Fostering Georgia’s Resilience and Crisis Management Capabilities

The project aims to raise awareness and promote a more informed participation of Georgia’s civil society and youth in the issues of crisis response and national resilience. To reach the desired change, this program holds the following objectives:

• Promote an informed discussion on the issues of crisis management and national resilience, engaging civil society and Georgian government to enhance their ability to remain resilient when confronted with crisis situations;
• Raise awareness among youth as agents of positive change in delivering Georgia’s objective of developing democratic and rule of law-oriented state, that is a member of Western democratic and security community. That includes fostering deeper learning on the issues of crisis management and developing capabilities of showing resilience against domestic and external threats;

Project activities:

• Producing a policy paper on crisis response, strategic communication, and national resilience in Georgia. The research, conducted jointly by GIP and the VIPA, will provide an overview the nature of threats and challenges that Georgia is faced with; discuss the crises response capabilities of the state institutions and demonstrate the importance of national resilience in countering both internal and external challenges.
• Crisis Response and National Resilience Workshop – presentation of the policy paper. Workshop will bring together the representatives of relevant state institutions, civil society organizations and media with the aim of identifying and discussing the nature of threats and crisis that Georgia is often encountered with. Workshop will lay the ground for developing or improving cooperation among various actors – such as the government, NGOs and media – in times of crisis situations.
• International summer school in Tbilisi. As part of International Summer School, which will include Georgian and European graduate and post-graduate students, participants will be introduced to the concept of crisis response and national resilience as well as to the state of Georgia’s institutional (in)ability to navigate through various internal and external crisis, and be able to establish strategic communication with the public  in order to mitigate their sense of fear and restore their trust in state institutions’ ability to respond to the crisis.
• Youth Resilience Workshops in Tbilisi and the regions. The workshops will aim at raising awareness of active young people such as university students, members of civil society organizations and community leaders. Workshops will take place in Tbilisi and regional universities, to include youth from different regions of Georgia.