be trained in social media, gender and radio reporting issues. Bloggers will develop over 70 radio blogs on existing and ongoing events in their own municipalities, which will be aired by "Hereti" as a radio blog program and will be posted on web page and social networks.

Imereti. As part of the "This Works" project, the Kutaisi Education, Development and Employment Center has organized on April 28 the population forum in the AkakiTsereteli State University, with participation of 150 individuals of various social statuses residing in Kutaisi, including the employed, job seekers, housewives, mothers of many children, socially unprotected, the disabled, internally displaced persons, and active citizens. The participants have discussed the city's infrastructural and youth-related issues and problems prevailing in the cultural sphere. The priorities of the 2016 budget have been defined. For the full text... Source: the organization's web page in the social network.

On December-February 201-2015, experts of Caucasian Institute for Economic and Social Research (CIESR) conducted trainings on financial and budgetary issues in Martvili and Samtredia municipalities. The activity took place in the framework of the project – "Monitoring of budgetary process for local self-governments’ transparency”. The project aims to support the transparency and efficiency of local self-governments. In particular, monitoring of financial and budgetary issues in Samtredia and Martivli municipalities. It will be achieved through intense cooperation and experience exchange with local non-governmental organizations. The project is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Project duration is 9 months. For the full text… Source: ciesr.org

Tbilisi. CSO Civil Development Agency (CiDA) has organized on April 17 a meeting of representatives of up to 50 regional CSOs with representatives of international organizations over current situation in the regions of Georgia. In particular, meeting participants have discussed issues of self-government and regional governance, as well as challenges of a non-governmental sector. The meeting was held as part of the ACCESS project of the East-West Management Institute (EWMI), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Workshop was organized with financial support of the "Open Society - Georgia" Foundation. For the full text... Source: CiDA's web page in the social network.

Kakheti. At the initiative of CSO "Regional Development Center", pending cultural projects in the municipality were discussed in Sighnaghi. CSO representatives, students and active youngsters have attended the meeting in a dialogue format. Participants have discussed pending cultural projects in the Sighnaghi Municipality and the future plans. This event aims to involve youth in democratic processes, workshops, and to establish examples and forms of citizen participation by implementing the project they had planned.

Adjara. The Batumi Branch of the Civil Society Institute has delivered another training on April 1. This time the Branch head has discussed with youngsters a public policy, and in particular they have examined the issues of problem identification and searching for potential solutions. Apart from getting familiar with theoretic materials, training participants have worked on case studies. In addition, they have identified several problems the municipality is facing and delivered a presentation on them as a result of group work. At the end youngsters have selected several areas, created working groups and started working on a recommendatory document for further submission with the Batumi City Council.

Kakheti. CSO "Human, Law, Freedom" has organized an information meeting in Telavi, in the NikoSulkhanishviliTelavi Music School, aimed at informing the audience about project "Youth Local Councils in 64 Municipalities". According to the organization, youngsters are hugely interested in getting familiar with specifics of the self-government activities and the way their cities or districts are governed; how are local budgets planned; how are the elections planned; what is the principle for selecting the deputies, etc. Following the meetings in the municipalities, the "Youth Local Councils" will be staffed in 64 municipalities and the project will start functioning fully across entire Georgia, uniting 2105 schoolchildren.

Adjara. At the initiative of the Citizens' Advisory Council and the Batumi Municipality City Council, the Batumi City Council conference hall has hosted on March23 an "open door day", at which citizens and chairpersons of Public Assemblies have informed the deputies about problems in their districts. Any resident of Batumi could participate in the meeting, but the turnout was not high yet. Total of 14 speakers have presented problems in front of the City Council, majority of them including students of the Batumi University and chairpersons of the Public Assemblies. The deputies have noted down the problems and plan to examine these issues at the City Council session.

Tbilisi. Transparency International – Georgia has released a blog: "Prime Minister's Statement on Procurements Fosters Malpractice". "...At the meeting with governors, local governors (Gamgebelis) and the Government members on 11 March 2015, Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili remarked that funds allocated to local authorities are not still consumed and urged the governors, if needed, to announce simplified online tenders or request permission for direct procurement (simplified procurement). "Transparency International – Georgia" finds the Prime Minister urging other officials to carry out procurements through simplified online tenders and simplified procurements as unacceptable", the blog states. For the full text... Source: transparency.ge

Tbilisi. By the end of 2014 and in the beginning of 2015 the Executive Director of "Cida" Zviad Devdariani was participating in the activities of the Tbilisi City Hall's Contest-Certification Commission as its member. "Cida" has evaluate these activities. For the full text (geo)... Source: www.cida.ge

Imereti. ISFED's Kutaisi Office has hosted on March 5 a meeting between the Terjola Municipality Local Administration (Gamgeoba) and participants of contest announced for the vacant position in the Local Council (Sakrebulo). At the meeting, the organization's representatives have heard the concerns over activities of the Terjola Contest-Certification Commission. For the full text... Source: www.isfed.ge

Tbilisi. The project "More Rights to Women for Better Local Self-Government" was presented on March 4, which will focus on female members of eight local city councils and will attempt to support their initiatives aimed at resolving local problems. Further, the project will also assist other politically active women in solving the self-government related issues in these municipalities. At the year's end the International Republican Institute will organize a summary conference and present project results. The project is funded by the US Agency for International Development. Source: web page of the US Embassy in the social network.

Tbilisi. "Transparency International – Georgia" has organized a public meeting on March 2, which has hosted persons who believe they had been treated unfairly or unlawfully throughout the contests or certifications announced for vacant positions in the local self-government authorities since 1 September 2014. At the public meeting citizens have expressed their opinions over the process of contests and certifications. "Transparency International – Georgia" offers to fill in an online questionnaire, where you can describe violations that had affected you during the certification or participation in the contest. The questionnaire: Source: the organization's web page in the social network.

Kakheti. The Telavi Civic Engagement Center has hosted a public meeting at the initiative of the "Georgian Young Lawyers' Association". The event focused mainly on discussion of social programs funded under the local budget in 2015. According to the Head of GYLA'sTelavi Office, MarekhMgaloblishvili, the society must be actively engaged in the self-government activities and the Telavi population must be informed about social programs to be implemented in the Municipality. Representatives of the Telavi City Hall and community, members of human rights organizations and initiative groups, and interested citizens have attended the meeting.

Tbilisi. Since October 2014, the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy is monitoring the process of certification and contests of civil servants, as well as testing and interview stages across Georgia. 73 observers of the organization carry out monitoring based on uniform methodology and questionnaires. In view of monitoring results, on February 12 the organization has released the II Interim Monitoring Report on Certification and Contests of Civil Servants. The report (geo)... Source: isfed.ge