Project Title: Providing Assistance to the Open Governance Permanent Parliamentary Council to Conduct Thematic Inquiry on the Subject of Legislation and Practice of Citizen Participation in the Process of Public Policy Development at the Executive Branch of Government 

Donor Organization: United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

Total Budget: $5,613

Duration of the Project: May, 2019 – November 2019

Project Description 

On May 29th, 2019 Open Governance Permanent Parliamentary Council (the Council) created a thematic inquiry working group (the Working Group) for studying existing practice and legislation of citizen participation in the process of public policy development in Georgia. Through the parliamentary oversight mechanism, the Council aims to study and support the process of participatory decision-making at the executive branch of governance (ministries and the Government Administration (AoG)).

The decision of the Council to conduct the thematic inquiry derived from the poor state of participatory decision-making in Georgia. Ensuring citizen participation in the process of elaborating public policy documents, is one of the declared priorities of the government (see:  Open Government Partnership Action Plan of Georgia 2018-2019,  Challenge 1, Commitment 2; Association Agenda between the European Union and Georgia 2017-2020, Priority 2.2; Public Administration Reform Roadmap 2020, Policy Area 1). However, no significant progress has been made in this regard in recent years. According to the Baseline Measurement Report of the OECD program - Support for Improvement in Governance and Management (SIGMA), Georgia received the lowest 0 score evaluation in regards to public consultations in the process of public policy development.

IDFI as a member organization of the Consultative Group created within the Council and an NGO with in-depth knowledge and experience on the subject of participatory decision-making will provide the Working Group with expert assistance necessary for planning, conducting and finalizing the thematic inquiry.

Project Objective

The main objective of the project is to enable the conduct of the thematic enquiry. For this purpose IDFI will draft all necessary preparatory documents, participate in meetings and hearings of the thematic enquiry, analyze materials, study best international practice and develop the final report of the thematic inquiry. IDFI will agree and discuss all the materials with the members of the working group before they are officially registered at the Parliament of Georgia. The main project deliverable will be the final report of the thematic inquiry prepared by IDFI and approved by the Working Group. The final report will inter alia include the main findings in regards with the practice and legislation of participatory decision making at the central public institutions of the executive branch and relevant recommendation dwelling from existing problems and based on the best international standards.

Project Action Plan