Name of Grant Activity: Strategic Plan Georgia 2020 – Strengthening Public Involvement (ZigB)

Donor Organization: Federal Foreign Office of Germany

Grant Recipient: Institute for Development of Freedom of Information

Partner Organization: Bremen University

Total Grant Amount: 94.785 €

Period of Performance: 10 July, 2015-10 February, 2016

Objectives:

The goal of the project is to raise the awareness among civil society groups and to strengthen the understanding of Georgia’s socio-economic development strategy “Georgia 2020”. To identify problems and to formulate relevant recommendations, existing challenges and the implementation process of the strategy will be critically analyzed.

Current State: 

The strategic document “Georgia 2020” discusses the most critical problems that hamper the sustainable economic growth of Georgia and analyzes the ways to overcome these obstacles. The problems identified are - low level of competitiveness, insufficiently developed human resources (Educational System, Health Care and Social Protection System) and the credit accessibility. Based on the current situation, the main goal of the Government of Georgia is identified as - supporting private sector, supporting development of human resources and improving the financial availability. To eradicate the aforementioned problems by the year of 2020, various activities and measures to be taken are included in strategy. The Government of Georgia has already started reforms in certain areas to reach the objectives of the strategy “Georgia 2020”, which provides an opportunity to critically analyze the implementation process.

Activities:

• Supporting analysts: 

o Organizing three day workshop and holding lectures and discussions about “Georgia 2020”;
o Selecting four analysts to receive the stipend over the four month period;
o Awarding the best analyst during the concluding forum of the project;

• Holding five series of lectures in various universities across Georgia (Batumi, Kutaisi, Telavi, Akhaltsikhe, Tbilisi);

• Holding discussions about the strategic document “Georgia 2020”, with the participation of government officials and the representatives of other interested parties. Five public discussions will be organized, where representatives of various governmental entities and stakeholders will be invited;

• Organizing a concluding conference the strategic document “Georgia 2020”. Along with Georgian experts, the conference will host number of foreign experts and academics working on Georgia’s social-economic problems;

• Publishing a concluding report, which will include the works of analysts participating in the contest and analytical pieces and recommendations by the experts and researchers.

Target Audience:

The target group of the project include analysts, activists of civil society, Georgian researchers and students and other stakeholders affected by the Government’s activities undertaken in the name of the strategic document “Georgia 2020”.

Success indicators:

The success of the project will be tested in various ways. The level of civil engagement will be measured by the number of participants and the quality of their input in the activities planned within the framework of the project. To identify the problems and to formulate the recommendations, the concluding report will be published that will be introduced to the Government of Georgia.

The activities planned to raise public awareness about the project:

In order to attract the public attention, there will be a constant communication with Georgian mass media throughout the entire duration of the project. IDFI has contacts with numerous print and online media outlets. Moreover, the institute has conducted number of successful PR campaigns in the past.