The Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP) launched a new initiative “Supporting Youth-Oriented Public Service Delivery in the Remote Areas of Georgia.” The action is implemented with the support of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) through the EU for Integrity Programme for the Eastern Partnership, funded by the European Union.
The project seeks to develop a strong base of civically engaged Georgian youth in areas that do not sufficiently include young Georgians in local public institutions, empowering a new generation of youth to commit themselves to making municipal governance more inclusive and representative of constituency members.
The GIP particularly targets vulnerable sub-demographics within this new generation of civil society, including young women, young people with disabilities, conflict-affected youth, and ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities from Shida Kartli, Samtskhe-Javakheti, and Adjara.
These regions were chosen due to their particular difficulties in building sustainable, youth-inclusive public service sectors, and therefore have great potential for creating tangible impact. The project includes capacity building and practical components and ultimately seeks to develop a digital feedback tool to be piloted in the target municipalities.
So far, GIP held focus groups with the vulnerable youth and interviews with the local authorities, local media,, and civil society organizations’ representatives in Shida Kartli, Ajdara Regions, and Samtskhe-Javakheti, reflecting the GIP’s efforts to analyze the level of youth public service engagement and and create opportunities for.
In addition to the focus groups and interviews, as one of the integral components of the preparatory work of the action, the project team held a consultation meeting with the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and Youth Department of Kutaisi Municipality.
Learning about the experience of Kutaisi Municipality is important because this is the only municipality that has a valuable the experience of working under the Open Governance Partnership (OGP) program related to civic participation and public service delivery assessment. Therefore, the GIP project team will closely cooperate with Kutaisi Municipality while implementing the action by involving them in training sessions, working groups, and youth forums planned under the scheme of the action.
* The pictures are blurred due to the confidential format of the meetings.
