SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT
Award Period: October 31, 2014 – October 31, 2021
Reporting Period: November 1, 2019 – September 30, 2020
Submitted to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of Cooperative Agreement No. AID-114-A-14-00008 by the East-West Management Institute, Inc.
Tamuna Karosanidze, Chief of Party, Tbilisi: [email protected] Ana Drakic, EWMI Program Director: [email protected]
#5 Marjanishvili St., Third Floor • Tbilisi 0102 Georgia • Tel (995 0 32) 2202 444 • www.facebook.com/EWMI.ACCESS
CONTENTS
Background ...... 3
Approach ...... 4
Key Activities an Accomplishments ...... 5
Component One: Citizens become more aware of and involved in CSO Activities ...... 5
Component Two: Improving CSO leadership, organizational capacity, and sustainability ..... 19
Component Three: CSO Policy Research, Monitoring, and Influence Increase ...... 25
Component Four: Centers For Civic Engagement Continue To Provide Space For Public Dialogue ...... 34
Public Outreach ...... 38
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I. BACKGROUND
The Advancing CSO Capacities and Engaging Society for Sustainability (ACCESS) Project works to enhance the effectiveness of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Georgia. ACCESS is a 7 year $9,696,947 USD million project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by East West Management Institute (EWMI) and its local partners, the Centre for Training and Consultancy (CTC) and the Civil Development Agency (CiDA). ACCESS builds on the successes of EWMI’s and USAID’s previous work with CSOs in Georgia under the Policy, Advocacy, and Civil Society Development in Georgia (G-PAC) project.
ACCESS works to achieve four objectives: a. Citizens more aware of and involved in CSO activities; b. CSO leadership and organizational capacity, as well as sustainability, improved across a range of organizations in and outside Tbilisi; c. CSOs effectively able to monitor and influence key government policies and processes; and d. Local ownership of the CCEs so that they continue to operate as politically neutral gathering spaces for public discourse.
ACCESS pursues these four objectives through grants supporting policy research, watchdog, and civic engagement activities by CSOs; technical assistance programming to strengthen CCEs and CSO management and operations; and a wide range of events that deepen dialogue and partnerships between citizens, CSOs, government, businesses, and media.
ACCESS prioritizes in particular the expanded inclusion of women, minorities, and youth in its initiatives to ensure that voices from these groups are more fully taken into account in CSO activities and governance processes. By increasing the use of science, technology, and innovation in CSO activities, ACCESS also assists civil society in becoming more effective and efficient in representing the needs of the public.
ACCESS began on October 30, 2014 and is scheduled to end on October 31, 2021.
Note: This report serves both as ACCESS quarterly report for July-September 2020 and the sixth annual report covering November 1, 2019 – September 30, 2020. The report integrates fourth quarter activities, achievements, and challenges in reporting on ACCESS Year Six progress and activities.
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II. APPROACH
ACCESS’ mission is to enhance the effectiveness of CSOs in Georgia by enabling more constituent-connected, organizationally mature, and financially sustainable cadre of CSOs that progress toward managing direct USAID funding to them. To achieve this goal, ACCESS offers integrated support to a geographically diverse and demographically inclusive group of CSOs, with particular attention paid to regional organizations. The integrated support includes grants, peer mentoring, training, individual consultations, special initiatives, and networking opportunities.
ACCESS puts special emphasis on supporting CSO engagement with constituents to identify problems and solutions and effectively implement these solutions. It also works with CSOs to strengthen their governance, management, advocacy, and outreach capacities through offering organizational development and private sector engagement opportunities. Under its policy research and advocacy work, ACCESS supports CSOs evidence-based awareness-raising and advocacy initiatives that focus on key issues and policies at the national level. Lastly, ACCESS supports the Network of Civic Engagement Centers (NCCE) to promote democratic dialogue in Georgia’s regions and to develop into a sustainable local organization.
In Year Six, ACCESS had to modify some of its activities and develop alternative ones because of COVID-19. The Citizen Outreach and Public Policy and Accountability Grant (PPAG) recipients were not significantly impacted by the crisis; however, their start dates had to be slightly delayed and they had to temporarily move some of their offline activities into an online domain. ACCESS organized individual consultations with all of its grantees on how to adapt to the new reality without compromising their intended objectives. ACCESS also supported ongoing networking among its grantees using online communication tools.
In March 2020, ACCESS requested USAID Georgia’s approval to use its targeted Citizen Outreach Grant fund to provide fast and flexible grants, including the in-kind ones, to CSOs and civic activists to take civic action in response to the COVID-19 crisis. After receiving USAID’s approval, ACCESS issued 22 grants to a diverse group of competitively selected recipients who were highly effective in providing critical support to the most impacted and at-risk groups and communities.
In July 2020, EWMI ACCESS signed an extension of ACCESS with USAID Georgia, increasing the total estimated award amount by $700,000 and extending ACCESS’ period of performance by six months, to October 31, 2021. The proposed extension builds upon ACCESS’ early success with Rapid Response Grants (RRG) that catalyzed new forms of civic mobilization and provided timely and critical support to the most affected groups and communities in the early weeks and months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia. With the extension, ACCESS will step up its efforts to amplify citizen voices in pandemic responses, bolster emerging local initiatives, and engage civil society groups in addressing medium- and long-term implications of the pandemic in myriad small and large ways.
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ACCESS’ capacity development activities were least affected by the crisis. They were moved online, and ACCESS was able to conduct organizational assessments and provide tailored follow-on assistance to the selected organizations without any disruptions. The self-paced e- learning courses on civil society were particularly well-suited for the lockdown and quarantine periods, offering easily-accessible opportunities to CSOs and civic activists to develop their skills. ACCESS also adapted its stress management program and substituted one of its stress management workshops for CSOs and activists with brief, three-minute videos by an invited specialist on how to manage stress during the COVID-19 crisis.
Throughout the year, ACCESS continued actively using the co-creation approach to encourage and support its grantees and partners to develop innovative and successful solutions to their target problems. All of ACCESS’ COGs and PPAGs issued in Year Six were designed through participatory Social Lab discussions.
At the time of the start of the COVID-19 crisis, ACCESS had not resumed its cooperation with CiDA. After the outbreak, ACCESS asked CiDA to submit a new work plan that would be adapted to the new challenges and needs and promote partnerships between business and community leaders to coordinate resources during the pandemic.
The COVID-19 crisis has had the biggest negative impact on the activities of Network of Centers for Civic Engagement (NCCE). Initially, NCCE had to limit the number of its event participants to 10 people, and later it had to entirely shut down its regional offices. During the shutdown, NCCE organized online discussions on a wide variety of issues related to COVID-19 and provided opportunities to communities in the regions to receive credible information about the virus, state-sponsored programs in response to the COVID-19 crisis, and the response by non-state actors. NCCE also provided government, CSOs, the private sector, and other key stakeholders assistance in disseminating critical information to regional stakeholders and communities. NCCE used its extensive contact databases to disseminate information online and via SMS.
III. KEY ACTIVITIES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
This section lays out ACCESS Year Six key activities and accomplishments across the four project components accompanied by a discussion of ACCESS’ approach for each component.
COMPONENT ONE: CITIZENS BECOME MORE AWARE OF AND INVOLVED IN CSO ACTIVITIES
Component One serves to increase the involvement of Georgian citizens with civil society organizations (CSOs) and CSO initiatives. The goal is to provide citizens with effective channels to voice their concerns to the government while increasing public trust in the CSO sector. EWMI achieves these objectives through the Right to Know Campaigns, Citizen Outreach Grants (COGs) Program, Regional Civic Engagement Campaigns (RCECs), Bus
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Tours, and initiatives aimed at increasing the use of technology to engage more citizens in CSO activities.
Key Activities and Accomplishments In Year Six, ACCESS completed three and supported eleven new COG projects, including open and targeted ones. COGs addressed wide-ranging issues concerning Georgian citizens across the country and used diverse tools to achieve their objectives. The primary focus was on increasing citizen participation in civic activities and leveraging the potential of citizens in fostering responsive policy-making and implementation at the local level. In March 2020, shortly after confirming the first case of COVID-19 in Georgia, ACCESS also issued 22 RRGs, enabling CSOs and civic activists to respond to the immediate threats and challenges from the pandemic. RRGs provided critical information and support to disproportionally affected communities during the first months of the COVID-19 outbreak.
In Year Six, ACCESS also organized two Bus Tours, the Right to Know campaign, the Regional Civic Engagement Campaign, and eleven Social Lab discussions under the COG program. Overall, ACCESS’ citizen engagement activities engaged 4,000 citizens in Year Six.
You Have the Right to Know Campaign EWMI ACCESS held an annual series of informational meetings called You Have the Right to Know in the regions of Georgia at the beginning of December 2019. During the meetings in Rustavi, Marneuli, Telavi, Gori, Akhaltsikhe, Kutaisi, Zugdidi, Ozurgeti, and Batumi, CSOs, journalists, civic activists, and other stakeholders learned about ACCESS’s main achievements and challenges over the past years and its future plans. ACCESS used this occasion to present the COG grants program that was announced earlier – in December 2020.
Regional Civic Engagement Campaign During November 20-22, 2019, ACCESS organized the civic engagement campaign in three cities of Georgia – Gori, Telavi and Kutaisi – to raise awareness about and address the problem of violence against children in Georgia and advocate for improved child protection policies. The campaign was led by the Tbilisi-based and regional CSOs working on children’s issues, including the CiDA-facilitated Regional Civil Society Network (R-CSN), Coalition for Children and Youth (CCY), and NCCE. The Campaign targeted all segments of the Georgian society and used diverse events and activities – art installations, petition drives, photo exhibitions, open discussions, and street performances – to make children’s voices heard.
As part of the campaign, 549 signatures were collected on a petition requesting that local and central governments fulfill their obligations to develop and/or improve child welfare services. The Campaign received wide media coverage from national and regional media.
In order to further advance some of the most burning issues highlighted by the Regional Civic Engagement Campaign, ACCESS has issued a targeted COG to CCY – the largest CSO coalition working on children’s issues.
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Rapid Response Grants In order to respond to the COVID-19 crisis in a timely manner, ACCESS developed and announced a new, flexible grant scheme – the RRG program – for Georgian CSOs, civic movements, and citizen groups shortly after detecting the first case of COVID-19 in Georgia. The program offered up to 5,000 USD to each of these groups to take civic action to minimize the spread of infection and/or address other problems caused by the pandemic. ACCESS reviewed applications on a rolling basis and awarded 22 grants out of 450 received applications.
The ACCESS-supported projects significantly varied in form, strategy, and those who benefited from them. The initiatives ranged from helping vulnerable groups to building the capacity of medical personnel, supporting children, distributing motivational content, and countering COVID-19 conspiracies and disinformation. The last RRG project ended on August 10, 2020. Shortly after that, ACCESS organized an online meeting with the RRG recipients to discuss their experiences with managing the RRG projects while these experiences were still fresh. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive from everyone involved. In particular, the participants praised the grant program for its:
• Diversity: The RRG program supported diverse groups, ranging from developed CSOs to less experienced citizen groups and individuals. For some of the groups supported by ACCESS under this program, it was their first grant project. The grant program was also diverse in terms of its focus areas and beneficiaries.
• Flexibility: The grant program allowed the flexibility that was essential in the fast- changing environment and developments during the initial months of the pandemic. The grantees were encouraged to inform ACCESS about the unanticipated obstacles and alter their operations, as necessary.
• Limited Bureaucracy: The grant management and reporting procedures were significantly simplified, allowing the grant recipients to focus on the project activities. This was particularly important during the stressful and unpredictable first months of the pandemic.
• Responsiveness: ACCESS communicated with the RRG recipients effectively, responding to their questions and requests within hours and providing the necessary support.
• Regular Feedback: ACCESS closely observed the grant-supported activities and provided helpful and constructive feedback on an ongoing basis to help improve the intended outcomes.
• Networking Opportunities: ACCESS supported regular networking and information-exchange among the grant recipients. This led to resource-sharing and increased solidarity among the supported groups.
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• Start-up Opportunity: For some of the groups supported by ACCESS under this grant program, the RRG project became an inspiration and a start-up for a longer- term, larger project. The RRG project enabled these groups to generate new ideas, prove their relevance and effectiveness, and find new partners.
• Government Engagement: ACCESS required the RRG recipients to obtain support letters from the government agencies targeted by the projects. This was an important prerequisite for the success of the projects that required participation and inclusion of civil servants and the government-sponsored agencies.
ACCESS will align its future grant programs on COVID-19 with these inputs and recommendations.
Completed COGs Two of the three completed COG projects were finalized in the first quarter of Year Six, and the third one ended in the last quarter.
The Civic Initiative/Knowledge Café successfully raised funds from 850 citizens to begin the long-awaited construction process of its new home – an independent building for the Tsnori community center. In 2019, the Knowledge Café launched a social campaign Put Your Brick to raise funds to build the community center in the village of Tsnori, Sighnaghi Municipality. In order to attract wider public attention, the Knowledge Café hosted interesting discussions in Tsnori and widely disseminated the video materials on social media. The Knowledge Café also joined different public events, such as the celebration of Georgia’s Independence Day on Rustaveli Avenue where the Knowledge Café’s volunteers collected money in exchange for bricks.
In total, the Knowledge Café held 18 outdoor fundraising events. It also engaged the lead TV anchors and journalists from the Georgian Public Broadcaster and TV Pirveli in the Put Your Break campaign and produced brief educational videos under the theme Share Knowledge in which citizens shared their knowledge, skills, and observations, and asked viewers to donate money for the Knowledge Café. In total, 56 videos were disseminated on social media, reaching over 2.5 million views.
The Center for Civic Activities (CCA) also completed its COG project at the beginning of Year Six. Through the project, CCA established Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in six high-mountain communities and built their capacities to advocate for local needs. Together with these CBOs, CCA planned and implemented a number of successful advocacy initiatives, such as raising funds to rehabilitate the historical village of Amgha, establishing the first-ever mountain festival to attract public and government attention to the high-mountain communities, supporting internetization of Ukana Pshavi and Piraketa Khevsureti, and helping to solve the land registration and other local problems of local communities in the remote villages.
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Due to the successes of these two projects in mobilizing citizens’ support and engagement, ACCESS issued targeted COGs to the two implementing organizations to support their continuous strengthening and enhancement of their effective initiatives.
ACCESS has been supporting the third targeted COG – Women of Georgia – that ended at the end of Year Six for over three years. The Women of Georgia is an online platform, featuring the real stories of women of all backgrounds, including ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities, politicians, elderly, mothers of children with disabilities, and any other women to raise awareness on gender inequalities in Georgia.
During the reporting period, Women of Georgia published 40 new stories and four videos that hit a record number of over two million views and brought 5,000 new followers to its Facebook page. Currently, the page has over 81,000 followers. Many of the published stories were quickly picked up by national TV channels and social media sites, stirring intense and sometimes first-time conversations on women’s struggles in Georgia.
Under the third COG, Women of Georgia recorded and published interviews with women from conflict zones, elderly women, civic activists, youth, women with HIV, single mothers, LGBTQI women, women in business, migrant women, ethnic minority women, women from high-mountain regions, and women affected by COVID-19. It also organized four online workshops for its network members focusing on skill development and empowerment.
ACCESS supported the maintenance of the website www.womenofgeorgia.ge which stores all the published stories in Georgian and English Languages.
Ongoing (New) COGs In December 2019, ACCESS announced a new COG Request for Concept Papers (RfCP), inviting CSOs to submit concept papers on targeting the most pressing problems faced by local communities and directly engaging citizens in resolving these problems. ACCESS received 121 applications and shortlisted seven projects for funding. Before finalizing the project activities, ACCESS organized Social Lab discussions for each one of them individually to ensure that the final activity plans reflected diverse perspectives. Social Labs engaged the project teams, local activists, project beneficiaries, area experts, outreach specialists, and other key stakeholders. All seven projects are currently ongoing as are the three targeted grants issued in Year Six (not including Women of Georgia).
ACCESS-supported #Gavigudet (#WeAreSuffocating) – a group of local volunteers and civic activists from Rustavi organized intensive citizen awareness and mobilization, and advocacy campaigns to combat air pollution in Rustavi – one of the most polluted cities in Georgia. 400 hectares of Rustavi’s territory is an industrial zone with over 40 factories. Some of the largest factories release large numbers of pollutants into the environment and take no measures to optimize their operations or otherwise reduce the amount of pollution they generate.
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#Gavigudet organized bus tours to the industrial zone to draw attention to the problem of air pollution caused by heavy industries and its health implications. The bus tours brought together local citizens, journalists, and visitors who could see the alarming level of pollution with their own eyes. The activists also organized awareness-raising activities on Rustavi-Tbilisi public minibuses to reach wider audiences and increase the number of their supporters. Currently, the movement has over 12,000 followers on its Facebook page and its activities are regularly covered on media.
#Gaviguded also developed and distributed visual materials, such as infographics and videos to inform wider audiences about the Rustavi air pollution problem and its correlation with COVID-19 complications. #Gavigudet periodically published the results of its monitoring of factories in Rustavi and assessments of their environmental impact on its Facebook page.
In addition to campaigning, the #Gavigudet team also joined public consultations on important environmental bills, according to which, companies would have to closely monitor emissions via instrumental method, and the Department of Environmental Oversight will be authorized to seal off the object, plant, or installation if it poses a threat to the environment, human health or life. The bill is expected to be discussed by the Parliament of the next convocation.
ACCESS-supported Poti-based CSO Human rights and Social Justice Research Center (HRSJRC) partnered with the local media outlet TSPress to monitor and address the problems of water and air pollution, as well as recurring flooding in Poti. HRSJRC created a Poti Civic Platform and its Facebook group Poti Citizens for their own Rights to collaborate with local activists and social and environmental movements from other parts of Georgia (including Gavigudet) to share experiences and amplify resources. Shortly after its establishment, the Poti Civic Platform and HRSJRC submitted a petition to the Poti Sakrebulo demanding the setting up of automatic measuring stations for permanent monitoring of air quality in Poti. After review, the municipal government agreed with the request to install automatic air monitoring stations in the two most contaminated locations in Poti. The National Environmental Agency has already installed two stations in close coordination with the Poti Civic Platform.
During the reporting period, HRSJRC also studied the legal framework, as well as the assessments of imposed sanctions by the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture regarding fish processing received via FOI requests. HRSJRC continued offering various skill development trainings to members of the Poti Civic Platform.
The Borjomi branch of the Center for Biodiversity Conservation & Research - NACRES promoted volunteerism and civic engagement in Borjomi through strengthening volunteer firefighter groups and raising awareness on fire prevention and safety. The Borjomi- Kharagauli National Park is one of the largest national parks in Europe and one of the most popular public parks in Georgia. It is therefore particularly important to increase public awareness and engagement in the prevention and mitigation of fires in this zone.
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Under the project, NACRES formed a group of volunteer firefighters in Borjomi and conducted a training of trainers (ToT) for them. The training covered leadership and group work, group management, training methods, forest fires in Georgia, fire prevention, fire response, and fire prevention in schools and kindergartens. The group of trained 25 volunteers is currently actively engaged in awareness- raising campaigns in schools and villages of the Borjomi municipality.
In August 2020, volunteers organized a week-long information campaign to raise awareness among the Borjomi Volunteer firefighters are putting the fire prevention signs residents and visitors about the underlying causes of forest fires and fire risks. The campaign included informational open- air events, distribution of flyers, setting up of fire-warning and informational banners near and inside the forests, and sending out SMS. Volunteer firefighters cooperated closely with the Borjomi Mayor’s Office and the National Forest Agency.
During the reporting year, NACRES also launched the junior firefighters’ program in schools. For this purpose, it purchased necessary equipment for the junior volunteer firefighters school clubs, and developed and distributed printed informational materials (e.g. posters and leaflets) about safe evacuation from buildings and forest fires.
Tbilisi Pride empowered families A group of volunteer firefighters addressing the concert attendees in the center of Borjomi of LGBTQI persons through peer solidarity and awareness-raising campaigns named Proud Families. During the reporting period, the team of Tbilisi Pride reached out to family members of LGBTQI persons to take part in the project activities and receive as well as offer support to other families.
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In August 2020, Tbilisi Pride organized a two-day workshop for 16 recruited family members to inform them about the resources available to them through the COG project, learn about their experiences and challenges, and provide support in overcoming these problems. The workshop included group discussion, informational sessions, therapy sessions, and practical exercises. It served to empower these parents to accept their children openly, support their well-being, and eventually, speak up as advocates for equality. Their majority met other parents of LGBTQI persons for the first time and quickly felt understood and relieved.
After the workshop, Tbilisi Pride organized different
follow-on activities, such as Meeting with psychologist Maia Tsiramua at the Tbilisi Pride offices thematic movie nights and discussions and informational meetings for LGBTQI family members about the legal, psycho- social, and religious issues in relation to LGBTQI. The workshop participant and other family members of LGBTQI persons actively engaged in these activities and eventually turned into a strong peer solidarity network.
As part of the project, Tbilisi Pride also developed and published a brief video address by the well-known and -liked psychotherapist and psychologist Maya Tsiramua, who addressed families of LGBTQI persons, explaining to them why it is important to overcome stereotypes, support their children and join the Tbilisi Pride solidarity groups. Within a day of its publishing, the video was seen over 5,000 times and shared over 70 times.
The Tbilisi Pride project targets and engages with the families of LGBTQI persons as family support (a) to promote acceptance as critical to the health and wellbeing of LGBTQI persons and (b) to help diversify the voices and perspectives of LGBTQI campaign activists.
The Marneuli-based New Thinking Institute (NTI) is implementing a project that aims to empower young rural Azeri mothers in three villages of the Marneuli municipality – Khuldara, Molaoghli, and Sadakhlo. NTI has launched the Mothers’ School and offers Azeri mothers informal education opportunities in two community centers.
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The Mothers' School involves 22 mothers whose children are in elementary school and who were unable to complete their own education for different reasons, including but not limited to early marriage. They attend informal education classes twice a week. They are also invited to take part in seminars and discussions on topics related to child psychology and development, positive parenting, women’s rights, and other related issues. Discussion for young Azeri mothers on Women’s Rights
During the reporting period, NTI organized 22 such seminars and discussions, covering women’s rights, children’s healthcare, women’s healthcare (including reproductive health), first aid, healthy lifestyle and disease prevention, children’s psychology, and positive parenting.
The education centers have play areas where children have fun and are looked after while their mothers attend different classes and seminars.
Salam Platform empowers Azeri youth leaders by creating educational opportunities in advocacy, public speaking, and debates. During the reporting period, Salam trained 20 young Azeris in public speaking and debating techniques and supported them to organize sixteen follow-up trainings for their peers. Salam also launched Reading Clubs (i.e. book clubs) and organized Club discussions on different issues affecting young Azeris in Georgia.
In order to channel the voices and perspectives of the Azeri community, Salam and its young activists published blog posts on topics of multiculturalism, equal rights, political ideologies, and gender equality from the ethnic minority perspective. Additionally, Salam and activists organized eight Open Microphone Meetings in the villages of Marneuli, Gardabani, Bolnisi, and Dmanisi, enabling local communities to voice their concerns and needs and share them widely using Salam Platform’s popular Facebook page. Salam will also highlight these needs in its future outreach and advocacy campaigns engaging youth activists from the Kvemo Kartli region.
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Orbeliani - Georgia developed a new, easy-to-access funding mechanism for community-driven projects. This mechanism enables citizens to propose project ideas using an online platform and a simplified grant-making process and raise funds from citizens, as well from donors to implement their ideas. Once Orbeliani – Georgia receives project ideas (i.e. their brief descriptions) from citizens, it selects the most Reading Circle meeting in Mziuri Park in Tbilisi prospective ones and publishes them online on its newly launched crowdfunding platform – Orbeliani Meti. Orbeliani – Georgia then assists them to organize online campaigns to raise funds through crowdfunding and if a campaign reaches at least half of its requested budget from citizens, Orbeliani – Georgia covers the other half using ACCESS funds.
During the reporting period, Orbeliani – Georgia received twenty ideas through its open competition and selected twelve finalists. Orbeliani – Georgia helped them to develop their online fundraising plans and set up the tailored crowdfunding campaigns. Ten out of twelve campaigns quickly reached their fundraising goals through mobilizing and engaging diverse supporters as their social media ‘ambassadors’, attracting media attention, and organizing community events. Four campaigners – the Bediani Climbing Club, New Life for Okami Park, Healthy Yards for Tbilisi, and 2 GELs to solve 2 Problems – were particularly creative in mobilizing supporters and fundraising. A ride-sharing app for women will continue fundraising efforts until the end of November 2020.
GLOW online camp for girls had the lowest target of only 600 GEL and was the first to finish the campaign. GLOW used its network of long-term advocates to collect donations and went ahead organizing its annual camp for young girls aged 14-17 in August 2020. Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, the camp was online, engaging 40 young girls from all over Georgia. The online camp was conducted in two phases during August 3-6, 2020 and August 10-13, 2020, and it served to improve the participants' awareness of their rights and duties as citizens, develop their leadership skills, and raise awareness about their personal development, self- esteem, and reproductive health.
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The campaign called 2 GELs to solve 2 Problems led by an activist Asmat Bolkvadze had one of the highest numbers of individual supporters. The message – Give 2 GELs – resonated well in the local communities and those who wanted to support did not object to giving just 2 GELs. Besides, success largely came from the group’s intensive interaction on social networks and on-site fundraising efforts. Asmat and her Waste paper collection for the 2 GELs to solve 2 Problems campaign team produced 31 videos featuring
their ambassadors, calling on their friends and other citizens to donate to the campaign.
New Life for Okami Park ows its success to local activists. Initially, Nana Deisadze, the project author used her own social networks mostly based in Tbilisi to collect support and donations, but these efforts were not as successful. In the final month of the campaign, she turned to the Okami local community to earn the needed support. Nana and her team members went door- to-door to collect money and installed money collection boxes in the local shops. The local activism paid off and the project reached its target.
The Raise Champions for Bediani campaign won the hearts of many strangers through TV media coverage and social media posts. It also raised funds from the private and public sectors. One of the leading national TV channels Rustavi 2 continuously provided support through media coverage. Its sports journalists used their contacts with the Ministry of Youth and Sports to advocate for supporting the project. As a result, the Ministry pledged to provide a climbing wall to be installed in the facility. The Kaspi cement factory donated cement to repair the building and a shop selling the equipment to rock climbers donated cash.
This was a major success for the Fundraising campaign for Bediani at an open-door climbing wall on Lisi Lake campaign given that 10,000 GEL – the ultimate goal of the campaign – was not enough to repair the building, build the wall and purchase equipment. As a final stage of the campaign, in mid-September 2020, the project activists organized an onsite campaign on Lisi Lake in Tbilisi. The Lisi Lake administration allowed the campaigners to use their climbing wall for fundraising. All payments to climb the wall went to the campaign, and in the end, the project successfully reached its crowdfunding goal of 5,000 GELs.
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Give Air To Rustavi fundraising campaign launched by the COG Gavigudet had a great start, but as the end started to near, the donations went down. In response, Gavigudet campaigners stormed social media with calls for donations and engaged with local media to explain how donations could make a difference for Rustavi. As a result, Gavigudet ended with the highest number of individual donors – 163 individuals and 1,000 GEL more donations than the initial target of 5,000 GEL.
Targeted COGs In Year Five, ACCESS supported four targeted COGs by the Club of Winner Women, Civic Initiative/Knowledge Cafe, Center for Civic Activities, and Coalition for Children and Youth.
ACCESS provided continued support to the Club of Winner Women (CWW) to help breast cancer patients and survivors through peer-networking and rehabilitation and raise public awareness about the importance of breast and cervical cancer screening. During the reporting period, CWW set up two new women’s support groups in Gori and Sagarejo and organized 12 psychological rehabilitation sessions for each new and existing support/self-help group. CWW also developed and widely disseminated video presentations of post- mastectomy exercises in Armenian and Azeri languages.
CWW continued conducting awareness-raising activities about the state-sponsored national screening programs and about the importance of screening for reducing cancer mortality. Despite the difficulties caused by COVID-19, CWW successfully organized awareness-raising campaigns in Akhaltsike, Sagarejo, Gurjaani, Zugdidi, Gori, and Ozurgeti targeting women, general practitioners, and other medical professionals. Members of CWW also held meetings with local governments to advocate for local programs for breast cancer patients and survivors.
With the support of ACCESS, the Knowledge Cafè continued mobilizing resources to build the independent civic space in Tsnori through crowdfunding, and it produced graphics and short videos to inform supporters about its fundraising progress. Simultaneously, it continued developing new engagement and professional development opportunities for local communities. In particular, the Knowledge Café designed a business startup mentorship program to help develop civic and business skills among students in twenty high schools. It also designed a new training program for university students. Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, the launch of both programs had to be postponed.
The Center for Civic Activities (CCA), in partnership with Tusheti, Pankisi, Pshav- Khevsureti, Mtiuleti, Khevi, Racha, Lechkhumi, Lower Svaneti, and Upper Svaneti CBOs launched advocacy campaigns on access to public transportation for rural communities, access to the Internet, renaming one of the streets in Khalde (Mestia municipality) to commemorate the courage of the Khalde villagers at the end of the 19th century, renaming on of the streets in Lentekhi after the local soldier fallen in the 2008 Russian-Georgian War, documenting and preserving the Racha Oda houses, and creating a new tourist track in Racha. All of these issues
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were identified and the campaign initiatives were proposed by the local communities and CBOs supported by CCA.
During the reporting period, the CCA organized a four-day training on advocacy tools for sixty members of its supported high-mountain CBOs. CCA also conducted twenty informational meetings in Pankisi, Upper Svaneti, Racha, and Javakheti to inform local citizens, including youth, about the Gela Mtivlishvili meeting with Upper Svaneti CBO members project goals and engage them in the future CBO activities.
The Mtis Ambebi media outlet of CCA continued producing and disseminating video stories highlighting the key problems related to issues raised by local CBOs. Mtis Ambebi helped the Upper Svaneti CBO to organize a crowdfunding campaign for Elene Kvanchiani and her disabled son living in the barn in extreme poverty in the Vedi village, in Mestia. Within a week, CCA and Upper Svaneti CBO collected 40,000 GEL to build a house for them.
The Coalition for Children and Youth (CYY), which unites 49 organizations focusing on children’s rights, started implementing the targeted COG in September 2020. ACCESS issued the grant to CYY as a follow-on project to the Regional Civic Engagement Campaign on children’s issues that it organized in November 2019. The COG project aims to raise awareness about children’s issues in Georgia and put them at the center of election debates and programs during 2020 parliamentary elections.
Despite the fact that numerous national and international research studies on children’s issues point to substantial challenges in this area, politicians rarely address these issues in their public statements and discussions.
Under the targeted COG, CCY capitalizes on the election season to bring more attention to the issues that matter most to children and advocates for the improvement of children’s wellbeing. In September 2020, CCY developed and widely disseminated fact sheets on children’s issues and began organizing meetings with the main political parties and majoritarian candidates participating in the upcoming elections to raise their awareness about these issues and advocate for their inclusion in election programs. CCY will continue these meetings in October 2020. It will also work with journalists and producers of popular political talk-shows to raise their awareness about children’s issues and advocate for their inclusion in
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pre-election debates and interviews with political parties and candidates. Additionally, CCY will study and publicize the main political parties' stand on children’s issues.
Bus Tours ACCESS continued organizing Bus Tours with leading Tbilisi-based and regional CSOs and activists to the small villages of Georgia to expand civic discussions and citizen engagement activities to remote communities. On September 23 and 25, 2020, ACCESS, in cooperation with the NCCE Marneuli, the Knowledge Café, Salam, NTI, Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA), Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), Sapari, SovLab, Gavigudet, Publika, and the representative of Public Defender in Kvemo Kartli organized Bus Tours to Bolnisi and Marneuli. Bus Tour participants met with locals in five Bus Tour in Marneuli villages village centers, discussed their problems, and offered onsite and follow-up assistance, as needed.
The Bus Tours uncovered a large number of problems faced by local communities that do not receive enough attention from local and/or national government – a village with 7,000 residents does not have a local kindergarten; poor local school buildings damage students’ health and education; insufficient irrigation systems cause farming difficulties; poor drinking water supply creates sanitation and other household problems; domestic waste management system is nearly nonexistent; the local egg factory contaminates surrounding areas, etc.
CSOs and civic activists informed local residents about their resources and services and offered assistance in voicing, as well as resolving the identified problems. They also provided legal consultations onsite and shared contact details with citizens for follow-up communication.
Upon returning to Tbilisi, the CSOs and activists stayed in Onsite consultation in Talaveri, Bolnisi contact with local civic activists
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from Salam and local citizens and began developing joint advocacy and legal aid activities to address the primary needs and priorities of the visited communities. ACCESS will continue supporting these efforts to promote the resolution of the most pressing issues.
COMPONENT TWO: IMPROVING CSO LEADERSHIP, ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY, AND SUSTAINABILITY
Under Component Two, ACCESS provides a wide range of tailored technical assistance (TA) to regional and Tbilisi-based CSOs with the end goal of helping them develop into strong and sustainable organizations. ACCESS TA emphasizes facilitated learning, giving CSOs the latitude to define their own priorities and tailor specific interventions to individual and organizational needs. To assist CSOs in improving their ability to leverage existing resources and pursue emerging opportunities to raise social and financial capital, ACCESS provides opportunities for networking and business sector outreach.
ACCESS works to achieve Component Two objectives by launching the following activities in Year 1: (i) the CSO Organizational Development Program; (ii) the Nonprofit Management Program (NMP); (iii) CSO network facilitation (through support for the Regional Civil Society Network (R-CSN), a consortium of regional CSOs throughout Georgia); and (iv) the Business Outreach Program. ACCESS implements Component Two primarily through its local implementing partners, CTC and CiDA. CTC is responsible for CSO organizational development and the NMP, while CiDA organizes network facilitation and business outreach activities.
Key Activities and Accomplishments Organizational Capacity Assessments and Technical Assistance At the start of Year Six, CTC made changes to the Organizational and Advocacy Capacity Assessment (OACA) tool to make it easier for CSOs to conduct self-assessments without direct involvement from CTC. The main domains and areas of assessment remained the same. CTC simplified the questions and a scoring system and developed detailed instructions for using the tool.
In January 2020, ACCESS and CTC announced an open competition to select the new cohort of CSOs for the tailored assistance program. Out of the 25 received applications, ACCESS and CTC selected seven organizations. Additionally, ACCESS nominated three CSOs from the list of its grantees. CTC conducted initial assessments of and drafted capacity development plans for eight CSOs. Based on the initial assessments and the interests expressed by the participating CSOs, CTC provided the following assistance to the selected eight organizations:
• Parents for Education: organizational strategy; concept of Parents Digital School; • Georgian Center for Security and Democracy (GCSD): sub-award issuing rules and procedures; specific requirements for grant applications; a project logical framework; a monitoring and evaluation system;
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• Georgian Coalition for Early Childhood Intervention (GCECI): organizational set-up; membership base; fundraising strategy; • Umbrella: organizational management and project planning; • Coalition for Children and Youth: rules and procedures on managing coalition projects; • Tbilisi Pride: crisis response plan; internal code of conduct; participatory decision- making within the organization; • Orbeliani – Georgia: organizational strategy; crowdfunding platform promotion strategy.
The remaining three organizations – Platform Salam, Women’s Initiatives supporting Group (WISG) and StratCom Georgia – will begin working with CTC in Year Seven.
NMP Self-paced Courses In Year Six, CTC continued offering three self-paced e-courses on project management, CSO leadership, and civil society.
During Year Six, CTC continued offering self-paced e-learning courses for CSOs and civic activists. The courses were permanently open for enrollment. The courses were particularly popular during the COVID-19 lockdown, when demand for online resources increased significantly. Overall, during Year Six, 414 new users registered on the e-learning platform and 183 successfully completed one or more courses and received certificates.
• 157 certificates were issued to participants who successfully completed the Leadership in CSOs course; • 101 ertificates were issued to participants who successfully completed the Project Logic in a Nutshell course; • 85 certificates were issued to participants who successfully completed the Roadmap to CSOs course. CTC asked the enrolled participants to give anonymous feedback on the self-paced courses. The majority of the participants found the courses useful and were satisfied both with the content and delivery. 91% of those who completed the Leadership in CSOs course responded that their expectations were fully met by the course. Satisfaction rates for the Roadmap to CSOs and the Project Logic in a Nutshell were 85% and 89%, respectively. The remaining 14% for the Roadmap to CSOs and 11% for the Project Logic in a Nutshell indicated that their expectations were met, albeit partly. Around 90% of participants found the course content and delivery informative, logical, and well-organized. More than 80% said that the courses were easy to navigate.
E-course on Sexual Harassment In June 2020, CTC launched a new, self-paced e-course on how to prevent and address Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. The course targets CSOs and helps them develop efficient internal prevention and response mechanisms. The course includes three modules: the reading material, case studies, and quizzes.
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Before finalizing the course, CTC and ACCESS collected detailed feedback from different stakeholders, including the Gender Council of the Parliament of Georgia, UN Women, EWMI- PROLoG, and Georgian CSOs. Individuals with disabilities (e.g. deaf and blind) also tested the course to make sure that it was equally accessible for everyone.
As of September 30, 2020, 161 participants enrolled in the course and 96 completed it successfully. CTC collected the participant feedback for the sexual harassment prevention course separately from the other three self-paced courses. Responses for this course were mostly positive with 81% of participant rating the course content and navigation as “very good” and 19% rating them as “good”. All respondents indicated that they would recommend this course to their colleagues, and more than 90% indicated that the course would help CSOs better regulate and prevent workplace sexual harassment.
Nonprofit Management Resource Platform CTC continued updating its resource database for non-profit organizations and civic activists. The database functions as an online library on nonprofit management and civil society and is accessible to anyone interested. It combines CTC’s publications, research reports, and open source readers/materials on these subjects. Currently, the database is the largest Georgian- language online database of its kind. According to the Google analytics data, the platform attracts approximately 600 visitors monthly.
Stress Management Videos and Workshop In Year Six, in response to COVID-19 anxiety, CTC and ACCESS produced video instructions on how to manage stress during the crisis. CTC partnered with the well-known psychologist Maya Tsiramua to produce four videos of five minutes each on different aspects of stress management. More than 200,000 individuals viewed the videos on social media in the first months of the COVID-19 crisis. ACCESS and CTC translated the stress management recommendations in the Azerbaijani and Armenian languages to make them accessible to ethnic minorities living in the Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti regions.
CTC and ACCESS also designed and organized a two-day stress management and professional burnout prevention workshop for the RRG and COG recipients who were involved in the most intense and/or distressing COVID- 19 response activities. In total, 10 grantees participated in the workshop that took place in Stress Management Workshop for civic activists and CSO leaders
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July 2020. After the workshop, all participants reported that they found it very timely and helpful to recover and regain motivation and handle high levels of stress.
Online International Conference on the Impact of COVID-19 on Civic and Youth Activism On September 2-3, 2020, ACCESS and CTC organized an international online conference on the Impact of COVID-19 on Civic and Youth Activism. This was the first international conference organized and hosted by a Georgian organization on the impact of COVID-19 on civic movements in Europe, South Caucasus, and Central Asia.
The online conference gathered about 80 civil society leaders and activists from the three regions and other parts of the world to discuss the key societal issues that have (re)gained a central position in civic and political debates during the pandemic. This included social inequalities, women’s rights, children’s rights, domestic violence, environmental challenges, affordable health care, etc. The conference explored the role of the civil society sector in advancing these issues in the COVID-19 context. More specifically, the conference focused on the:
• New tactics and strategies used by civic activists to plan and organize their citizen mobilization and advocacy campaigns; • New competencies and skills necessary for civic activism in the COVID-19 era; • Digital organizing during the pandemic and digital safety for activists; • COVID-19 impact on gender equality and responses by equality activists; • COVID-19 impact on environment and responses by climate change and environmental protection activists; • COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity for swift societal changes.
The speakers included Georgian and foreign activists representing a wide variety of civil society organizations and civic movements from Spain, Portugal, UK, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Australia. Among the Georgian speakers were ACCESS grantees and partner organizations, such as Tbilisi Pride, DFRLab, Partnership for Human Rights (PHR), Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), and Shame Movement.
The conference was structured around the pre-recorded speeches by the keynote speakers and follow-up live dialogues, facilitated live panel discussions on the key issues with selected field professionals, meet-up live sessions with activists' groups to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on their tactics and practices, and a final live panel discussion on the future to come. Shortly before the conference, CTC distributed the thought-provoking reading material to participants to prepare them for the upcoming discussions.
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The online conference received 1,978 unique page views. It engaged 170 registered participants during live sessions from nine countries and was viewed by 155 registered participants after the sessions (through recordings). Currently, the conference recordings are publicly available on the conference webpage and are promoted for more views through social media.
The online conference was co-funded by the Bread for the Word (Germany), Erasmus+ programme (EACEA), and ACCESS.
Co-Creation With assistance from ACCESS, CTC put together a desk review report on the co-creation approach and methodologies to promote their use by Georgian CSOs and civic activists. The co-creation methods are not well-known in Georgia and are therefore significantly underutilized.
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CTC will use the research data to develop a manual for Georgian CSOs and civic activists on how to organize co-creation processes in the Georgian context and support innovation and participatory-planning. In the first quarter of Year Seven, ACCESS will provide a targeted, in- depth capacity building to CTC and other CSOs by the highly-regarded international consultant group Reos Partners to increase their understanding and knowledge of co-creation and help expand the use of this approach in the Georgian civil society sector.
Networking Facilitation and Business Outreach In the last quarter of Year Five, following the forensic and tax auditing results received from CiDA, as well as actions taken by the CiDA board and management, ACCESS issued a project resumption letter to the organization. For most of Year Six, CiDA engaged in rebranding and internal management revision processes under its new leadership.
In September 2020, ACCESS gave a new grant to CiDA in the amount of 55,430 USD and CiDA began implementing the project activities on September 15, 2020. Under this grant, CiDA will:
• Regularly update and publicize the CSR databank, listing CSR priority areas, committed funds, initiatives, and decision-making procedures of Georgian businesses to assist CSOs in identifying their potential partners in the business community;
• Proactively work to connect the businesses and CSOs with similar priority areas to facilitate their partnerships and promote the benefits of such cooperation. CIDA will prioritize promoting corporate responsibility and CSO-business partnerships in response to COVID-19;
• Promote the understanding of how the COVID-19 crisis has affected and/or will shape corporate social responsibility priorities, communications, and motivation in Georgia in the near future;
• Promote the UN Global Compact Local Network through (i) facilitating networking among the GCNG members and other stakeholders and through (ii) attracting new members.
During the reporting period, CIDA prepared a questionnaire to collect information from business organizations on their CR priority areas, committed funds, initiatives, and decision- making procedures to update the CSR databank. In the beginning of Year Seven, CiDA will disseminate the questionnaire and include the collected information in the databank.
In September 2020, CiDA was contacted by the women’s rights organization Sapari, expressing interest to assist companies in the integration of gender equality clauses into their business policies and operations. The organization offered to work with three groups of companies employees (lawyers, HR managers, PR managers) and deliver trainings for them.
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CIDA shared this information with the members of its facilitated Global Compact network in Georgia and received expressions of interest from four companies. Sapari will begin working with them in October 2020.
Additionally, CiDA assisted the disability rights CSO Anika in organizing an informational session for business organizations on employing persons with disabilities (PwDs). Ten companies participated in the meeting to learn about the business case of employment of PwDs, PwDs rights, and the database of unemployed PwDs developed and maintained by Anika. After the meeting, three companies expressed interest to partner with Anika and employ PwDs. The social enterprise Kodalab expressed readiness to employ 10 PwDs right away. MBC and Innova also expressed interest in employing PwDs.
Throughout September 2020, CiDA was in contact with the Human Rights Secretariat of the Government of Georgia and the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Human Rights Issues to define the activity timeline for supporting the implementation of the National Human Rights Action Plan 2018-2020 and its Business and Human Rights chapter, as well as to inquire the progress on drafting the new Strategy for 2021-2030.
COMPONENT THREE: CSO POLICY RESEARCH, MONITORING, AND INFLUENCE INCREASE
ACCESS supports Georgian think tanks, watchdog CSOs, and CSO coalitions in effectively monitoring, analyzing, and influencing key government policies and processes. The goal is to improve policy decisions and increase government accountability to the public on national policy issues. ACCESS Component Three activities include: (1) building CSO capacity in policy research, analysis, and organizational management; (2) supporting research, advocacy, and monitoring projects through PPAGs; and (3) organizing policy forums to deepen constructive dialogue between CSOs, the government, and other policy stakeholders.
Key Activities and Accomplishments In Year Six, ACCESS spearheaded diverse CSO activities specifically targeting malign content concerning COVID-19 in Georgia and building societal resilience against hostile foreign electoral interference in the run-up to parliamentary elections of October 31, 2020. The five ACCESS-supported PPAG recipients exposed domestic and Russian-originated disinformation campaigns in social media; advocated with Facebook to delete fake accounts, pages, groups and “media”; went after trolls and disinformation platforms; increased citizen awareness of digital and media literacy; crowdsourced fight against misinformation on COVID- 19 by engaging thousands of citizens and digital activists in countering it, and handed out popular anti-propaganda newspapers in educational campaigns to offline regional communities of Georgia with little access to the Internet.
Building Resilience against Disinformation
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The International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) had several success stories. It had Facebook take down pages and 12 fake accounts affiliated with the Kremlin-sponsored News Front Georgia and Sputnik. The network engaged in so-called inauthentic coordinated behavior with an aim to divide society and drive political polarization. ISFED also had Facebook take down a coordinated network of false Georgian media pages that disseminated pro-governmental messages and demonized critical opinions of civil society and opposition parties. This led ISFED to be widely covered by the media and cited extensively in what was a political scandal sparked by similar takedowns in December 2019.
Additionally, ISFED successfully advocated with Facebook and had most of its recommendations to combat fake news in Georgia put into practice. In particular, starting from August 7, 2020, Facebook requires advertisers to register if they plan to run ads about elections and politics; clearly identify the country they are in; include the “paid for by” disclaimers showing the organization or person behind the ad, their address, phone number, e-mail, and website, and have their ads stored in the publicly searchable Ad Library. This outcome was thanks to the advocacy by ISFED, who regularly communicated with Facebook and organized a joint letter to Facebook signed by 48 Georgian CSOs and media organizations. Despite existing challenges in social media, these changes have made at least the sponsored ads part of the pre-election atmosphere more transparent, having reduced incentives for covert political disinformation through this instrument. Moreover, the Ad Library allows journalists, social media researchers, and watchdogs to scrutinize campaign funding on Facebook ads by political parties.
In September 2020, ISFED published an interim report finalizing its social media monitoring over the political smear campaigns on Facebook in the run-up to the elections.
Using Facebook’s Crowdtangle and Fact-a-lyzer tools, ISFED monitored a total of 700 Facebook pages that tried to influence public opinion and political processes in the pre-election period. ISFED found that both the ruling Georgian Dream- and opposition- associated actors were engaged in political smear campaigns, using Facebook pages, fake pages pretending to support opposition, false media ISFED uncovered coordinated political smear campaigns on Facebook outlets, and pro-government pages.
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The interaction on the anti-opposition outlets surpassed that of the anti-government with 740,568 compared to 676,006, respectively. This was thanks to greater coordination of anti- opposition platforms and the use of sophisticated photos, videos, and sponsored ads and sharing of posts in large public groups through fake accounts. Smear campaigns mainly targeted the key pro-western political parties, and often used sexist and homophobic messages and photos. Beside Facebook pages, Facebook groups were increasingly used in response to the ISFED-led Facebook’s new disclosure regulation on sponsored ads.
Likewise, ISFED’s monitoring of 127 official pages of local government bodies (who are obligated by the law to pursue political neutrality) showed that their posts regularly showcased the ruling Georgian Dream’s performance and used sponsored ads funded by the ruling party.
As part of its anti-disinformation efforts, ISFED created Disinfoobserver.ge, an interactive website with a searchable directory of more than 228 Facebook pages that spread discrediting content, divisive narratives, and other harmful and misleading content. The platform offers a database of Facebook pages uncovered through ISFED’s monitoring efforts, and allows users to report links for review.
ISFED also published blog posts on a coordinated network of pro-Russian ultra-nationalist group Alt-Info on Facebook – the Facebook network operating in favor of pro-Russian party the Alliance of Patriots – and trends of campaigning in Facebook drawing on the Ad Library data. In total, ISFED uncovered and analyzed 34 pages associated with Alt-Info and a network of 10 discrediting coordinated Facebook pages supporting the Alliance of Patriots.
ISFED produced weekly social media updates, captioned images summarizing the main discrediting messages on Facebook against the government/ruling party and the opposition, and issued a comics episode titled Digital Hygiene against the Virus of Disinformation.
The grantee actively disseminated its research findings through TV appearances and online platforms (i.e. website, Elections Portal, and Facebook page), publishing 21 news media pieces, participating in one radio interview, organizing regional roundtable meetings and training sessions with up to 1,200 election observers and civil servants, and distributing 1,050 brochures and 1,020 bookmarks on the topic of disinformation and elections.
In the given period, ISFED social media activities reached 143,456 Facebook users and received 16,064 post clicks, 4,821 link clicks, 1,986 reactions, 669 comments, and 467 shares.
ISFED’s work was recognized by numerous local and international organizations, including the National Democratic Institute (NDI), which referred to ISFED’s research as “groundbreaking” in its pre-election assessment report of August 19, 2020.
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On.ge Projects and DFRLab produced and widely disseminated monthly investigative open-source research, identifying disinformation campaigns targeting 2020 parliamentary elections. In total, the project exposed and/or analyzed eight Russian or pro-Russian influence campaigns on the following topics: Kremlin’s disinformation campaign to whitewash the Russian cyber-attack in Georgia in October 2019; the leaking of the personal data of more than four million Georgian voters that appeared in an online hacking forum; disinformation campaigns run by a Georgian far-right group Alt-Info that anti-Western narratives; a broadly shared investigative article by On.ge journalists about the fake phone opinion poll of one million citizens by a notoriously anti-western political party Patriotic Alliance of Georgia to question Georgians’ actual support for NATO.
The DFRLab’s latest research looked into the pro-Kremlin narratives with regard to the murder of a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent named Khangoshvili in Berlin. DFRLab analyzed how Kremlin used the 4 D tactics of disinformation – Dismiss, Distort, Distract, and Dismay – to dilute the mounting evidence of its culpability.
Another article analyzed how suspicious Georgian accounts moved to Twitter to attack the U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger for publicly reprimanding the Georgian government for its lack of commitment to democratic values. The suspicious Twitter accounts accused the congressman of interfering in the country’s domestic affairs. One particularly prominent account appeared to be associated with a Facebook page called Anti-liberal Doctrine, which is known to spread pro-Russian, anti-Georgian opposition, and anti-Western content. Many of the suspicious accounts were created in January and February 2020. The similarity in their creation dates, handle pattern, and Twitter DFRLab exposed a likely botnet on Twitter targeting foreign critics of activity indicated that they were dormant Georgian government inauthentic accounts created as part of a botnet.
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DFRLab also studied the Georgian far-right groups that actively used social media platforms to push forward their anti-liberal and anti-West agenda. Using the social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle, DFRLab collected 21,740 Facebook posts published by 10 far-right Facebook pages whose total number of page likes were over 500,000. Content analysis showed that majority of the far-right pages routinely criticized Russia and portrayed it as a foe rather than a friend, but they also actively advocated for a so-called pro-Georgian course, calling for Georgia to balance its relations with the West and Russia. These pages actively criticized the West and condemned liberalism for “eroding DFRLab looked into Georgian ultra-nationalists groups, their topics, narratives, and sentiments traditional values”.
Another of DFRLab’s research articles looked into how the pro-Russian Alliance of Patriots party diversified its tactics of spreading disinformation ahead of the parliamentary elections, using both online and offline advertisements. The ad campaign used hate speech and portrayed Turkey as an existential threat to Georgia. Based on the analysis of the Ad Library, the Alliance of Patriots was found to run nine sponsored political ads, eight of which were anti-Turkish, potentially reaching 1 to 3.7 million citizens.
DFRLab also studied the reach of Kremlin-controlled media Sputnik versus local quality media outlets in the South Caucasus region. As a Russian state-controlled media agency, Sputnik has prompted concerns that the Kremlin would use it as a tool for influencing public opinion in the countries in which it operates. Over the last five years, Sputnik has managed to build a sizeable social distribution network in the South Caucasus. However, its reach and influence appeared limited in comparison to credible, well-established, and independent local media outlets in the three countries.
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On.ge published fun anti-disinfo materials on its popular website, and reached Internet users effectively and widely. It published a graphic video who is Georgia’s real friend – Russia or the West showed the historic data on western support to Georgia compared to Russian wrongdoings. This video went viral, getting over 300,000 reaches and over 9.000 engagements. Another graphic video highlighted the problem of disinformation in social media and the ways one can spot fake news. It got over to 150,000 reaches and over 6,500 engagements.
On.ge’s articles raised awareness about the Creative anti-disinformation graphic videos by On.ge Projects went viral various ways Russia interferes in other countries’ elections and the new strategies Russia’s most notorious Internet trolls use to influence public opinion. They also emphasized Georgia’s historic journey to freedom and democracy and its long history of fighting against Russian Occupation. Additionally, these articles described the strategies and technologies used by other countries against disinformation. On.ge’s regular infographics and quizzes covered the specific cases of disinformation and raised citizens’ comprehension of how Russian actors work to manipulate public opinion.
On.ge’s project reached its targets of at least 150,000 video views and at least 700,000 persons reached across all content. The total number of people reached in July-September was 1,053,153.
On.ge was named the only Georgian media out of 24 that was found to have a low risk level for disinformation by Global Disinformation Index (GDI).
Internet Monitoring for Democratic Civic Action (IMDCA) ‘Who is Who’ (Vin Vin Aris) web-platform identified and marked 2,862 troll, fake, and malicious actors. This significantly impacted malicious actors’ ability to subtly spread disinformation and fake news as they were automatically flagged as sources of disinformation and manipulation.
The PPAG helped VinVinAris (VVA) extension to become more popular as the number of its downloads on all platforms (Google Chrome, Firefox, and Opera) and engagement reached more than 10,000 and its simultaneous users fluctuated between 3,000 and 6,000 users constantly. The download and adoption rates were directly affected by the current state of affairs in the country with users removing and re-downloading the extension as political developments slowed down or picked up the pace.
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IMDCA created an automatic feature for identifying fake news. Once a user who has downloaded VinVinAris Chrome extension lands at a fake news website, a warning box shows up, stating the content is fake news and has been fact-checked by a reputable organization. Over 600 articles and fake news were marked as fake/suspicious. Thanks to this platform, 62 pages were deactivated, became inactive, or deleted after an extensive reporting campaign. IMDCA and reputable fact-checkers also exposed and marked over 30 pseudo-news agencies, pages, and/or originations using the Fake News Detection Platform.
All major (Poynteer verified) fact-checking organizations expressed willingness to use the platform and IMDCA provided access and initial training. However, as Facebook’s official fact-checking became available in the country, this somewhat impacted the popularity of the VVA’s fact-checking
platform. VinVinAris extension identified over 2,800 fake accounts and 600 fake news VVA created a fake account, bot, and fake news database that enables easy search and sharing and updating of information on ongoing fake/propaganda campaigns.
Over 600 volunteers participated in the VVA project from the beginning to the end, including over 300 volunteers who constantly reported suspected accounts, pages and acted as volunteer digital watchdogs. VVA provided basic training to these volunteers in fake account detection and shared its tools with them.
VinVinAris rebranded itself, using a new logo, and in order to raise its credibility and improve the public’s support for digital activism against trolls and bots, IMDCA developed four short educational, animated videos on the basics of how to spot and fight disinformation and fakes in social media. The marketing campaign reached over one million users on Facebook, mostly through viral posts and Facebook advertising.
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Strategic Communications Center of Georgia’s (StratCom) Information Defense Legion served as the most active and quick platform to respond to misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracies in a coordinated manner in April to May 2020, during the national lockdown and the first wave of COVID-19. It published posts, articles, and videos related to COVID-19, challenging and resisting the Georgian conspiracy clickbait sites and the Russian propaganda outlets that aggressively discredited the US-funded Lugar Laboratory and spread disinformation about the origin of the virus. It also challenged a brief upsurge in Georgians’ anti-European With exclusive content and communication strategy, Legion became the most engaged and far-reaching Facebook platform among its moods and gathered and spread arguments competitors and adversaries against the health threats of 5G technology and related conspiracy theories that had flooded the social media and led to occasional calls for violence.
By supporting the Legion’s newspaper called Position, ACCESS was the first donor organization to experiment with using the popular press as a means of reaching out to offline rural communities to counter disinformation. The newspaper used easy-to-understand language and appealing visuals. It intentionally followed the simplistic style of widely popular tabloid newspapers to capture their audiences and other offline vulnerable citizens in Georgia’s regions and provide them with alternative content.
The Legion developed and published four monthly editions of the newspaper and distributed its 22,000 copies in four regions of Georgia, each copy containing some key messages and materials and rotating the rest of the content according to the specific hostile narratives dominant in a given region. Volunteers and activists handed out thousands of its copies to blue-collar and self-employed, mostly elderly, rural residents in various shops, markets, streets, and bus stations in Gori Town of war-affected Shida Kartli Region and the Ajara Region, a stronghold of the pro-Russian Patriotic Alliance of Georgia.
Along with highlighting the western support to Georgia during the COVID-19 pandemic and putting a spotlight on the Russian fake news, the newspaper debunked the anti-Turkish and anti-NATO narratives frequently spread by pro-Russian groups in these regions. The Legion symbolically rewarded 47 of its most active and faithful volunteers who helped in this campaign with Georgian flags and certificates of appreciation.
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The Legion also held a weekly offline and online campaign to mark May 26, Georgia’s Independence Day. Its patriotic May 26 promo video went viral and got a record number of reactions (1,737). The video was shared 3,749 times. It reached 346,589 people and engagements equaled 34,252. Additionally, a popular blogger shared the video on his page, which got 3,356 reactions, 152 comments and 14,048 shares.
Throughout the reporting period, the Legion published 350 Facebook posts,
including 97 videos, most of which are Legionnaires get constantly rewarded and recognized for their active Legion’s exclusive videos. Four of its most contribution to fighting disinformation popular videos were viewed 178,300 to 402,800 times. Its total, Legion’s social media reach in September only was 1,495,270 with 603,011 post engagements.
By the end of the reporting period, the Legion’s pro-western social media activity surpassed that of the most popular disinformation outlets. The Legion’s engagement and reach were larger than those of its adversaries – Alt-Info and Politicano – and it is ten times more popular than other similar anti-disinformation platforms.
United Nations Association Georgia (UNAG), in collaboration with the popular internet publication civil.ge, conducted an information campaign to support Georgia’s aspirations towards Euro-Atlantic institutions and build resilience against anti-western disinformation and propaganda. Focusing on the experience of the First Democratic Republic of Georgia of 1918-1921, UNAG produced numerous multimedia materials with unifying and future-orientated messages. Most notably, UNAG developed and disseminated Facebook posts and videos showcasing Georgia’s successes in promoting policy reforms and pluralistic democratic elections and governance during the First Republic and widely distributed them in social media with the umbrella motto Europe is our Home, Democracy is our Tradition.
UNAG also conducted an online poll to study public attitudes about democratic values and how Georgians define a successful state. UNAG intends to use the poll results for its Get Out To Vote campaigns in the run-up to the 2020 parliamentary elections, targeting diverse social and age groups.
Grantee Coordination Meeting on Countering Disinformation On August 14, 2020, ACCESS organized a coordination meeting of its five PPAGs on countering anti-western and Russian propaganda and disinformation. The meeting encouraged
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informal discussion among the project staff of ISFED, UNAG, StratCom Georgia, IMDCA, and On.ge and DFRLab.
ACCESS grantees presented brief summaries of their activities and accomplishments since the start of the projects on Apri1 15, 2020, including under the COVID-19 lockdown, and discussed the challenges encountered, as well as the way forward. The five projects proved to be key in repelling the wave of social media disinformation by Russian and Chinese actors and general “infodemic” during the pandemic.
The main challenges experienced by the PPAG implementers were related to the COVID-19 pandemic. While most of the activities (e.g. social media monitoring, multimedia content production and dissemination) were easily implemented remotely, the new waves of the COVID-19-spurred disinformation put additional stress on the grantees’ resources. Besides, they had to delay or downscale some of their offline activities, such as organizing regional campaigns and awareness-raising meetings.
With the parliamentary elections of October 2020 approaching, the grantees agreed to tailor their research and communications (e.g. infographics, PSAs, graphic videos, newspaper supplements) to the topic of elections – forewarning citizens about the threats of malign foreign interference and intensified disinformation campaigns, raising their media literacy, and strengthening national unity to enhance resilience towards disinformation before and during the poll.
During the discussion, the six participating organizations also identified new opportunities for collaboration and capitalization on each other’s resources and skills. As agreed, IMDCA will join efforts with ISFED and DFRLab to enhance its fake news automatic detection platform and catalog using the ISFED/DFRLab-verified content; On.ge will support the rest of the ACCESS grantees in disseminating information about their activities, products, and outcomes; StratCom Georgia will use the content produced by ISFED, On.ge, and DFRLab for its Facebook campaigns and new editions of the newspaper Position; StratCom Georgia will also invite IMDCA, ISFED, and DFRLab representatives to present and discuss their monitoring tools and findings on the popular Information Defense Legion e-platform.
ACCESS will continue organizing the grantee coordination meetings on an ongoing basis throughout the PPAG project cycles. It will also encourage and support networking among the grantees in-between these meetings, by keeping them informed about the upcoming activities and emerging potentials for partnerships.
COMPONENT FOUR: CENTERS FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT CONTINUE TO PROVIDE SPACE FOR PUBLIC DIALOGUE
EWMI ACCESS supports the 10 CCEs opened under USAID and MSI’s G3 project. Located primarily in regional capitals, CCEs offer neutral spaces for citizens to engage in open debate
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on issues of public concern. CCEs promote democratic values by being open to any individual or group regardless of political or social affiliations. Additionally, CCEs organize events promoting dialogue between citizens and government, provide public access to the Internet and library resources, and support the activities of local CCE-initiated Women’s Clubs. CCEs are highly valued by CSOs, media, community groups, political parties, government, international organizations, and educational institutions for the high quality of the services they provide.
Key Activities and Accomplishments The COVID-19 crisis had the biggest negative impact on the activities of NCCE. NCCE had to temporarily close down its regional offices and move to work remotely. NCCE also had to delay the launch of Election Media Centers. During the time when it was unable to host public events in the CCE offices, NCCE organized online discussions primarily on COVID-19 but also other important issues concerning Georgia’s regions. NCCE also continued liaising with the donor community to successfully attract alternative funding, working to diversify the Network’s portfolio and experience, and strengthening its internal management system.
NCCE Hosted Events During the reporting period, the CCEs: • Hosted and organized 1,147 issue-based events, engaging 21,729 citizens, including 12,974 (60%) women and 8,764 men (40%). This includes both online and offline meetings; • Initiated and organized 233 events of their own, with 4,815 participants, including 2,906 women (69%), 1,852 youth (38%), and 609 ethnic minorities (13%); • Provided Internet resources to 151 individuals.
Thirteen online meetings were live-streamed via NCCE’s Facebook page and were viewed 42,995 times. These meetings addressed some of the most important challenges and priority issues in the first months of the COVID-19 outbreak. NCCE also offered government, CSOs, the private sector, and other key stakeholders assistance in disseminating critical information to regional stakeholders and communities, using its extensive contact databases and networks at the local level.
Election Media Centers For the 2020 parliamentary elections, ACCESS supported NCCE to launch and operate the Election Media Centers. The Media Centers opened on September 7, 2020, and as of September 30, 2020, hosted 15 online and offline meetings with political parties and majoritarian candidates participating in the elections, election monitoring organizations, and other groups and citizens.
Portfolio Diversification As part of its efforts to diversify the portfolio and build up a new experience, NCCE designed and implemented a number of new advocacy and awareness-raising projects with funding from
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ACCESS and other donors. In particular, throughout Year Six, NCCE independently implemented the following initiatives:
• Joined the global campaign Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence and organized diverse events and activities in all ten cities to highlight gender equality and women’s problems in Georgia;
• Organized youth competitions on gender equality issues in partnership with the Gender Equality Council of the Georgian Parliament;
• Monitored and assessed the newly implemented public administration reform, focusing on the merit-based recruitment and dismissal procedures introduced by the new law;
• Monitored and assessed the state-sponsored grant programs under a new, follow-on grant project funded by the Civil Society Institute;
• Monitored and assessed the state-sponsored Village Support program in 59 villages of 13 municipalities.
COVID-19 Response During the first months of the COVID-19 crisis, NCCE modified its activities and developed new initiatives to support local communities.
When Marneuli and Bolnisi municipalities were announced as strict quarantine zones, resulting in closing of municipal borders, NCCE mobilized its resource via the Marneuli CCE and established a Facebook Group bringing together local citizens, media, and municipal representatives to exchange vital information regarding COVID-19. The Marneuli Radio, Marneuli Municipality City Hall, Ombudsman’s office, and local activists were active contributors in the group.
In partnership with the International Fund for Electoral Systems (IFES) Georgia, NCCE staff members and local volunteers in Marneuli and Akhaltsikhe provided consultations to the Azeri and Armenian ethnic minority citizens in the Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti regions to assist them in filling out the online forms to apply for the state-sponsored COVID-19 compensation programs.
In June 2020, NCCE developed and published a 35-page detailed, user-friendly guidebook for citizens, explaining how to receive unemployment pay-outs, social assistance (i.e. socially vulnerable families and persons with disabilities), and agricultural support outlined in the Georgian government anti-crisis plan unveiled. NCCE also trained its 10 regional coordinators on the eligibility criteria, application procedures, and timeframes related to the anti-crisis plan and provided individual consultations to citizens upon request. This included assistance in preparing and registering the applications.
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After providing direct assistance to over 400 citizens this way, NCCE identified significant gaps in a respective government decree that created unfair barriers for citizens seeking to receive state support. NCCE analyzed the legal aspects of government decree #286 and provided concrete recommendations on how to address the identified pitfalls.
As part of the EWMI-PROLoG-funded project, in April 2020, NCCE developed and published three video addresses in the Georgian language with Armenian and Azeri subtitles on the role of government in protecting human rights during the COVID-19 pandemic. The speakers included the member of the Parliament Gender Equality Council Nino Tsilosani, Acting Head of Human Rights Protection and Monitoring Department at the Ministry of Internal Affairs Maka Peradze, and Head of Anti-Discrimination Department of Ombudsman’s Office Keti Shubashvili.
Additionally, NCCE organized an online discussion on human rights issues featuring the same three speakers. They spoke in detail about the recent legal changes providing better protection of women’s and children’s rights, ways of protecting victims of domestic violence and sexual harassment, and the recent statistics.
Fundraising In Year Six, ACCESS and NCCE continued their efforts to raise alternative funds for NCCE’s operational expenses and project-based activities. During this period, NCCE developed and submitted 15 project proposals to 15 new donors. Five proposals got awarded. Seven proposals were rejected. The rest is pending.
Overall, in Year Six, NCCE secured 51,096 USD from five donors (other than ACCESS).
Additionally, NCCE generated over 117,472 GELs through fee-based services to enhance its sustainability. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government-imposed restrictions on organizing in-person group meetings, NCCE did not receive any bookings for its conference rooms and logistic services for over three months starting from March 2020. In the following months, the number of bookings went down significantly compared to the same period last year. In this period, NCCE successfully negotiated with the landlords in all ten regions to reduce office rents by 50%.
Organizational Development As part of its organizational development efforts, in Year Six, NCCE collected monthly Activity Reports from all ten regions in order to better track, consolidate, and exchange information about the Centers’ activities.
In February 2020, NCCE organized an all-staff meeting to discuss the individual registration of CCEs, assess its pros and cons, and come up with the best solution to sustain the network identity and profile, but at the same time, strengthen its individual offices. After a day-long discussion, the regional staff voted in favor of registering the ten offices individually but
EWMI ACCESS Annual Report: Nov. 1, 2019 – Sept. 30, 2020 Page 37 of 40 maintaining the current arrangement for internal management and communication. The individual registration will allow the regional CCEs to apply for municipal and regional grants and pursue independent development paths. Maintaining the current internal management structure will ensure that the CCEs adhere to the same quality standards and continue operating as a network. The NCCE head office will prepare the relevant documentation to take this process forward.
PUBLIC OUTREACH
During Year Six, ACCESS continued conducting diverse public outreach activities to inform Georgian citizens, CSOs, media, government, and other key stakeholders about the project and enable their participation in planning, implementing, and evaluating its interventions. Outreach efforts included organizing the Right to Know campaign in nine regional cities of Georgia; producing and disseminating project information and news through the project website and Facebook page; producing and circulating monthly e-newsletters to over 1,300 recipients; disseminating project information through partner organization’s websites (i.e. www.ncce.ge, www.cso.ge, www.csogeorgia.org), and ensuring wide media coverage of ACCESS-organized events.
Right to Know Campaign In December 2019, as previously mentioned, ACCESS organized its annual series of information meetings labeled You Have the Right to Know in nine cities of Georgia to inform interested parties about the project objectives and approaches. The meetings were held in Marneuli, Rustavi, Telavi, Gori, Akhaltsikhe, Kutaisi, Zugdidi, Ozurgeti, and Batumi and engaged more than 160 citizens, CSOs, and media representatives in discussing ACCESS’ activities, achievements, and challenges. ACCESS used this opportunity to speak in detail about its Citizen Outreach Grants program which was announced shortly before the Right to Know meetings, and answer the questions of the audience.
Feature Stories During Year Six, ACCESS produced four feature stories to highlight its interventions and support to civic groups and activists to address challenges caused by the pandemic; showcase successful initiatives through peer support and engagement for breast cancer patients; describe ACCESS’ long-term and multifaceted interventions to counter anti-western disinformation and outline problems related to child wellbeing in Georgia and ACCESS’ efforts to raise public awareness on this.
Fact Sheet ACCESS issued new project factsheet capturing the most important information about its activities from the start of the project in November 2014 through October 2019.
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Electronic Newsletter ACCESS’ monthly e-newsletter is one of the most effective and popular tools for keeping the public informed about the project activities. ACCESS prepares the e-newsletter in Georgian and English and disseminates it through the mailing list of more than 1,300 recipients. These include the Tbilisi-based and regional CSOs, journalists, international organizations, government officials, educational institutions, and active citizens. The e-newsletter highlights ACCESS’ activities, key developments, and upcoming plans. During Year Six, ACCESS issued 24 e-newsletters (12 in Georgian and 12 in English). It also published them on the project’s website and Facebook page and re-posted on partner organizations’ websites.
New Media ACCESS actively uses its Facebook page to disseminate news and project updates, announce upcoming events, and engage citizens and CSOs in conversations. The most popular posts from the Regional Civic Engagement Campaign on children’s rights reached over 670,000 Facebook users, received over 200,000 engagements, and were shared more than 5,900 times. Other popular posts were related to the COVID-19 RRGs. Some of these posts had more than 690,000 views, 42,000 reaches and 5,000 engagements each.
As a result, the number of ACCESS’ Facebook page followers almost doubled during Year Six and reached 10,008 followers. At the end of Year Five, the project Facebook page had 4,499 followers. All page reaches and likes are organic.
During Year Six, ACCESS posted on Facebook 320 times. ACCESS also used Scribd to publish and disseminate project documents.
ACCESS Website ACCESS’ project website is another important mean for disseminating project-related information. The website features information on project components, news, announcements, achievements, photo gallery, and calendar of upcoming events. All information is posted in Georgian and English. ACCESS shares the website articles on its Facebook page for wider reach.
During Year Six, ACCESS website had 14,335 (84% new and 16% returning visitors), 20,908 sessions, and 34,505 page views.
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Media Appearance During the reporting period, ACCESS activities gained wide media coverage in national and local print and electronic media. More than 1,000 media reports (TV reports, radio interviews, online articles, and Facebook posts) were dedicated to events and activities organized and/or supported by ACCESS.
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