November 2, 2010
Georgia
The purpose of the project "Promotion of Civic Participation and Development of Local Self-Government Capacities in Samtskhe/Javakheti“ is the enhancement of civic participation in public life in rural areas of Georgia. In the long-term, the project’s ambition is to have a positive impact on increasing the standard of living of inhabitants in the region.
The target group of this implemented project are representatives of village committees of three mainly Georgian (Arali, Ude, Vale) and two mainly Armenian (Tsinubani, Naokhrebi) villages and their inhabitants. Village committees in these villages emerged in the last two years with the support of Caritas Czech Republic and Caritas Georgia. They were particularly active in identification of development needs of individual villages and in supplying the villages with clean drinking water, which is quite problematic in this region. In every committee, there is about ten of the most respected and most active village citizens.
Primarily, the project relies on active participation of villagers in decision-making processes on a local level. The citizens will get an opportunity to express - by petition or by referendum - their opinion about their village’s problems and suggestions on how to solve them. Outcomes from referendum will be taken into account during the creation of the community plans.
Education is also a key sector in the field of local development; within the frame of the project there is significant space earmarked for training of local activists and representatives of local administration. There will be conducted seminars for member of village committees which will consist of two parts: a theoretical one – on the topic of strategic planning; and the second part of the trainings will include the creation of long-term community plans. The plans should be elaborated on the basis of joint consensus among the given village’s inhabitants and should take into account their necessity and contribution for the whole community. In order to find a particular solution for selected problems of the village, there will be an invited professional/specialist in the given problem (e.g. a specialist in irrigation systems, building repairs, drinking water supply etc.).
Another step will be choosing the community project in each of the five villages. Which project will be selected depends again on inhabitants' joint decision of the particular village. Implementation of community projects requires financial contribution of local administration in the given region.
As a supplementary parallel activity, there are organized course of Georgian language for adults, in which Armenian village inhabitants could take part. The language barrier presents one of the obstacles in the way of development of Armenian villages. The courses will be organized in the villages of Tsinubani and Naokhrebi.
In the last phase of the project, there is a scheduled project evaluation as well as elaboration of analysis of territorial-administrative reform which Georgia has lately undergone.
Caritas Czech Republic has implemented the project in cooperation with Caritas Georgia and organization ABCO from January 2010 until June 2011. The project is funded from the sources of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department of Human Rights & Transition Promotion Policy within the program “Transition”.
