On November 15, 2022, IDFI held a workshop - Improving access to public data: international standards, good practice, and Georgia. The event was intended for representatives of public institutions and covered the issues of the availability of public/open data in Georgia: main achievements, challenges, and needs.

Representatives of IDFI made presentations on the main gaps in terms of open data management and accessibility in the country, after which a discussion was held with the active participation of the attendees. In particular, Teona Turashvili, Head of IDFI's Local Government, Internet and Innovation Directions, presented Georgia‘s results and highlighted achievements and needs based on various international studies/surveys in terms of the availability of public/open data. Emphasis was placed on what the country needs to improve the results in the mentioned surveys: improving legislation, ensuring the availability of individual datasets, or publishing data in an open format. To this end, IDFI’s analyst, David Eristavi overviewed the good practices identified in various countries on the basis of similar studies. These examples can be useful for Georgia to increase the availability of data on certain categories. Additionally, David presented an overview of the main directive of the European Union related to the availability of public data - the Open Data Directive: the main principles and requirements of the directive. Consideration of the mentioned directive is important for Georgia in terms of harmonizing the legislation with European standards.

By the end of the presentations, a discussion was held with the active participation of representatives of public institutions in attendance, who shared the most recent developments in their respective institutions in terms of improving data availability. According to their assessment, the information provided during the event and the results of Georgia in international studies and rankings will be useful in this process. Among the participants of the event were the representatives of the State Audit Office, Digital Governance Agency, National Bank, National Agency of Public Registry, Ministry of Finance, National Statistics Office of Georgia, Personal Data Protection Service, Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, National Tourism Administration, Social Service Agency, National Center for Disease Control and Public Health.

The event was held within the framework of the project - Advancing Open Data Standards and Promoting Open Data Use in Georgia. The project is financed by International Media Support (IMS).