Fund “Sukhumi” organized a meeting sharing experiences within the framework of the project "Learning from Visegrad 4 Experience to Advocate for Equal, Inclusive and Democratic Local Governance” at the local level". The meeting was held at the Center for Civic Engagement, in Kutaisi.

The meeting was attended by the main actors of Imereti and Samegrelo municipalities working on gender policy, local government officials, and representatives of the civil sector and mass media.

What are the achievements of gender policy at the municipal level, what are the challenges facing local Gender Equality Councils, in which areas support from the local government, Gender Equality Councils, Ministries, would be useful for stakeholders implementing gender policy at local level?

After interesting discussions, participants of the meeting defined recommendations that will serve as the basis for the development of local gender policy and the implementation of important reforms. 

The project is implemented with the support of the Visegrad Fund 

On December 7, a presentation of a new research of the fund “Sukhumi” - "Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, rethinking approaches to the conflict settlement and new vectors for its transformation" was held in the hotel "Courtyard Marriott" in Tbilisi.

The presentation was attended by representatives of local and international organizations, embassies accredited in the country, government agencies, the Ombudsman's Office, academic circles.

The author of the study, Ekaterina Gamakharia, presented to the participants of the meeting the main conclusions and recommendations made as a result of the research. Then there were interesting discussions - it was the continuation of the feedback received as a result of acquaintance of this work with the broad circles of society. Another dialogue was held, which is very important for the transformation of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict.

In the Sakrebulo of Khoni municipality an enlarged meeting of the Council of Advisers took place within the framework of the project "Inclusion of NGOs working on issues of social protection in the strategic dialogue in Georgia".

Nino Markozashvili, the new manager, got acquainted with the members of the Council. A video of the final report of the work for 2017 was shown. Members of the Council considered the issue of the viability of the funded projects and the main results of monitoring the social budget. There was a discussion about drawing up a work plan for 2018. Mayor of the municipality of Khoni Lado Jurkhadze expressed readiness for future cooperation and stated that the trend of introducing social services directed to vulnerable groups will continue.

The project is implemented with the support of the Czech organization PIN 

In Kutaisi, at the office of Fair Elections, an information exchange meeting was held at the Imereti NGO Forum within the framework of the fund “Sukhumi” project - “Studying the experience of Visegrad countries at local level for advocacy of equal, inclusive and democratic governance”.

Representative of the Fund "Sukhumi" acquainted colleagues with the goals and objectives of the project, with the implemented activities. Particular attention was paid to Czech experience in terms of civic engagement and gender marking. And also research, on the basis of which a strategy of local gender mainstreaming will be prepared. Research will focus on gender budgeting practices and challenges at the local level; institutional mechanisms of gender equality. It will create an interesting picture of the experience in the field of implementation of gender-sensitive policies.

In the opinion of the meeting participants, one feels a step back in terms of using on-site institutional mechanisms of gender equality. The reason was the fact that new people came to the local self-government as a result of the elections and there is a need for gender education, using the potential of qualified NGOs, close cooperation with the Council of Gender Equality of Parliament.

The project is implemented with the support of the Visegrad Fund