American-Georgian Initiative for Liberal Education
Youth and Democratic Values
$69,241
To promote civic and political activism among the youth of Georgia and to foster the development of a new generation of youth leaders. The organization will convene meetings between politically engaged young people and political party representatives to amplify youth voices within party platforms and encourage youth participation in politics.
Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development
Changing Elite Narratives in Georgia
$31,365
To clarify the attitudes and opinions of Georgian citizens towards the country’s political landscape and to engage Georgia’s political elite about citizen priorities. The organization will host discussions with political parties and representatives from the international community about lessons learned from the most recent political crisis. It will conduct public-opinion polling to determine lacunae between political assumptions of the country’s elite and its citizens. It will produce a policy paper and host a conference to share its results.
Center of Independent Journalists
Promoting Civic Engagement at the Local Level
$35,100
To support local news and citizen engagement in the Imereti region of Georgia. The organization will continue to operate its online news portal, including content on Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration, monitoring of the local government’s activities, political talk shows, and regular news updates. Particular attention will be given to coverage of local issues and drawing connections between those issues and potential policy responses.
Democracy Research Institute
Supporting Security Sector Reform
$66,217
To promote oversight and increase the accountability of Georgia’s State Security Service. The organization will monitor the use of parliamentary oversight mechanisms of the security services and assess compliance with these mechanisms. It will advocate for the protection of citizens against undue intrusions by security services as a human right under Georgia’s Human Rights Strategy Action Plan and monitor law and security service activity during protests in Tbilisi. The organization will host roundtables, presentations, and publish reports on its findings.
Georgian Charter of Journalistic Ethics
Developing Georgian Independent Media
$88,163
To monitor Georgian media outlets for violations of professional and ethical standards. The organization will monitor Georgian media outlets and publish critiques of unprofessional and unethical reporting on its online media critique platform. It will promote editorial independence and unbiased, reliable reporting by journalists in Georgia to increase public trust in the media. The grantee will also prepare articles about significant events affecting the Georgian media environment, particularly those that jeopardize the independence of the media.
Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies
Engaging Key Actors in Democracy
$150,708
To increase the capacity of key institutions in Georgia – political parties and the Georgian Orthodox Church – to better understand and engage citizens on topics related to democratic development, particularly foreign policy. The organization will organize a series of seminars and discussions for representatives of regional eparchies and the youth wings of political parties to discuss pressing issues. The partner will also organize an interreligious study visit for leaders and clergy from all the main faiths of Georgia, and regional discussion groups for youth activists.
Independent Journalists’ House
Citizen and Youth Engagement in Adjara
$45,637
To encourage civic engagement and increase the capacity of youth journalists in the Autonomous Republic of Adjara in Georgia. The organization will organize a discussion series about the intersection between community needs and local government responsibilities. The organization will host an online training program for youth on local government and civic participation. It will also work with youth volunteers to produce video programs about local issues in rural areas of Adjara and commission investigative articles.
International Republican Institute (IRI)
Y-Lead Georgia Youth Leadership, Education, Application and Delivery Program
$500,000
To increase youth political engagement with local, democratic political processes and institutions, the Institute will work with emerging young voices from the civil and political spheres of Georgia through the Youth Leadership, Education, Application and Delivery (Y-LEAD). Y- LEAD Georgia alumni will develop a voter education and GOTV campaign and will have the chance to participate in an Ideathon to address local issues in their home regions.
International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy
Protecting the Integrity of Georgian Elections
$130,742
To safeguard the electoral process in Georgia, and to advocate for systemic protections of free and fair elections. As part of the project the grantee will: investigate and document mechanisms used to influence voters; conduct seminars with teachers, local officials and media outlets on voter’ rights; and continue to upgrade their organizational capacity to detect and respond to sophisticated violations of electoral integrity.
Journalism Resource Center
Regional Broadcasting for Better Local Governance
$49,900
To increase the availability of high-quality, unbiased information on local governance in Georgia’s regions and to hold political candidates and elected officials accountable. The organization will train regional broadcast journalists on the roles and responsibilities of local governments and how to produce objective reporting on local government elections. The organization and its media partners will produce a series of videos on regional issues that relate directly to local governance and broadcast them on regional TV stations.
Kakhetis Khma (Voice of Kakheti) Media House
Independent Reporting for Local Communities
$51,930
To increase the availability of independent reporting on local governance and political and economic developments in the Kakheti region of eastern Georgia. The grantee will maintain and develop its online news site, focusing on reporting from rural communities in the Kakheti region. It will draw attention to local governance problems and challenges faces by minority communities, and will connect those subjects to the larger political and social context of Georgia as a whole.
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)
Strengthening Political Party Networks and Messaging at the Municipal Level
$246,000
To strengthen the representation of local voices in national politics and support political pluralism, the Institute proposes a program to enhance the ability of Georgian political parties to run issue-based campaigns responsive to local needs. The Institute will help parties develop and implement electoral strategies that enable them to better target their limited resources, actively recruit and engage new support, and run issue-driven campaigns that reflect the priority needs of voters.
National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)
Strengthening Political Party Networks and Messaging at the Municipal Level
$75,000
Public Summary: To strengthen the representation of local voices in national politics and support political pluralism, the Institute proposes a program to enhance the ability of Georgian political parties to run issue-based campaigns responsive to local needs. The Institute will help parties develop and implement electoral strategies that enable them to better target their limited resources, actively recruit and engage new support, and run issue-driven campaigns that reflect the priority needs of voters. In particular, the Institute will support political parties as they develop volunteer networks in communities across the country in order to develop and communicate meaningful policy messages. By rooting election campaigns in networks of volunteers and creating connections between candidates and local activists, this program will complement the Institute’s ongoing projects to increase the responsiveness of local and national governance.
NEOGEN
Promoting Human Rights Education
$149,408
To raise awareness of human rights issues and democratic values promote dialogue in Georgia’s regions. The organization will host trainings on human rights, including women’s rights, and dispel prevalent disinformation about democracy within different ethnic communities. It will convene a roundtable to discuss local human rights issues. The organization will continue producing an educational radio program on human rights in both Georgian and Russian. In addition, a supplement will revolve around youth leadership development in Georgian villages along the ABL.
NGO Open Borders
Armenian-Language News and Information
$102,220
To promote citizen oversight of local government and freedom of information in Akhalkalaki in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia. The organization will cover local governance issues in Akhalkalaki and other regional news, as well as national news stories, particularly developments affecting Georgia’s Armenian minority population. The news site will publish in Armenian and Russian and include multimedia and investigative journalism. The organization will solicit and disseminate news submissions from citizen journalists.
Public Movement Multinational Georgia
Democratic Education for Ethnic Minorities
$77,995
To increase engagement in political processes among ethnic minorities living in Georgia. The organization will run educational programming for ethnic minority youth to enhance participants’ understanding of democratic processes, local and national politics, and administrative procedures. Skills-based trainings on leadership, public speaking, and policy development will be held, and participants will engage in simulations of policy debates and conflict negotiations. The organization will also train a group of students to hold community meetings on topics related to participatory democracy.
Shame Movement
Engaging Regional Youth Activists
$79,917
To build capacity for regional civic engagement and to increase local government accountability. In order to build capacity for civic engagement at the local level, the grantee will first convene meetings with policy experts and active youth to identify local challenges. To help youth address these challenges, the organization will then produce research on the effectiveness of municipal governments in fixing local issues and engage in an advocacy campaign for governmental accountability.
Shame Movement
Increasing Youth Engagement in Local Governance
$56,580
To raise awareness of the benefits of joining the European Union and increase demand for pro-EU policies. The organization will conduct an awareness-raising campaign to inform public servants, including police officers and judges, and other Georgian citizens about how EU membership will affect them. The organization will produce media products and conduct citizen outreach. It will grow its network and conduct trainings with activists throughout Georgia.
Soviet Past Research Laboratory
Engaging Young Scholars in Democracy Research
$47,790
To promote an accurate understanding of Stalin role in Georgia’s Soviet and post-Soviet legacy, and spur public discourse on how Stalin is used as a tool of Russian disinformation in Georgia. The organization will conduct archival research and publish a popular book to be widely distributed. The organization will hold discussions for students, academics, journalists, and policymakers to address its findings. It will create a documentary film to supplement the book.
Union of Journalists Voice of People
Promoting Civic Engagement and Interethnic Tolerance
$48,720
To promote civic participation in Kvemo Kartli through its Marneuli-based community radio station. The organization will be a reliable source of information on local and national political developments for members of the Azerbaijani and Armenian ethnic minority communities in their local language. The grantee will encourage civic engagement by soliciting contributions and commentary from community members.
United Nations Association of Georgia
Supporting Independent Georgian Media
$205,382
To maintain the daily news website Civil.ge. Articles will be published in English, Russian, and Georgian, and will provide timely daily news coverage and analysis of current events in Georgia. Under this program, Civil.ge’s reporters will continue to increase the number of short news pieces posted on the site, publish interactive explainers of current events, report on conversations in the Georgian media that capture the contemporary political zeitgeist, and develop engaging content to reach a wider audience on social media.
