In January, 2019 EWMI ACCESS together with its partner – The Center for Training and Consultancy (CTC) began a comprehensive assessment of the Georgian civil society sector in order to get an up-to-date overview and analysis of the key strengths, weaknesses, and development potential of the civil society sector in Georgia. The assessment methodology includes desk research, semi-structured interviews, interactive discussions with diverse stakeholders, as well as an internet poll.
As part of the process, EWMI ACCESS and CTC facilitated interactive discussions with civic activists, media, and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in February, 2019. Discussion participants were encouraged to speak openly about general strengths and weaknesses of Georgian civil society (both formal CSOs and informal civic groups), challenges Civil Society faces in Georgia given the current socio-economic and political context, key factors hindering wider civic engagement, reasons behind the low public trust towards CSO in Georgia, Georgian CSOs’ key capacities and accomplishments and potential for building on this success, prospects for CSO development and sustainability, and other issues. Discussion participants also shared their thoughts and recommendations about new approaches and priorities that donor organizations should pursue in order to build a stronger civil society in Georgia.
Additional discussions with representatives of academia and business, as well as individual interviews with various stakeholders will be held in March.
The research report will help CSOs to devise new strategies for improving their performance, and help donor organizations to identify priority areas for CSO capacity building in the future.
