Projects

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.

Budjet

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: Rerearch 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” andthe  joint publishing of the book on the victims of the great terror in Adjara

Supported by: Juliusz Mieroszewski Centre for Dialogue (Centrum Dialogu im. Juliusza Mieroszewskiego), 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 Actively introducing them to the wider public in Georgia and abroad.

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.

Budjet and Activities

Contract 1 

Contract 2

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: Overcoming Barriers to Combat Disinformation in Ethnic Minority Communities

Donor: NATO Public Diplomacy Programmes/Division

Project number: 221026c

Project Duration: June 2023 - December 2023

Project summary: Armenian and Azerbaijani communities in Georgia are among the most vulnerable communities to disinformation, particularly regarding NATO, which may be due to language barriers predominantly exposing them to Russian media outlets rather than Georgian or European. This project aims to combat this, especially among young ethnic minorities (ages between 16-25) through workshops, social media campaigns and utilising traditional and local media outlets to spread factually accurate information about NATO during this project and beyond. The IDFI aims to reach 90 Armenians (predominantly from the Samtskhe-Javakheti region) and 90 Azerbaijanis (predominantly from Kvemo Kartli) in person through lecturers, experts and trainers who are well-versed in Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani, and 20,000 people via the videos that will be created and spread on social media and local news outlets.  

Main outputs: 3 training sessions, 3 workshops, 2 videos. 

Project Objectives: 

- To address anti-NATO sentiment and the lack of knowledge amongst ethnic minority communities in rural areas of Georgia. 

- To combat feelings of being sidelined from Georgian society and the benefits that Georgia receives from NATO. 

- To raise the resilience of ethnic minority communities against disinformation and increase awareness of NATO and its mission in Georgia. 

Project activities: 

Activity Number 1- Creating videos that will debunk disinformation about NATO and raise awareness of NATO’s role and mission in Georgia spread by local influencers and through social media accounts. 

Activity Number 2- Conducting training sessions in disinformation, misinformation, propaganda and ways to confront it for local communities. This will take place in local NGOs, schools, American Corners and civic centres. 

- Activity Number 2 - Stage 1- Training the trainers by experts and lecturers in the topics mentioned above.  

- Activity Number 2 - Stage 2- Training the locals, consisting of 3 training sessions in each region by students and locals in their mother languages. 

Activity Number 3 - Conducting interactive and accessible workshops held by experts and lecturers addressing specific cases of disinformation and how to counter it. 

Follow-up Activities to ensure the projects sustainability-

- 1. Videos created can be continually used in the future. 2. Keeping in contact with participants. 3. Continually engaging participants with the University of Georgia programmes and internships within the IDFI. 

- Qualitative and Quantitative forms of assessing the success of the programme - Number of sessions delivered, attendance levels, the extent of the spread of the videos and social media content and verbal feedback given by attendees and trainers. 

Budget and Activities

Project title: Advancing the capacity of CSOs and the Media in the field of Freedom of information and freedom of speech      

Donor:  Czech Republic – Ministry of Foreign Affairs,Czech Republic’s Official Transition Promotion Program

Project number:  20-23GE01

Project Duration:  April, 2023 – October, 2023

Grant amount: CZK 399 993

Project summary

In order to facilitate the application of the ECHR case law in national jurisdiction and promote free speech and freedom of information, the pressing legal questions stemming from the existing administrative practice and case law regarding the freedom of information, freedom of speech and freedom of media will be documented. Working meetings aimed at mapping the main challenges will be organized and held with CSOs, independent lawyers and media representatives who are actively engaged in handling the cases related to freedom of Media, Freedom of Speech and Freedom of expression. Research of the ECHR (and ECJ as well if required) case law will be conducted in order to study the legal standards that are applicable to legal challenges specific for Georgia. Digital manual of newest case law of the ECHR regarding the freedom of information, freedom of speech and other rights that fall under the scope of Media freedom will be prepared and free access will be provided.      

Main objective of the project

Facilitating the application of the ECHR case law in national jurisdiction and advancing the standards of free speech and freedom of information.

Project activities

1. Disseminating information about the project through the website and social network;

2. Conducting meetings with the relevant stakeholders

3. Drafting and publishing at least three legal blogs/articles regarding the legal standards of the ECHR;

4. Preparing and publishing three visual materials (infographics) regarding the project;

5. Submitting amicus curiae to the Common or the Constitutional court of Georgia regarding the case of high legal importance;

6. Preparing Digital Manual;

7. Holding final presentation;

8. Published and sending digital report to the legal departments of the Media, CSO’s, Bar association of Georgia, Administrative bodies, Judiciary.

Budget

Project timeline:

Contract

Project title: Information Integrity Coalition Steering Committee Chairman
Supported by: Georgian Information Integrity Program(GIIP) / USAID
Budget: USD 10,000
Duration: May 1, 2023 – October 31, 2023

Tasks and responsibilities:

-       Assign staff member(s) with relevant background to work at least 50% of their time on the project;

-       Coordinate and lead the work of the Steering Committee for the period of six months;

-       Set up regular Coalition meetings to coordinate its activities, reach agreement on outstanding issues, and distribute tasks among the members.

         Keep notes of the Coalition meetings, circulate those among members, and follow up implementation against decided deadlines;

-       Facilitate drafting of the Coalition statements (including occasionally writing first drafts of the statements), approval and adoption of those statements by the Coalition member organizations;

-       Overseeing the Coalition's joint advocacy initiatives by supporting the Coalition to identify the advocacy objectives, creating advocacy strategy and plan, and helping in delivering activities                   against those objectives;

-       Co-organise the Information Integrity Coalition’s annual conference;

-       Co-organise other events related to the coalition’s work.

Deliverables:

-       Coalition work plan for the period of six months;

-       Bi-monthly reports, covering the key activities of the Steering Committee and wider coalition;

-       Write-ups of the events and meetings organized during the rotating management;

-       Final report, covering the period of six months rotating management.

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

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: Fostering Decentralization and Good Governance at the Local Level in Georgia

Donor: UNDP Georgia

Budget: 209,512.00 GEL

Duration: February 24, 2023-November 30, 2023

The aim of the grant is to contribute to the development and improvement of transparency and accountability of local self-governments and support public participation in the local decision-making processes through monitoring, reporting, capacity building, advocacy and networking.

To this end, the grant’s specific objective is to assess the openness and accountability of municipalities based on the Local Self-Government Index for the fourth time for 2023 and communicate the results with relevant local, national and international stakeholders.

Under the grant, IDFI will have several outputs and will implement the following activities:

Output 1: Local integrity systems are advanced through increased capacities of local stakeholders and the assessment of municipalities

Activity 1.1. Ensuring institutional, and methodological set up of future capacity building, monitoring and and research efforts – review of the methodology, preparing all monitoring documents, updating the website and outreach to relevant stakeholders

Activity 1.2. Conducting training for local observers/partners/experts and launching the evaluation

Activity 1.3. Assessment of municipalities – initial assessment and review process

Activity 1.4. Communicating initial assessments with municipalities and results validation

Output 2: Advocacy and networking between civil society organizations, the government institutions and donor community are promoted

Activity 2.1: Preparing the monitoring report, key findings and recommendations

Activity 2.2. Providing with networking and advocacy platform

Contract

Project title: Promoting the Accessibility of Judicial acts through Monitoring, Advocating and Litigation

Donor organization: USAID Rule of Law Program

Project number: G-2126-23-211-3047-20

Project Duration: 1 February, 2023 - 30 November, 2023

Grant amount:$ 24,850.00

Project summary

The project aims at ensuring the accessibility of judicial acts through monitoring, advocacy, and strategic litigation. The project activities will be focused on the implementation of the Constitutional Court’s decision of 7 June 2019, the execution of the decision will be monitored, working meetings will be held with the representatives of the Parliament and other relevant stakeholders, an analytical report will be prepared, and applicable legislative amendments to the Organic Law of Georgia on Common Courts will be advocated. The project team will also start strategic litigation requesting proactive publication of the court decisions.

Purpose of the project

The overall purpose of the project is to promote the accessibility of judicial acts

Objectives of the project

- Monitoring the implementation of the Constitutional Court’s decision of 7 June 2019;

- Holding working meetings with stakeholders and preparing/advocating relevant recommendations;

- Delivering a report on the availability of the judicial acts, identifying the challenges in legislation and practice;

- Submitting a complaint to the court requesting to publish/disclose judicial acts.

Activities

Budget

Contract

Project Title: Advocating Open Data Standards and Promoting Open Data Use in Georgia – Phase II
Donor: International Media Support (IMS)
Budget:  30,887 EUR
Duration: February 1 –September 30, 2023

Summary of Project and Activities:

Despite Georgia’s achievements in making more public data available over the past years, international studies and our analyses demonstrated that the country’s performance is low in terms of availability of beneficial ownership data. It is widely acknowledged that availability of beneficial ownership data is incremental for journalists and civil society representatives to track activities of companies and high-ranking officials as well as reveal potential corruption cases. Due to the importance of the issues, we consider it relevant to elaborate and propose Beneficial Ownership Data Standards to relevant public institutions and stakeholders.

On the other hand, IDFI plans to expand its awareness raising and outreach activities on the use of public data for holding the government accountable in the regions of Georgia, where activists, journalists, civil society actors, students, and other stakeholders necessitate experience and knowledge sharing on methods and tools for using data for government oversight activities. 

The project aims to continue advocating Open Data Standards (especially, Beneficial Ownership Data Standards) through sharing best practices and outreaching to relevant stakeholders. In addition, to ensure greater public use of public data, capacity building and outreach activities will be implemented for local civil society actors and stakeholders.

IDFI will implement the following activities in frames of the proposed project:

Activity 1. Preparatory stage  - At the first phase of the project, IDFI will plan/prepare all organizational or methodological documents/issues, which ensure that all project activities are implemented on time and with high quality.

Activity 2. Preparation and elaboration of Beneficial ownership data standards for Georgia – Based on international best practices and experience of several advanced countries in this direction (e.g. UK, Denmark, etc.), IDFI will prepare policy document/analytical paper on beneficial ownership standards (with the focus on open data standards - BOD) for Georgia.

Activity 3.    Beneficial Ownership Data Standards advocacy meeting/workshop -   IDFI will organize an advocacy meeting with the participation of Georgian civil society, public institutions, journalists, academia, business sector, and the international community to discuss the prospects for the elaboration and adoption of beneficial ownership standards in Georgia. IDFI will present its policy document/analytical paper prepared as part of the project.

Activity 4.   Preparing and conducting trainings in the regions -  Three one-day practical trainings will be held for journalists, activists, watchdogs and CSOs residing in three big cities outside Tbilisi.

Activity 5. Publishing and Updating Datasets on DataLab.Ge – In order to ensure that more relevant data is available for the Georgian public in open formats for their future use, IDFI will publish and update more datasets on its portal – DataLab.Ge. Three winners will be awarded financial awards at the end of the project.

Activity 6.  Open Data Contest -     In order to promote the use of open data for government accountability and the public good, IDFI will organize its annual contest on analytical articles on the topic of #Data4Change.

Project Activities and Budget

Contract 

Project Title:  DRIVE: Digital Research and Impact for Vulnerable E-citizens (in Ukraine and Georgia)

Supported by: e-Governance Academy and Luminate

Grant Amount: EUR 30,107.00

Grant Term: September 1, 2021 - August 31, 2023

Project Summary

In most countries around the world, the last year has caused the employment of digital and technological solutions at unprecedented speed across all sectors. Such rapid developments have led to many challenges. One of them is a fear of the widening gap between the developments and citizens. This unprecedented speed might have even caused a new set of marginalised citizens to emerge. Any innovation should precisely address that: future developments should not only be guided by the technologically feasible but by what is socially desirable and acceptable. Therefore the citizens’ engagement, particularly digital, in the decision-making in the sectors, services and ecosystems that affect their lives is crucial.

This project, DRIVE, wishes to address this – its ultimate vision is that the vulnerable citizen groups in Ukraine and Georgia have a changed quality of life (better) by being digitally engaged in political decision-making (advanced policy development) and services, and having necessary conditions, awareness and skills for that.

Though a large number of different elements can contribute to a changed quality of life and digital engagement, the DRIVE project aims at one: public authorities and CSOs are aware of the digitally vulnerable groups and their needs, and have improved skills to engage these groups and to prevent the digital divide (further). For that, the project targets two specific outcomes: first, public authorities and CSOs are aware of the digitally vulnerable citizens (DVC), and know the needs and gaps in their digital literacy and access (tools and skills), and second, they are able to work together to design smart responses to address the needs and overcome the gaps, and to implement transparent, accountable and participatory e-governance (e.g. a new tools, platform, etc.). These form the key outcomes of the project. In addition, the collaboration between eGovernance Academy (Estonia) and the local partners (Georgia and Ukraine) aims to advance the capacity and aftercare so that the local partners can continue working for the same objectives, able to find necessary funding (joint projects for EU and Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) for action proposals, and achieve the ultimate objective for the digitally vulnerable e-citizens.

Project activities include:

Stage 1: Preparatory activities

Stage 2: Hands-on activities to implement selected recommendations

 - Trainings and actions proposals

 - Pilot project or civic engagement/tech initiatives and regional outreach

Project Title: Core Support 

Supported by: Luminate, Global Philanthropic Organization

Grant Amount: USD 200,000

Grant Term: January 13, 2022 – December 31, 2023

The Goals of the Grant are: 

1. IDFI will continue their public spending and good governance watchdog role as well as analytical activities in Georgia.

2. IDFI will ensure systematic monitoring of public procurement, public spending and government programs in Georgia.

Contract

Project Title: - CSO Meter: A Compass to Conducive Environment and CSO Empowerment “(ENI/2021 /423-451)

Donor organization: European Union (EU); Civil Society Institute

Budget: 4300 00 (four thousand three hundred euros and 00 euro cents)

Duration: June 30, 2021 - December 31, 2023

Project Goal:

The aim of the project is to become a member of the project-based regional hub and to upgrade the CSO Meter report.

Main Activities Envisaged by the Project:

- Allocation of an expert/experts within the hub organization who will work on the issues covered by the project and will be responsible for the topic related to the project

- Participate in local and international events of CSO Meter

- Participate in the work process of the CSO Meter Advisory Board

- Update the CSO meter report

- Involve and discuss project-related issues within its competence

- Identify Early warnings for CSO meters according to relevant directions and provide information about them to the customer and other members of the hub

- Participate in the process of monitoring of the living environment of civil societies

- Participate in advocating for recommendations developed within the CSO meter

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