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Forum - an opportunity to exchange experiences and best practices

Exchange of experiences is the best way to introduce the innovations. This is a special method for the Fund "Sukhumi" and it often gives municipalities this opportunity.

The Forum of Civil Society Organizations of Guria, Imereti and Racha-Lechkhumi initially envisaged cooperation and mutual assistance.

The project includes three organizations: Fund "Sukhumi", Fund of Women Entrepreneurs and Imereti Scientists’ Union "Spectri".

The Civil Society Forum united 16 organizations in October 2019. Their geographical area is wide: 8 municipalities (Khoni, Vani, Terjola, Bagdati, Lanchkhuti, Ozurgeti, Tsageri, Ambrolauri).

The Forum was created in order to actively involve the society in the process of monitoring the Roadmap for Public Administration Reform.

Already at the beginning of the project, the organizations attended meetings, trainings, studied the criteria for the implementation of public administration reform, also how to draft projects, advocate problems, learned the techniques of research ... They contributed to the creation of new organizations, and 14 new organizations were registered in the municipalities.

Of course, at general meetings, everyone shared their experience and knowledge with each other. They made friends, learned a lot and strengthened each other. They contributed to the changes in their municipalities and had positive impact on other municipalities as well.

The representative of Lanchkhuti municipality Amiran Gigineishvili (Georgian Rural Hall) shared the system "Electronic Manager" created by him with colleagues from Ambrolauri and this unique application was successfully implemented in Ambrolauri municipality.

The Code of Ethics was first developed by Vani Municipality. Its author Marina Gvinianidze (“Support – 2020”) subsequently explained the whole procedure in detail to her colleagues, and with this practice they adopted the Code of Ethics in Khoni, Tsageri, Bagdati.

In Terjola municipality, a representative of Khoni municipality Eliso Jikia (Center for Education and Development "Edelweiss") took part in the debates. She spoke about the introduction of an electronic petition system. She shared this good practice with representatives from Bagdati and Vani Municipality. Bachana Basilaia (IDP Initiative Group of Khoni) spoke about his experience regarding the petitions at a meeting held in Tsageri.

The representative of Tsageri municipality - Mzevinar Liparteliani (“Active Citizen - Accountable Government”) made an overview of the issues related to the adoption of the Code of Ethics in Khoni, the representative of Lanchkhuti Municipality Amiran Gigineishvili (Georgian Rural Hall) shared his experience of civic budgeting with the citizens of Bagdati.

Bagdati Working Group is the first to prepare an anti-corruption regulation and this practice will soon be successfully applied by other municipalities.

Tskaltubo municipality is not a participant in the project, but they are linked with self-government by long-term cooperation with the Fund "Sukhumi". Therefore, a member of the City Council - Badri Papava was invited to the meetings, who shared the successful practice of introducing civil budgeting with representatives of Terjola, Bagdati, Vani and Tsageri municipalities.

At the end of the project work, it was especially confirmed that the Civil Society Forum is indeed the best opportunity for cooperation and exchange of good practices.

The project is implemented with the support the European Union - #EU4Georgia