“Strengthening the role and functions of the Gender Equality Council in the process of introducing local gender policy” - a round table on this topic was held with participation of representatives of Khoni Gender Equality Council, local self-government and civil activists.
The municipality makes important changes in terms of reorganizing the Council, creating thematic groups, choosing their strategies and initiating local programs with target on vulnerable groups. Particularly important for the participants was the question of how the budgetary support of the issues, envisaged in the plan should be carried out, as well as the issue of maximum involvement of the units responsible for the implementation of the plan.
Ekaterine Gamakharia, Head of the Tbilisi Representative Office of the Fund "Sukhumi" has participated in a meeting organized by the Association “Peaceful and Business Caucasus”. The meeting was dedicated to the situation of the fire-affected population in Gali district. The representative of Fund “Sukhumi” has made a presentation and informed meeting participants about key findings and urgent needs of fire-affected population reflected in the organization’s recently published rapid-assessment report.
The meeting was attended by the civil society organizations working on the issues of IDPs and conflict-affected population, representatives of the de jure authorities of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, and the fire-affected persons.
The response strategies and actions of joint efforts were actively discussed during the meeting.
The beginning, as it often happens, was difficult.
The public administration reform was considered less important in the municipality... but the more they got familiarized with the information, the better it was shown what should be done.
The most important thing, that was done in Vani municipality:
The Code of Ethics for self-government public officials was developed and approved!
Vani Municipality is the first, among the municipalities of Western Georgia in this direction.
The document was prepared by the working group, established within the framework of the Fund “Sukhumi” project “A common forum for CSOs from Guria, Imereti and Racha-Lechkhumi for PAR Roadmap monitoring”.
Implementation of the action plan is one of the goals of Terjola working group. Several issues have already been completed, which were envisaged in the plan. Now they are working on the implementation of a participatory budget. The meeting, held in the municipality, discussed this issue and the following activities were planned: consultation with the Mayor, determination of the funds, formation of a competition commission, announcement of a competition. They are trying to resolve this issue by the end of April, so that soon one more point is fulfilled in the action plan.
The work is carried out in the framework of the project “A common forum for CSOs from Guria, Imereti and Racha-Lechkhumi for PAR Roadmap monitoring”.
The working group met in Khoni City Council for the ordinary meeting. The group members discussed the implementation of the action plan. There are two important issues among those, to be addressed - the development of an anti-corruption plan and a code of ethics. It was decided that, first of all, they will actively work on the code of ethics. A consultation meeting was scheduled and the final version of the code of ethics will be presented at the next meeting.
The work is carried out in the framework of the project “A common forum for CSOs from Guria, Imereti and Racha-Lechkhumi for PAR Roadmap monitoring”.
Women Support Centers had variety of activities these days. The 8th of March was marked by events of various formats: information meetings with the villagers, round tables in kindergartens and schools, meetings with representatives of local governments, literary evening.
During the meetings, it was emphasized that this is the International Day of Women's Solidarity, a global celebration of their economic, political and social achievements.
According to the meeting participants, lots of changes happen in our everyday life from year to year. These are changes in legislation, in municipal programs, but women's rights are still violated, cases of violence are still frequent, the level of human security is still low and therefore advocacy and solution of many problems are necessary. This is what the Women Support Centers in 10 municipalities of Western Georgia are doing.
The Fund "Sukhumi" presents its new rapid assessment report – “Dashed hopes of the fire-affected population in the Gali district: Needs and response strategies”, which discusses priority needs and human security concerns of the population affected by the wildfires that broke out in January 2021 in the Gali district.
Violence is very often caused by gender stereotypes, so it is necessary to solve them, and the school can play a major role in this process.
“Gender stereotypes and the role of schools in their solution” is a short film prepared by the Tbilisi Representative Office of the Fund “Sukhumi”. The film shows one of the directions of the Fund "Sukhumi" - work with youth and the results of this work, the experience and the lessons learned.
Searching for the funds, registtarion of civic organizations, self-presentation, presentation of results - all these questions were necessary, interesting and useful. Therefore, the mobilizers of the Women Support Centers were actively involved participated in the process of two-day online training.
The participants got acquainted with the procedure of registering the organization, with the necessary documents. Particularly interesting was the part of the training, which was devoted to the skills of self-presentation, presenting the results of activities and formulating these results in a success story.
The next meeting of the Project Coordination Council was held today. The meeting discussed the current project activities, in particular the process of preparing the third monitoring of the report on public administration reform, the next training scheduled in March for the member organizations of the Forum and other future plans.
The work is carried out in the framework of the project “A common forum for CSOs from Guria, Imereti and Racha-Lechkhumi for PAR Roadmap monitoring”.