Summing-up presentation of the project “Petition – People’s Voice in the Self-Governance”

Out of 158 petitions initiated in all Municipal Assemblies of Ajara, Guria and Samegrelo Upper Svaneti by active citizens, 48 were fully, whereas 73 partially satisfied – these are the results of the project “Petition – People’s Voice in the Self-Governance”.

In the frame of the project, for increasing civil engagement on the scale of western Georgia, identifying community problems, preparing the petitions, initiating them in the Municipal Assemblies the meetings were held in more than 130 villages and communities of target municipalities, in which 2848 citizens were involved.

In the frame of the project, 52 petitions were registered in the Municipal Assemblies of Ajara, from which 9 – fully, 29- partially, whereas 14 were not satisfied.

According to the practice, infrastructural problems were basically named during the meetings with the population, besides these the necessity for legislative amendments at the relevant local and central level were also identified during the meetings with the population.

In the frame of the project, the regulation for electronic referral of petitions was launched, enabling the citizens to bring their own voice to the self-governing bodies without leaving home, through applying electronic platform.

The results of three-year-long work were summarized by the project team at the Democratic engagement Centers in Batumi, Zugdidi and Ozurgeti. The meetings were attended by the representatives of local self-governing bodies, government, and civil society sector and petition initiators.

At the meetings, the parties also discussed the recommendations to be foreseen in the direction improving the tools for initiating the petitions, review and civil engagement at the Municipal Assembly.

Publishing a new Brochure is also planned in the future, in which the results obtained within project framework, identified drawbacks and recommendations will be incorporated.

The project “Petition – People’s Voice in the Self-Governance” has been implemented by the Institute of Democracy in cooperation with partner organizations with the financial support from USAID since 2016.