On the 21 of February, 2015, Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) and Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) held the final event within the scopes of the Certificate Program: Georgia – Strategy 2020.

The students who participated in the program created the presentations and presented them. The presentation themes were drawn out based on the lecturing courses of the certificate program. The presentations were concentrated on the popular socio-economic issues of the society.

Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) with the collaboration of Bremen University and with the financial assistance of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany are implementing the project: Strategic Plan Georgia 2020 – Strengthening Public Involvement (ZigB). The project aims to give rise to the interest of various groups of civil society towards involvement and extension of knowledge about the Strategic Document (Socio-Economic Development Strategy of Georgia “Georgia-2020) in order for them to be more involved in discussions for the future.

Certificate Program consisted of the following courses:

1. The Higher Education for Sustainable Development (5 hours)
The course discusses the initiative of the UN “Education for the Sustainable Development” that represents 5 point program for advocacy of re-orientation of the education (the Declaration of UN on Sustainability of Higher Education, the Sustainable Development Strategy of EU). The program participants will get acquainted with the achieved progress of the aforementioned UN initiative, as well as its challenges that are faced by the signatory Universities in the implementation process of the initiatives within the sustainable development of the Higher Education Institutions.

Key concepts: EU SDS, UN Higher Education Sustainability Initiative Rio +20, International Sustainable Campus Network
Lecturer: Tea Gergedava (Harvard University, Master’s Degree, Head of the Foreign Relations Department Office at TSU)

2. Cultural Policy within the Scopes of the Urban Policy (5 hours)
The themes of the course are based on the Association Agreement with the EU and on the requirements of the agreement, as well as on the international legal norms that is obligatory for creating and implementing the cultural policy and the urban policy. The primary attention will be emphasized on the preserving and supporting the cultural diversity. At the same time the lecture will address the successful European city management models. The aim of the course is to portray the cultural and urban policy problems through the human rights perspective and to allocate the role of the society in creating the urban and cultural policy (rights and obligations). The development of the urban culture and its shortcomings in Georgian reality will be the primary issue of the course.

Lecturer of Course: Konstantine Natsvlishvili (the Bazel University, Master’s Degree, the Expert of the Cultural Policy and Management)

3. Consumer Rights and Competition Policy (5 hours)
Within the scopes of the course students will get acquainted with the legislation on consumer rights and competition, receive the information about the challenges of Georgia towards the protection of consumer rights, about the Competition Agency and generally the information about the state’s policy regarding the protection of consumer’s rights and the competition policy. The course will be read based on the comparative law analysis of Georgian and European examples.

Lecturer of the Course: Davit Maisuradze (UC Davis, LLM, PHD students at TSU)

4. Labor Law (5 hours)
The aim of the course is to look through the Employer’s and Employee’s rights in the Georgian legislation, to familiarize with the regulations of the Employment Relations regarding the private sector and the public sector as well. The current and popular issues like the legal grounds for suspending the employment, and etc., will be emphasized. Students will get acquainted with the obligations of Georgia according to the international agreements towards the Labor Law. At the same time the course will address the influence of law on Protection of Personal Data on Employment Relations. 

Lecturer of the Course: Sopio Sachaleli (Masurashvili & Sachaleli Law Office, Partner, PHD student at Trier University)

Lecturers positively evaluated the presentations prepared by the students. 25 participants were awarded with joint certificates of the Bremen University, Institute for Development of Freedom of Information and the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA).

Institute for Development of Freedom of Information plans to arrange same type of activities in the future as well.