As part of the research activity of the Jean Monnet project “Promote and Act for Europe”, Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP) held the second focus group in Ninotsminda municipality of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region. The focus group was conducted with male participants both with and without higher education. Overall, 10 representatives of the local ethnic minority participated in the all-male focus group. Out of these, 4 were below the age of 30 and the rest above 30. The focus group was conducted in Armenian language and was recorded with the use of a special recorder. The facilitator of the focus group was Norik Gasparyan, who assists the project team in conducting the research activities and is responsible for mobilizing the members of the local community.
The aim of the focus group was to find out how the male representatives of the ethnic minority group of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region see local problems and the challenges related to the equal access to the opportunities offered by the EU. The most acute issues that the locals emphasized during the discussion were the land registration barriers connected with the service delivery problem, which they want to discuss in the public format during the next activities of the project. Overall, the focus group was interactive and has generated interesting research material. The results are sufficient to be used for developing four research pieces in the future.
