Project Title: Access to Information in Georgia - 2018

Funded by: East-West Management Institute’s (EWMI) Advancing CSO Capacities and Engaging Society for Sustainability (ACCESS) project, funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Project Contract Number: G-1599-19-210-3023-20

Implemented by: Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI)

Total Budget: 15,000 USD

Duration: 15 March – 15 June (2019)

Objectives 

IDFI will submit FOIA requests to all ministries and local government agencies (i.e. executive and legislative offices) and analyze received responses in terms of their compliance with the FOIA regulations in Georgia. It will also request and analyze the official statistical information on the FOIA databases (i.e. received and processed FOIA requests) maintained by the monitored government agencies. Additionally, IDFI will analyze the official websites of the monitored agencies to assess their compliance with the government regulation on the proactive disclosure of public information. Based on this monitoring and assessment, IDFI will develop and publish a comprehensive report on the FOIA adherence to Georgia to be accompanied with a national ranking of the most- and least-open government agencies.

Project Activities

- Analyze responses to IDFI’s FOIA requests to central and local government agencies (2,000+ FOIA responses from over 250 government agencies);

- Analyze official statistics on the FOIA requests received and processed by the government;

- Analyze governmental websites to assess their compliance with the proactive disclosure regulations;

- Prepare and publish a comprehensive report analyzing government’s adherence to the FOIA and proactive disclosure rules and regulations; 

- Prepare and publish the national ranking of the most- to least-open government agencies; 

- Organize the public presentation of the FOIA report and ranking and award most transparent and least transparent government agencies with respective certificates

- Upload government’s responses to IDFI’s FOIA requests on the special FOIA database developed and maintained by IDFI https://idfi.ge/foi-statistics/;

- Widely disseminate the project findings using info graphics, short videos, and other user-friendly communication tools

Timeline of Activites 

Project Budget

Contract