Projects

Project title: Assessing the accountability, transparency, and effectiveness of the institutions involved in the external oversight of covert surveillance

Donor: The grant is issued by the Netherlands Helsinki Committee within the scope of the European Union funded project  - Strengthening Monitoring and Advocacy Capacities for Rights in Georgia

Duration of the project: 01.03.2024 – 31.07.2024

Grant amount: 11,995.20 EUR

Project goal: to assess the accountability, transparency, and effectiveness of the external oversight institutions (Common Courts, the Personal Data Protection Service, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Parliament of Georgia, and the Constitutional Court) in relation to their mandate to oversee covert surveillance by monitoring their performance for 2021-2023 years.

Project activities and timeline:

1. Development of the monitoring methodology – March 2024;

2. Find, study, and sort publicly available information on incidents related to covert surveillance - March-April, 2024;

3. Based on the monitoring methodology request of public information – March 2024;

4. Analysis of the received information and if necessary, request of the clarifying information – April-May, 2024;

5. Legal proceedings in response to the possible refusal, partial refusal, and/or inaction of public institutions in relation to the FOI requests – April-June, 2024;

6. Analysis of the findings of the monitoring in light of the international standards and recommendations and drafting of the report - May-June, 2024;

7. Public presentation of the report and its distribution on the organization’s website and social media channels – July 2024;

8. Preparation and distribution of the informative products on the organization’s website and social media channels – May-July, 2024.

Contract

The content of the information provided is the sole responsibility of the Institute for  Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) and it does not necessarily represent the position of the European Union.

Project title: Promoting greater civic awareness and engagement in judicial reforms and facilitating increased access to justice through holistic multi-agency action

Donor: The European Union, represented by the European Commission,itself represented by the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia

Partner organizations: Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association, Social Justice Center, Studio Monitor

Project duration: 01.01.2024 – 31.12.2026

Total amount of grant: EUR 967,343.37 

The amount received by IDFI: EUR 124,255 

The overall objective of the action: Promoting accessibility, independence, transparency, impartiality, and accountability within the justice system, including judicial reforms.

The activities to be implemented by IDFI:

 To improve access to reasoned court decisions, IDFI will implement the following activities:

- Producing annual monitoring reports on the accessibility of judgments from the Common Courts and the Constitutional Court of Georgia. To assess the accessibility of judgments from the Common Courts and the Constitutional Court of Georgia, a comprehensive methodology - the Judicial Transparency Index of Georgia - will be developed;

- Producing comparative analysis on the proactive disclosure of the reasoned judgments. Particularly, conducting extensive research on case law, legal acts,  recommendations, directives, and standards  from international bodies concerning the accessibility of court decisions;

- Monitoring the practical enforcement of the Constitutional Court of Georgia's judgment on the accessibility of judicial acts and producing the report. IDFI will identify the current legal and practical challenges and develop comprehensive recommendations to enhance public access to reasoned judgments of the courts;

- Initiating strategic litigation to overcome the barriers that currently impede public access to judicial acts. 

IDFI’s share budget for 2024-2026, including IDFI’s contribution:

Project title: Increase the access of media to public information in Georgia

Donor:   Embassy of the Netherlands in Georgia

Project number:   4000006932

Project Duration:  1 September, 2023 – 30 November, 2024

Grant amount:  213,161 Gel

Project summary

The project's goal is enhancing and supporting evidence-based journalism, particularly during the pre-election period, and combat systemic legal and practical challenges in accessing public information.

The objectives of the project are to enhance journalists' access to public information, reduce systemic legal obstacles in public information accessibility. To achieve these objectives, the project team will provide full legal and professional aid to journalists. Furthermore, project team will strengthen their proficiency in requesting public information.   

Main objectives the project

A)    Supporting evidence-based journalism by increasing access of journalists to public information;

B)     Addressing the systemic challenges of accessibility of public information in Georgia.

Budget

Project Activities

Contract

Project Title: Global AI Advocacy Subgrant: Georgia

Donor Organization: Global Partners Digital

Total Budget: EUR 3,256.59

Duration of the Project: May 01, 2023 - March 14, 2024

Project Summary 

Project goal is to promote a human rights approach to artificial intelligence by shaping the

outcomes of relevant international debates.

Sub-project goal is to contribute to the implementation of the project strategy by directly engaging and advocating within identified global processes to ensure a human rights approach to AI

In collaboration with GPD, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information will implement the project's global advocacy strategy and engage in advocacy efforts at the identified forums to ensure a human rights approach to AI in identified global processes.

For the duration of the project, Institute for Development of Freedom of Information will engage in the below forums and processes, with the aim of ensuring a human rights-respecting approach to AI. 

The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information may also engage in other ad hoc opportunities subject to their interest and capacity.

- Council of Europe’s Committee on Artificial Intelligence: Convention on Artificial Intelligence

- United Nations Secretary General’s Envoy on Technology: Global Digital Compact

- United Nations Human Rights Council

Specifically, the partner will will take on the following responsibilities and engages:

- Strategy Implementation

 - Review global mapping developed by GPD and provide input on forums identified for direct advocacy under the project

- Identify at least 2 forums and/or processes for advocacy engagement under the project

- On the basis of the updated global advocacy strategy, engage in the designated forums and/or processes and implement the activities outlined in the strategy.

Engagement may include, but is not limited to:

- participation in consultations with civil society;

- development of analysis, joint statements, and/or responses to relevant policy outcomes and texts adopted by relevant policy forums; or

- engagement in direct advocacy with relevant policy makers

- articulating policy positions through the use of strategic communications

Contract

Project Title: Open Government Data (OGD) Survey
Donor: Deloitte Consulting LLP, a contractor to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for The USAID Economic Governance Program

Project Contract Number: G-2305-01788

Total Budget: GEL 63,104

Duration of the project: July 10 - January 9, 2024

Project Background

International practice shows that businesses are reaping tremendous value from both data created through businesses’ economic activities and data shared by governments. The World Bank’s latest report entitled - Data for Better Lives - identifies major benefits of open government data (OGD) for business: quality improvements; cost reduction and process optimization; production innovation; more effective intermediation and lower transaction costs. Nevertheless, the economic aspect of open data has been neglected, and the private sector in Georgia lacks information and opportunities to utilise open data for economic growth. The project aims to address the underutilization of open government data (OGD) from the perspective of the broader open data ecosystem, since the Country has low scores in Open Data Use and Impact indicators according to the Global Data Barometer report, indicating a lack of practical use cases and engagement from the private sector and academia. 

Project Objectives and Activities:

- Elaborate an overview of the baseline of the economic aspect of the OGD ecosystem in Georgia;

- Develop a survey methodology to identify high-impact and high-potential sectors for utilising open data, including the identification of high-impact and high-potential sectors for open data usage;

- Conduct surveys among target populations in Tbilisi and seven larger cities ((Batumi, Gori, Kutaisi, Ozurgeti, Rustavi, Telavi, and Zugdidi) to gather data on open data usage and needs;

- Analyse the survey results and prepare a report summarising the findings;

- Facilitate a public-private dialogue (PPD) on open government data to foster collaboration and address barriers; fostering stakeholder engagement from the private sector and academia.

Budget

Contract

Project Title: Global Index on Responsible AI: Regional Research Hub

Donor: Research ICT Africa

Total Budget: 54,470 USD 

Duration of the project: July 1, 2023 - December 31, 2024

Background 

The Global Index on Responsible AI (GI) is a project of Research ICT Africa (RIA) and the Data for Development Research Hub (D4D.net), supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

The Global Index is a new rights-based tool being developed to support a broad range of actors in advancing responsible AI practices. It is intended to provide a comprehensive, reliable, independent, and comparative benchmark for assessing progress toward responsible AI in countries across the world. The Global Index will bolster the capacity of governments, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders in upholding rights-based responsible AI principles by providing research and data to foster accountability, develop more precise policy interventions, refine best practices, and encourage regional and international cooperation. 

To assess each country against Responsible AI indicators, there will be a global task team on primary data collection. 120 countries are involved in the survey and each country is assessed by one national researcher. These national researchers will be selected, co-trained (along with the Global Index core team) and supervised by the Regional Hubs, which will be responsible for the quality of the collected evidence and its assessment in the GI survey tool.

Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) serves as the Regional Research Hub in Georgia covering 12 Eastern European and Central Asian countries and is expected to engage with the GI core team across the following phases of the GI first edition. 

The major activities of the project include:

 - Phase 1: Pilot the GIRAI survey and team building - March-August 2023

- Phase 2: Establish the research network and data collection for the full study - September-December, 2023

- Phase 3: Data analysis for global report and dissemination - December 2023- November, 2024

IDFI will be engaged to complete the following activities:

- engage with the GI Steering Committee;

- provide inputs on methods and indicators;

- verify the regional relevance of indicators;

- recruit and train regional team leaders;

- recruit and co-train country researchers;

- oversee the primary data collection process;

- ensure that national researchers have a common understanding of core concepts of the survey;

- provide support in regional consultations;

- provide support in piloting instruments in the region;

- oversee country researcher data collection;

- write regional analyses for the Global Index report;

- attend all scheduled meetings as necessary;

- provide necessary information, making timely decisions and taking action so as not to hold up the project; and take part in and organize dissemination activities.

Contract

Project title: Providing the International Conference – “Uncovering the Truth: Mass Graves of the Great Terror (1937-1938) in Batumi, Georgia” and the joint publishing of the book on the victims of the great terror in Adjara

Supported by: Juliusz Mieroszewski Centre for Dialogue, Poland

Overall Budget: 42,200.00 EUR

Duration: 10.07.2023 - 31.05.2025

Project Objective:

The project aims at the correct and precise examination of the Soviet past as a cornerstone of proper rethinking of its wrongdoings, and crimes against humanity and Actively introducing them to the wider public in Georgia and abroad.

Today, the manipulation of historical narratives is primarily directed toward Ukraine, Poland, and Eastern Europe, serving the larger context of the war launched in Ukraine. However, Central Asian countries, Georgia, and Armenia are also periodically targeted. Historical revisionism serves as a catalyst for the Kremlin's geopolitical interests, including aggressive foreign policy and populist nationalism. By downplaying Russia's historical wrongdoings, exaggerating its achievements, and grossly falsifying facts, the Kremlin aims to mislead both domestic and international audiences. 

The aim of the project is to understand the Soviet past from the perspective of the first mass graves of the victims of the repressions of 1937-1938 discovered in Adjara. To achieve this, a conference will be planned with the involvement of leading scientists working on the issue. The goal is to facilitate an exchange of ideas so that steps can be formulated for further study of the mass graves and raising public awareness. Additionally, the project aims to publish the first "Book of Remembrance" in Georgia. This book will include brief biographical data of all people repressed in Adjara, alongside scientific articles.

Activities:

-  Organizing an international conference about the first mass graves discovered in Adjara in October 2023.

-  Preparation and publication of the book on the victims of the great terror in Adjara, in the Georgian language containing scholarly articles and biographies of victims of political repressions in a total of 300 copies. 

- Presentation of the book and holding of open lectures in higher education institutions, schools, and libraries.

Initial Budjet and Activities

Amendments to the contract 

Ongoing activities and budget

Contract

Project Title: Core Support

Supported by: The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)

Grant Number: No. 16488

Budget: SEK 16, 500, 000 (Swedish kronor)

Duration: July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2026

Objectives of the Core Activities 

The goal of the project is to promote the Euro-Atlantic integration of the state, fight against corruption, improve the transparency and accountability of public institutions, increase citizen engagement in decision-making processes,promote the independence and impartiality of democratic institutions, achieve higher standards of rule of law, promoting inclusive economic policies, facilitating the democratic decentralization and the democratic transition processes, studying and analyzing Soviet past and countering disinformation, upholding media and human rights, and promoting innovations to solve outstanding problems.

Project Summary

Georgia has seen overall progress in building democratic institutions, developing good governance, transparency, and accountability principles and improving the effectiveness and fairness of governance over the past decades. These processes, however, have notably slowed down due to a number of reasons. The country is currently facing serious challenges, such as informal governance, unbalanced concentration of power, lack of judicial independence, high-level corruption, and lack of political will to continue with important reforms. In addition, political and economic pressure from the Russian Federation has a negative influence on Georgian democracy. Russian aggression in Ukraine had an impact on the region, as well as on Georgia’s political, economic, and international relations.

The named challenges reveal the clear necessity for civil society to support Georgia's democratic and pro-Western development and Georgia's Euro-Atlantic integration within its competence so that the state can make the most of the window of opportunity.  Having 14 years of experience improving the democratic process, promoting the principles of good governance, and successfully advocating structural and legislative reforms/changes, IDFI intends to counteract the existing challenges facing democracy and good governance in Georgia through evidence-based research, monitoring, and advocacy. More specifically, IDFI will work on the implementation of the EU requirements in various fields, towards key objectives of combating corruption, improving transparency of public institutions, increasing citizen engagement in decision-making processes, achieving higher standards of rule of law, promoting more inclusive economic policies, facilitating democratic decentralization and democratic transition processes, upholding media and human rights, and promoting innovations to solve outstanding problems.

To achieve these objectives, IDFI will work with all relevant public, private, and civil society stakeholders. The organization will also make active use of various local, national, and international networks and platforms in order to achieve positive change in target areas. Finally, special attention will be paid to achieving results at scale, by engaging important cross-cutting issues such as inclusion, education, the environment, and gender. The organization will focus especially on monitoring and watchdog projects and activities in Georgia and developing, consultancy, and capacity-building projects in the region and globally. 

Budget

Contract

Project Title: Empowered Watchdog Community and Enhanced Transparency Standards for Government Accountability
Supported by: International Visegrad Fund and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea
Grant Number: 22310350
Budget: EUR 34,990
Duration: June 1, 2023 – June 1, 2024

Partner Organizations: KohoVolit.eu (Czech Republic and Slovakia), K-Monitor Public Benefit Association (Hungary), Citizens Network Watchdog Poland (Poland)

Background

Access to company beneficial owner (BO) data is crucial to combat international, and high-level corruption. The recent sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine demonstrated the issue's importance. Georgia still needs to adopt BO standards, making it challenging for watchdog groups to monitor suspicious companies effectively. They must request data from various institutions, monitor constantly, and use various platforms for data collection. Also, they lack relevant data collection experience. As for V4 countries, as our previous joint regional study prepared under Visegrad Fund-supported project showed, even though they have implemented standards on anti-money laundering, the best international standards are not fully implemented yet. Additionally, the recent European Court of Justice ruling revoked general public access to BO. However, it confirmed access for journalists and civil society, highlighting the need for further advocacy and local context-based approaches for adequate legislation in the EU and beyond.

To scrutinize the government, access to more BO data of companies operating in Georgia is necessary, along with support for monitoring activities and advocacy for adopting BO standards, taking into account the experiences and lessons learned from the V4 countries.

Project Objectives

IDFI together with its partners, aims to a) continue advocating for BO standards through local and regional events; b) empower watchdog communities in Georgia and beyond through research, capacity building, government monitoring, and more available public data; c) map beneficial owners of the most influential/largest companies operating in Georgia and publish a comprehensive database.

Project Activities

-  Workshop on Beneficial Ownership

- Training for journalists/activists/CSOs/watchdogs regarding government oversight activities

-  Preparing follow-up analyses/analytical papers about beneficial ownership transparency in Georgia and V4 countries

-  Regional/International Hybrid Conference on BO transparency and government accountability

-  Preparing new Datasets, Mapping Beneficial owners and updating DataLab.ge with new data

-  Conducting government oversight activities and preparing analytical/investigative articles

Contract

Project title: Transcaucasian and Visegrad Nations Common Memory – Occupants or Liberators? Democracy or Tyranny?

Supported by: International Visegrad Fund

Grant Number: 22230312

Projec Lead: Post Bellum (CZ)

Overall Budget: 49,954.00 EUR

IDFI’s Share: 13,812.27 EUR

Duration: 01.04.2023 - 30.09.2024

Project lead and partners:

Post Bellum is a non-governmental nonprofit organization which documents the memories of witnesses of the important historical phenomenon of the 20th century and tries to pass these stories on to the broader public. It was founded in 2001.The organization was founded by a group of journalists and historians. The organization believes that witnesses should have the opportunity to tell their stories and that these stories should be accessible to everyone. From this vision, Post Bellum was created.

Post Bellum’s core project is the Memory of Nations, a collection of memories from people who experienced the totalitarian eras of the 20th century as well as photographs, newspapers, and various historical records. The collection is comprised of about 12 thousand of witness stories and is accessible to the public through an online database.

Partners:

- Slovakia - Post Bellum SK

- Poland - Krzyzova Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe

- Hungary - Terra Recognita Foundation

- Armenia - „Hazarashen“ Armenian Center for Ethnological Studies

Overall Project Objectives:

The aim of the project is to document Armenian and Georgian witnesses remembering past, who can tell their life stories related to common Communist past. Georgian and Armenian project partners will receive workshops in documenting the life stories by oral historical methodology.

The primary focus of the project is to not only document the witnesses' life stories, but also to edit, publish, and employ these testimonies for educational activities. Specifically, the project will target younger generations by using experiential workshops as a platform for educating them.

The principal outcome of the project will be a short documentary film that underscores the shared history of the nations involved. The project aims to raise awareness among people and nations, emphasizing the repetition of history and our inability to learn from past mistakes. It aims to impart valuable lessons to the current and future generations, by means of experiential workshops, encouraging them to take those lessons to heart and mind.

Activities:

- Organizing a kick-off meeting in Tbilisi with Slovak, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, and Armenian partners to define project principles and plan further activities.

- Conducting a series of online workshops aimed at sharing the experience of documenting witnesses with Georgian and Armenian historians and filmmakers.

- Recording video interviews with more than 10 witnesses in Georgia who experienced Soviet "liberation" and had to live behind the Iron Curtain.

- Processing and publishing the witness videos in eight languages, including the languages of the countries involved in the project, as well as English and Russian.

- Producing a documentary film titled "Liberated and Occupied?" that will be based on the recorded interviews.

- Premiering the documentary and screening it for the target audience, including schoolchildren and students. The project team will arrange discussions parallel to the film screening.

Budget

Contract

Project Title: Promoting PPD in Georgia through Monitoring and Awareness Raising

Donor Organization: Deloitte Consulting LLP, a contractor to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for The USAID Economic Governance Program
Project Contract Number: R-2010-00014
Total Budget: GEL 328,259
Duration of the Project: April 5, 2021 - October 4, 2024

Project Brief Description and Goals

The project aims to continue the operation of the PPD Quality Tracking Mechanism, expand its use in regions outside the capital and raise awareness on PPD among state and non-state actors as well as the wider society. Selected draft laws and regulations will be evaluated based on the extent and quality of inclusive consultation.

The evaluation of the extent and quality of PPD will be based on four pre-identified phases of policy development: policy design and development, legislation drafting, circulation and public comments, and ex-ante regulatory impact assessment (RIA), namely:

- Policy Design and Development - criteria to evaluate the extent and quality of relevant non-government stakeholder (private sector, business, civil society, affected party) or expert (professors/academia, lawyers, economists, think tank, NGOs, international donor organizations) input that government policymakers received in the initial formulation of the underlying policy behind proposed legislation (initial formative stage), at the very first stages of consideration before the commencement of drafting any legislation.

- Legislation/regulation drafting - criteria to evaluate the extent and quality of relevant non-government stakeholder (private sector, business, civil society, affected party) or expert (professors/academia, lawyers, economists, think tank, NGOs, international donor organizations) input in the actual creation of draft legislation.

- Ex-ante Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) - criteria to evaluate the extent and quality of the RIA performed related to the legislation.

- Circulation and public comments - criteria to evaluate the (i) extent and quality of efforts to publicize, circulate, and distribute the proposed draft legislation to the public and stakeholders (private sector, business, civil society, affected parties and the public at large); and (ii) the adequacy and extent of efforts to solicit and consider public feedback.

As a result of the grant activities, the project team will prepare a methodology for evaluating the quality of  PPD in the regions of Georgia, as well as a methodology for evaluating PPD quality in regard to regulations.

The representatives from key governmental institutions as well as the selected municipalities will be better equipped with relevant knowledge and information on high-level PPD. In order to achieve this goal, IDFIwill conduct information and training sessions in the regions of Georgia.

Activities (start date of activities May 01, 2021):

1) Preparatory stage: elaborating a comprehensive methodology and submitting FOI requests

2) Conducting interviews and training sessions

3) Inception study of selected six municipalities

4) Preparing a monitoring report

5) Developing and finalizing PPD quality tracking report

6) Final presentation of the report and social activities

Activities

Contract