On January 10, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) together with Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) held a closing event of the project “Contributing to PAR through Civic Monitoring and Engagement”.

The event participants were welcomed with opening remarks by Giorgi Kldiashvili, Executive Director of IDFI; Colombe De Mercey, Team Leader for Governance and Human Capital, Delegation of the European Union to Georgia; and Nika Simonishvili, Chairperson of GYLA. 

The event was held in a panel discussion format. It was participated by Mariam Maisuradze (Manager of the project “Contributing to PAR through Civic Monitoring and Engagement“), Salome Sagharadze (Coordinator of the project “Contributing to PAR through Civic Monitoring and Engagement“), Ketevan Tsanava (Head of the Public Administration Unit of the Department of Policy Planning and Coordination of the Government Administration of Georgia), Marika Vatcharadze (Chairperson, Centre of Regional Initiatives “Bright Future”), Marc Van Den Muyzenberg (Expert, EU Technical Assistance Project “Support to Public Administration Reform in Georgia”), Martins Krievins (Expert, OECD/SIGMA), Tamar Chkhitunidze (Integrity and Accountability Expert of the Project “Contributing to PAR through Civic Monitoring and Engagement“), Giorgi Bobghiashvili (Consolidating Parliamentary Democracy in Georgia, UNDP).

International and local experts, as well as the representatives of government and civil society exchanged the information on best practices, existing challenges and needs of Public Administration. The discussion also aimed to foster debate on what needs to be changed to improve the quality of the reform. Participants discussed relevant issues such as:

- Key achievements and challenges of PAR in  Georgia  

- Challenges and awareness regarding PAR in the regions

- Importance of transparent policy-making and civic participation for Public Administration

- The approach of PAR management in Georgia – possible modifications

- Basic principles of good Public Administration 

- The role of coordination and well-designed framework in PAR

- Importance of transparent policy-making and civic participation for Public Administration

- Digitalization of Public Administration 

IDFI together with GYLA started to implement the project – “Contributing to PAR through Civic Monitoring and Engagement” – in 2019. The project aimed to promote the implementation of the Public Administration Reform through innovations, capacity building, multi-stakeholder dialogue and civil society engagement in monitoring and revision of the PAR Action Plan. 

To achieve this objective different activities were carried out within the project, including:

- In order to improve the reform, the PAR Action Plan was monitored and alternative monitoring reports were developed (2019, I half of 2020, II half of 2020, 2019 – 2020), which were publicly discussed;

- The study of the best European practice of public administration was prepared on the problematic issues identified during the monitoring process;

- Active involvement of 15 regional organizations was ensured in the monitoring process;

- For monitoring the implementation of the Public Administration Reform Action Plan an electronic platform (PAR Tracker) was developed. The platform combines practical information on Public Administration Reform and ensures external user engagement in the monitoring process;

- To raise civil servant’s awareness of public administration and policy-making and give them opportunity to gain both theoretical knowledge and practical experience, a two-day workshop was conducted for public servants;

- Analytical articles’ contest was held to increase the interest of PAR in young people;

- To raise public awareness, four informational videos were prepared and published on the Internet:

1. Public Administration Reform

2. Public Administration Reform - Challenges

3. What is Public Administration Reform?

4. www.partracker.ge – practical instruction

“The immediate outputs of our activities are visible, however, for reasons beyond our control, the reform process is deadlocked. As you know, the new strategy and action plan was not approved in 2021, which will significantly hinder the progress of the reform. Nevertheless, we hope that from 2022 the process will be actively continued and that our efforts will contribute to the success of the reform.” – Noted IDFI executive director, Giorgi Kldiashvili. 

IDFI thanks the European Union and partners for their support and cooperation.