Open Door Programs Promote Social Capital

Following the philosophy of its long-established Open Door program, EPF constantly seeks opportunities to support newly established organizations and innovative projects that address local needs and have potential of replication. In this context particular attention is paid to the empowerment of vulnerable groups and underserved regions. During the two decades the program have contributed to the development of a social capital through creating resource of responsive, knowledgeable and devoted people in almost all regions of Georgia. These people then became a valuable source for community driven projects, educating peers, providing services to the various institutions, as well as strengthening private sector and governmental agencies through qualified cadres.

Gigla Parjiani, living in Svaneti, the mountainous and highly underserved region of Georgia with its unique local culture limiting civic initiatives, decided to encourage civic participation and established CSO Guram Tikanadze Youth Center in his community Latali.

In 2009, EPF, through its Open Door mechanism, supported the Center’s project aimed at empowering of the Latali community for promotion of citizen participation and engagement in solution of local problems.

In the first turn, Gigla and his project team hold civic engagement awareness-raising seminars to help Latali community members to overcome skepticism and get rid of old habits of non-participation. Gigla was aware, however, that in order to educate, convince, and engage others, his training and presentation skilld needed improvement. To address the issue, Gigla took part in the EPF-sponsored training of trainers in advocacy and monitoring and became a certified trainer.

The training opportunity in advocacy and civic monitoring methods announced by the Center caused a vivid interest among local community members. The Center have selected 25 activists out of 79 community members in a competitive selection process to form a strong team of community advocates for holding dialogue with government officials. Those 25 activists have become agents of change in their villages and mobilized peers. The Center also has established cooperation with the “ASA”, an experienced CSO from Kutaisi, Imereti region. “ASA” helped the Center to identify and prioritize the local issues and communicate them with the government in a professional manner. The two most acute for Latali local problems – waste removal and improvement of sewage and water supply systems- where resolved as a result of consistent monitoring, advocacy and dialogue with the local government.

Improved organizational capacity of the Guram Tikanadze Youth Center, advocacy skills, sustained partnership with experienced CSOs, as well as a vivid example of local problems solution has positively influenced organization’s image. Currently Gigla Parjiani and his organization are deservedly considered by the communities as a credible and trustworthy advocacy and watchdog organization in Svaneti that is able and willing to deal with more complex problems.

In order to better advocate for larger communities’ interests, the organization has recently created its own web-portal. In 2011, the Center has won the grant within the USAID-funded program Policy, Advocacy, and Civil Society Development in Georgia (G-PAC). The project envisages civic monitoring of the construction of Zugdidi-Mestia road funded by Asian Development Bank and advocacy of interests of the local households living in the roadside area.

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