EWMI ACCESS Funds Five New Citizen Engagement Projects in Georgian Regions

In April, 2017 EWMI ACCESS announced the Citizen Outreach Grants Program for Georgian Civil Society Organizations (CSO). Considering the upcoming local government elections in October 2017, the program was focused on bringing women voters’ needs to the attention of political parties and election candidates, and contributing to the formation of a female voter constituency.

In total 35 project proposals were submitted under this call, out of which 5 projects were selected for funding. The projects will cover almost all regions of Georgia and engage local women, the political parties and election subjects to raise the profile of special needs of women voters and bring those needs to the electoral agenda. Activities include wide scale awareness-raising campaigns, pre-and-post election debates with political subjects, and various capacity-building initiatives to empower women to advocate for their interests and increase women’s political participation. The projects will pay particular attention to the ethnic-minority women and women from marginalized groups.

Projects are expected to start in mid-July. The winning organizations are:

•  Journalists’ Network for Gender Equality (Tbilisi)
•  Local Development Agency- Georgia (Kutaisi)
•  The Levan Mikeladze Foundation (Tbilisi)
•  Samtskhe-Javakheti Media Center  (Borjomi)
•  Women for Regional Development (Guria, village Dvabzu)

EWMI ACCESS congratulates the winners and wishes them success.