Twenty-Fifth Quarterly Report

TWENTY-FIFTH QUARTERLY REPORT

Award Period: October 31, 2014 – October 31, 2021

Reporting Period: October 1 – December 31, 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 ACCESS Project Director, New York: [email protected]

#5 Marjanishvili St., Third Floor • Tbilisi 0102 Georgia • Tel (995 0 32) 2202 444 • www.facebook.com/EWMI.ACCESS

CONTENTS

ACRONYMS ...... 3 Background ...... 4 Executive Summary ...... 5 Component One: Citizens become more aware of and involved in CSO activities ...... 6 Key Activities and Accomplishments ...... 6 Key Issues and Challenges ...... 16 Plans for Next Quarter ...... 16 Component Two: Improving CSO leadership, organizational capacity, and sustainability ...... 17 Key Activities and Accomplishments ...... 17 Key Issues and Challenges ...... 23 Plans for Next Quarter ...... 23 Component Three: CSO policy research, monitoring, and influence increase ...... 24 Key Activities and Accomplishments ...... 24 Key Issues and Challenges ...... 30 Plans for Next Quarter ...... 30 Component Four: Centers For Civic Engagement ...... 30 Key Activities and Activities ...... 30 Key Issues and Challenges ...... 35 Plans for Next Quarter ...... 35 Public Outreach ...... 35 Plans for next Quarter ...... 36

EWMI Advancing CSO Capacities and Engaging Society for Sustainability (ACCESS) USAID Cooperative Agreement No. AID-114-A-14-00008 25th Quarterly Report: October 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020 Page 2 of 36

ACRONYMS ACCESS Advancing CSO Capacities and Engaging Society for Sustainability Project AOR Agreement Officer’s Representative CBO Community-based Organization CCA Center for Civic Activities CDP Capacity Development Plan CEFA Coalition Education for All CiDA Civil Development Agency COP Chief of Party COGs Citizen Outreach Grants CSO Civil Society Organization CTC Centre for Training and Consultancy, Georgia CYY Coalition for Children and Youth CWW Club of Winner Women DCoP Deputy Chief of Party DRI Democracy Research Institute EWMI East-West Management Institute GEL Georgian Lari GOTV Get Out To Vote G-PAC Policy, Advocacy, and Civil Society Development in Georgia GRC Grant Review Committee HRSJRC Human Rights and Social Justice Research Center HQ Headquarter HRC Human Rights Center IMDCA Internet Monitoring for Democratic Civic Action ISFED International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy LGBTQI Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Queer, Intersex NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NCCE Network of Centers for Civic Engagement, Georgia NMP Non-profit Management Program NTI New Thinking Institute OACA Organizational and Advocacy Capacity Assessment Tool PPAG Public Policy and Accountability Grants PwD Person with Disabilities RCEC Regional Civic Engagement Week R-CSN Regional Civil Society Network RfA Request for Applications RRG Rapid Response Grant StratCom Strategic Communications Center of Georgia TA Technical Assistance UNAG United Nations Association – Georgia UNGC United Nations Global Compact USAID United States Agency for International Development

BACKGROUND The Advancing CSO Capacities and Engaging Society for Sustainability (ACCESS) Project works to enhance the effectiveness of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Georgia. EWMI ACCESS is a seven-year $9,696,947 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: 1) Citizens become more aware of and involved in CSO activities; 2) CSO leadership, organizational capacity, and sustainability are improved among organizations throughout Georgia; 3) CSOs are able to effectively monitor, analyze, and influence key government policies and processes; and 4) The Centers for Civic Engagement (CCEs) establish local ownership so they continue to operate as politically neutral gathering spaces for public discourse.

EWMI ACCESS pursues these four objectives through grants supporting policy research, watchdogs, 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.

EWMI ACCESS prioritizes 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, EWMI ACCESS also assists civil society in becoming more effective and efficient in representing the needs of the public.

EWMI ACCESS began on October 30, 2014 and is scheduled to end on October 31, 2021.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY During the reporting period, EWMI ACCESS announced three new grant programs for Tbilisi- based and regional civil society organizations to address the COVID-19 challenges and issued nine new grants. This included six Citizen Outreach Grants (COGs), two Public Policy and Accountability Grants (PPAGs), and one Intersectoral Collaboration grant. The total grant pool for the three programs exceeded $200,000 USD. To ensure that the supported grant activities reflected diverse perspectives and experiences, EWMI ACCESS organized Social Laboratory discussions and designed the final activity plans based on the input received from the discussion participants. The new grant projects will commence in January 2021.

Meanwhile, EWMI ACCESS continued supporting 17 targeted and open COGs, PPAGs, and Election Rapid Response Grants (RRGs) issued during the previous reporting periods. Despite the limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions, the COG projects achieved significant results in terms of bringing to light regional citizens’ day-to-day problems and raising funds through crowdfunding and corporate donations to improve local communities. The COG projects implemented by the Center for Civic Activities and Orbeliani – Georgia particularly stood out in this regard. They raised 75,469 GEL from citizens to provide direct assistance to marginalized groups and families with low socioeconomic status, as well as to finance community development initiatives. The COG projects by Tbilisi Pride and Winner Women’s Club successfully set up and empowered solidarity networks of families of LGBTQI persons and female cancer patients, respectively, and created transformative precedents in terms of strengthening marginalized and vulnerable citizen groups through peer solidarity.

The election RRG projects addressed some of the most problematic issues in the Georgian elections over the past years, such as the politicization of public schools and blurring the lines between the state and the church during the election campaigning period. The RRG recipients developed the first ever comprehensive reports documenting and analyzing these two problems in Georgia and offered concrete recommendations to address them.

The PPAG projects produced a wide range of engaging and informative publications about the foreign malign influence efforts in Georgia during the October 2020 parliamentary elections. Altogether, the four projects reached and engaged hundreds of thousands of citizens with their content and contributed to taking down 221 disinformation and fake news Instagram and Facebook pages and groups active in Georgia, including the ones with the largest audiences.

EWMI ACCESS’ partners CTC and CiDA continued offering rare opportunities to Georgian CSOs to receive tailored organizational development assistance, engage in capacity building activities on co-creation – an underutilized concept in Georgia, and form sustainable partnerships with business organizations. EWMI ACCESS supported CTC to learn about the main principles and practices in arranging and administering a co-creation process from the world-class consultants from Reos Partners. CiDA’s networking activities resulted in five new

partnerships within the three-month reporting period. CiDA also finalized and will soon publish the only corporate social responsibility (CSR) databank available in Georgia and the first quantitative and qualitative research on the impact of COVID-19 on CSR in the Georgian private sector.

The Network of Centers for Civic Engagement (NCCE) re-opened its regional offices for the first time after shutting them down in March 2020 due to the pandemic restrictions. During the election period, the regional CCEs set up the Election Media Centers and hosted and organized 136 online and offline public discussions to inform and engage voters. NCCE also initiated a series of focus group discussions to identify and publicize citizens’ priorities in Georgia’s regions. Based on the research findings, NCCE printed and published the region- specific posters listing citizens’ key priorities in each region. At the same time, NCCE continued the painstaking process of raising funds from various donors, diversifying its activity portfolio, and preparing for registering the ten CCEs individually.

In December, the NORC of the University of Chicago started an independent evaluation of the ACCESS project commissioned by USAID in Georgia. NORC conducted key informant interviews with EWMI home office staff as well as EWMI’s staff in Georgia during December and will continue their evaluation during the first quarter of 2021. The final evaluation report is expected to be completed in April 2021.

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 ACCESS achieves these objectives through the Citizen Outreach Grants (COGs) Program, Regional Civic Engagement Campaigns (RCECs), Bus Tours, and initiatives aimed at increasing the use of technology to engage more citizens in CSO activities.

Key Activities and Accomplishments During the reporting period, EWMI ACCESS completed one targeted Citizen Outreach Grant (COG) project and three open COG projects. It also continued supporting four open and three targeted COG projects that focus on diverse issues impacting Georgian citizens. In October, EWMI ACCESS announced a new COG competition to support COVID-19 response activities in the regions and selected six projects for funding. Under its Election Rapid Response Grants (RRGs) Program announced in September, EWMI ACCESS issued two RRGs responding to time-sensitive challenges and needs related to the elections.

Completed COGs The targeted COG recipient the Coalition for Children and Youth (CYY) completed its project in December. The project capitalized on the 2020 parliamentary elections to bring attention to and advocate for children’s issues.

The Coalition developed and widely disseminated fact sheets summarizing the ten most pressing problems concerning children in Georgia. It also organized working meetings with the main political parties to raise their awareness about these problems and tentative solutions and analyzed the parties’ respective election promises in relation to children.

As this project was the first one to focus on children during elections, the Coalition scrutinized 2012, 2016, and 2020 election programs. The analysis showed that in 2012 and 2016, most political parties did not even mention children’s issues in their programs. The ones that mentioned children included general statements, such as the need to support children’s needs, the importance of protecting children’s rights, etc. The programs did not highlight any specific challenges faced by children or the ways to address them.

In 2020, the Coalition submitted concrete questions to political parties regarding children’s problems and solutions and requested written responses. This induced parties to learn more about and cultivate their official positions on children’s problems. Most but not all parties responded. Ten out of twelve scrutinized parties also addressed these issues in their election programs. Two political parties had separate chapters on children’s issues in their programs.

In December, the Coalition published a comprehensive analytical report on the responsiveness of political parties to children’s issues from 2012 through the 2020 parliamentary elections. The Coalition organized an online presentation of the report and responded to questions and comments from viewers.

As a follow-on to this project, the Coalition plans to continue monitoring political parties’ attentiveness to children’s problems, especially against the COVID-19 backdrop, and keep track of their adherence to the promises made in their election programs.

The open COG recipient Tbilisi Pride completed its Proud Families project in December. The project targeted parents of LGBTQI persons and engaged them in peer solidarity, awareness-raising, and psychosocial assistance initiatives to help them come to terms with their children’s sexuality and challenge prejudice in the conservative Georgian society.

Tbilisi Pride formed the first of its kind informal parent-driven support-group in Georgia and created a safe space for the group members to interact with one another, share experiences, and learn about the legal, psychosocial, and religious issues in relation to the LGBTQI topics from qualified and welcoming professionals.

Although at first it was difficult to get parents on board, a few months into the project they became close friends and enthusiastically responded to Tbilisi Pride’s invitations to formal workshops, informational sessions, movie nights, informal discussions, and therapy sessions. The topics discussed during these events struck a common chord among the participants and helped form strong bonds that will transcend beyond the Proud Families project and strengthen the LGBTQI movement in Georgia.

Some of the parents have already been featured in Tbilisi Pride’s online publications and campaigns. Others are assisting the organization with reaching out to other parents and encouraging their participation in future initiatives. Proud Families event and activity calendar _ October 2020

The COG recipient Orbeliani – Georgia successfully completed its project that piloted a match-funding and crowdfunding platform for community-driven projects. The platform enabled citizens to publish their community development initiatives online and raise the needed funds through crowdfunding. Orbeliani – Georgia assisted these citizens in organizing online campaigns to mobilize supporters and if a campaign reached at least half of its requested budget from citizens, the organization covered the other half using EWMI ACCESS’ grant funds. This combination of feeling ownership over the project but also being recognized by a traditional donor made the platform a success.

Thirteen out of seventeen projects publicized through the online crowdfunding platform reached their fundraising goals and received match-funding from Orbeliani – Georgia. Two projects – Give Air to Rustavi and Raising Champions in Bediani – raised five times more financial and in-kind support than their original targets.

Orbeliani – Georgia attracted not only individual but also corporate donors. Kaspi Cement donated construction materials to the Bediani climbing wall project. Wissol Group donated lunch for 100 elderly people over a two-week period during the Christmas season as part of the Food for All campaign.

Throughout the project, Orbeliani – Georgia supported applicants in creating their campaign content and advised them on public resource mobilization and media campaign management. Orbeliani – Georgia also encouraged and assisted these groups to consult with their communities on a regular basis and keep them informed about, as well as engaged in the project activities.

One of the most important results of the Orbeliani – Georgia project is that the use of crowdfunding approach and intense outreach campaigns increased citizen participation in the Orbeliani – Georgia supported initiatives as they promoted a sense of engagement and belonging among communities.

The COG recipient #Gavigudet completed its EWMI ACCESS-supported project that served to raise citizens’ awareness about the problem of air pollution in Rustavi – one of the most polluted cities in Georgia – and advocate for clean air through citizen mobilization.

#Gavigudet organized diverse activities to inform and engage local citizens. When COVID-19 restrictions allowed it, #Gavigudet organized eco-friendly travels (i.e., minibus tours) from Rustavi to Tbilisi and back, offering citizens free transportation while it informed them about the alarming state of air pollution in Rustavi and its causes and encouraged them to join #Gavigudet in calling for action.

#Gavigudet activists planting trees near the polluted industrial zone in Rustavi #Gavigudet also organized bus tours to the Rustavi industrial zone to demonstrate the problem of air pollution and mobilize wider support for its advocacy campaign. The bus tour participants included journalists, civic activists, local citizens, and members of the international community.

Additionally, it developed and distributed informational materials (e.g. infographics, videos, Facebook updates) and joined public hearings and consultations on legal and policy issues related to tracking and reducing emissions. As a result, when presenting a majoritarian (i.e. single mandate district) candidate in Rustavi for the 2020 parliamentary election, the ruling

party committed to putting a special emphasis on reducing air pollution. On December 22, 2020, the Georgian Prime Minister pledged to enact a new bill with stricter environmental protections in 2021.

Throughout the project, the #Gavigudet activists were regularly invited to participate in a range of media discussions and reports on environmental issues in Rustavi and Georgia. By the end of the project, the #Gavigudet Facebook group, which had started out with 400 members in late 2018, had more than 13,600 Facebook followers in 2020.

Lastly, #Gavigudet used the Orbeliani – Georgia crowdfunding platform to raise over 6,000 GEL from citizens to plant trees and install an irrigation system on a one-hectare land plot in Rustavi. Local volunteers planted 100 trees. The Rustavi Municipality Mayor pledged to cover the irrigation costs, while the Rustavi Innovations Hub donated 3,600 GEL to this cause.

Ongoing COGs The targeted COG recipient the Club of Winner Women (CWW) continued organizing awareness-raising and peer-support activities in Sagarejo, Gori, Telavi, Zugdidi, Ozurgeti, Gurjaani, and Akhaltsikhe. These activities served to raise public awareness about the importance of breast and cervical cancer screening for preventing health complications and about the state- sponsored screening services. The peer- support group members offered practical help and advice to one another and to caregivers on how to navigate the Tina Beruchashvili (CWW) and psychologist Mari Kutateladze participate in the popular medical talk show on the Public Broadcaster complex process of managing cancer. The online group discussions enabled them to share their fears and frustrations during the COVID-19 crisis and gain more confidence in the future.

The CWW members also organized different charity activities and events, including making and distributing cloth facemasks and providing practical information on COVID-19 prevention and treatment to other cancer patients as a high-risk group with an impaired immune system.

Due to the dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases in Georgia, the targeted COG recipient the Knowledge Cafè temporarily slowed its crowdfunding and resource mobilization efforts for

constructing a new building for the Café. Instead, it focused on providing support to the most vulnerable members of its local community.

After consulting with the EWMI ACCESS team about the project challenges, on New Year’s Eve, the Knowledge Café organized a year-end online meeting on Facebook and openly spoke to its supporters about its five biggest failures and successes of the year. More than 27,000 people viewed the video. Many expressed their overwhelming appreciation for the honesty and pledged support for the Café’s future initiatives. This was one of the very few (if not only) occasions when a well-known and -liked Georgian CSO took an initiative to also talk about its failures rather than only its achievements.

In January 2021, the Knowledge Café will launch the postponed business startup mentorship program supported by EWMI ACCESS to help develop civic and entrepreneurial skills among students from twenty high schools.

The final ongoing targeted COG recipient the Center for Civic Activities (CCA) continued working closely with and empowering Tusheti, Pankisi, Pshav-Khevsureti, Mtiuleti, Khevi, Racha, Lechkhumi, Lower Svaneti, and Upper Svaneti community-based organizations (CBOs) to organize advocacy campaigns on increasing access to public transportation and the Internet in high-mountain communities. The CCA media portal Mtis Ambebi continued producing and disseminating appealing video-stories and articles about the day-to-day problems faced by local communities in Georgia’s mountain regions.

During the reporting period, the Mtis Ambebi video-stories about the Kvanchiani family from Lower Svaneti and Alexandre Tsotskolauri from Pankisi received more than two million views on Facebook and made national headlines. The Kvanchiani story was about a man with disabilities and his elderly mother whose house was destroyed more than 10 years ago and had been living in a barn ever since. The Building a house for the Kvanchiani family in Svaneti video about Alexandre Tsotskolauri told a story of an 11-year-old boy – the only school student from his village – who had to climb a hill every day to connect to the Internet to attend online classes. This story was picked up by the international project Pandemic Journal.Online.

As a result of its media campaigns, CCA and its partner CBOs received 45,469 GEL in donations from 2,006 people to build a new house for the Kvanchiani family. The construction process is underway. CCA and CBOs also received a corporate donation from the Association of Small and Medium Telecommunications Operators to purchase a new laptop for Alexandre Tsotskolauri. Skytel set up a WiFi Internet for him. The Georgian National Library granted him a monthly stipend. Lastly, CCA and CBOs launched an intensive online campaign to advocate for the Internetization of all of Georgia’s mountain regions.

During the reporting period, CCA and CBOs also organized meetings with local and national government representatives and submitted petitions to local Sakrebulos (city councils) to resolve several other issues. A newly founded Akhaltsikhe CBO started collecting signatures for a petition dealing with the construction of the road to the village of Khulgumo in Ninotsminda municipality. CCA and Upper Svaneti CBO started the advocacy campaign to save the ancient towers in Ushguli.

The ongoing open COG recipient the Human Rights and Social Justice Research Center (HRSJRC), in partnership with TSPress, continued monitoring and addressing water and air pollution in Poti. After the first successful petition submitted to the Poti Sakrebulo in July 2020 that resulted in the installment of two air monitoring stations, HRSJRC submitted the second petition to the Sakrebulo, requesting that a working group be set up to identify the cause of and solutions to an unpleasant odor in the city. The petition also called for drafting an action plan to minimize air pollution in Poti and study the underlying causes of the most widespread non-communicable diseases in the municipality. In response to this petition, the Sakrebulo established a joint working group and agreed to allocate funds in the local budget for running blood tests to detect levels of contamination with heavy metals among the children living in the most polluted areas of Poti.

The open COG recipient the Centre for Biodiversity Conservation & Research NACRES continued working with the group of volunteer firefighters in Borjomi to raise awareness on fire prevention and safety. The group of 25 volunteers actively engaged in awareness-raising campaigns organized in the city of Borjomi and the rest of the municipality. During the reporting Volunteer firefighters handing informational materials to the school principal in Borjomi period NACRES successfully launched the junior firefighters program in schools. Despite the COVID-19 crisis, NACRES was able to equip junior volunteer firefighter school clubs with informational materials, such as posters and leaflets about safe evacuation from buildings and forest fires.

The Marneuli-based open COG recipient the New Thinking Institute (NTI) continued implementing the project aimed at empowering young rural Azeri mothers in three villages of Marneuli – Khuldara, Molaoghli, and Sadakhlo. Through an informal Mothers’ School, NTI offered Azeri mothers online informal education classes in two community development centers of Khuldara and Molaoghli. In addition to these classes, the mothers continued attending seminars and discussions on positive parenting and women empowerment issues.

The COG recipient Salam Platform continued organizing its most popular project activities i.e. Open Microphone Meetings in the villages of Marneuli, Gardabani, Bolnisi, and Dmanisi, enabling local communities to voice their concerns and needs, and Reading Clubs and discussions enabling young Azeris to debate the issues of their interest. Additionally, Salam launched two awareness-raising and advocacy campaigns.

The first campaign titled Give Me Back My Last Name called for removing the Russian suffixes (e.g. ova, ov, iev, ieva) from last names of ethnic Azeri citizens of Georgia. Ethnic Azeries were forced to adopt these suffixes during the Soviet regime. Salam produced and published a documentary on this issue to raise citizens’ awareness and started strategic litigation.

The second campaign aimed at making Nowruz a national holiday in Georgia. Salam organized several panel discussions on the importance of Nowruz in Azeri culture and produced informational materials to increase public awareness on this topic.

New COVID-19 COGs In October, EWMI ACCESS announced a new COG competition to protect citizens’ rights and interests during the COVID-19 pandemic and amplify citizens’ voices in pandemic response, with a special focus on regions. The deadline for submitting grant applications was

November 6. EWMI ACCESS received 24 applications. The Grant Review Committee (GRC) met on November 13 and shortlisted six applications for funding. From November 18 through December 2, EWMI ACCESS organized a joint orientation meeting, six individual Social Laboratory meetings, and a joint follow-on discussion with the shortlisted applicants to revise their strategies and approaches through a participatory, inclusive process. After completing this process, EWMI ACCESS awarded the following six COGs of approximately $20,000 each:

• Cactus Media: Building capacities of medical personnel in Gali to work with COVID- 19 patients, raising their awareness of COVID-19 prevention, treatment, and hospital management; and building bridges between youth in Gali and Zugdidi and entrusting them with joint activities to disseminate reliable information on COVID-19 among their peers.

• Human Rights Center (HRC): Mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on elderly people in Shida Kartli through community mobilization and advocacy, supporting community-based volunteer response to their needs and advocating these needs before local and national authorities and other stakeholders.

• NTI: Identifying and addressing the primary needs and problems of ethnic minority communities in Kvemo Kartli during the pandemic, and empowering nine village community centers in Marneuli and Gardabani municipalities to address the social support, public information, and advocacy needs of their communities.

• Platform Salam: Mobilizing and empowering persons with disabilities (PwDs) in Kvemo Kartli to voice their primary problems during the pandemic and call for their resolution. Strengthening PwD groups through networking, outreach, and advocacy.

• WWC: Reducing harmful impact of COVID-19 on breast cancer patients in five municipalities of Georgia through psycho-emotional and peer support, increasing the accessibility of protocols related to the treatment of cancer-patients during the pandemic among the front-line healthcare workers.

• Youth for Social Equality: Promoting the rehabilitation and integration of children with disabilities in the mountain villages of Georgia during the pandemic, working closely with parents of children with disabilities and facilitating networking and collaboration among them to help address issues of common concern.

These projects will be launched in January 2021.

Election Rapid Response Grants (RRGs) In the run-up to the October 31 parliamentary elections, EWMI ACCESS announced an Election Rapid Response Grant (RRG) program, inviting Georgian CSOs to apply for grants

to act on urgent, time-sensitive opportunities, challenges, and/or needs related to the elections. The CSOs were enabled to request:

• Opportunity Grants aimed at taking advantage of a unique and timely opportunity arising from the elections or • Emergency Grants aimed at responding to an immediate risk or challenge requiring swift attention.

EWMI ACCESS accepted applications on a rolling basis and processed them within three to seven days. Under this grant program, EWMI ACCESS issued the following two RRGs – the Democracy Research Institute (DRI) and the Coalition Education for All (CEFA).

DRI monitored and assessed the engagement of religious organizations and leaders in election campaigns. It was the first time that a Georgian CSO focused on the risks associated with increasing political influence of the Georgian church in the run-up to the elections and initiated a constructive, objective, and well-informed discussion about this topic.

DRI conducted a thorough legal analysis of the Georgian Constitution and election code to analyze the separation of church and state and define the relationship between the two in the Georgian legal structure. It also studied the international experience and practice in this regard and solicited input from reputable Georgian constitutionalists and theologians on the permissibility of a candidate/party endorsement by a religious leader and/or a church according to both canon and civil laws.

DRI’s monitoring identified and highlighted numerous cases of political endorsements from priests during the 2020 elections. The organization widely discussed these findings in social and mainstream media and brought forward varied perspectives from legal, political, and religious points of view. Before completing the project, DRI developed and published a comprehensive report summarizing the project findings and proposing concrete recommendations for addressing the key problems.

CEFA’s project addressed the similarly long- standing but largely neglected problem of politicizing educational institutions in Facebook cover for the DRI project launch Georgia and misusing of administrative resources in this sector for election gain. CEFA initiated a joint statement by Georgian CSOs and educational experts on the importance of securing the political neutrality of schools and

universities and formed a public commission for protecting teachers, professors, and administrators from political discrimination and intimidation. The members of the commission included educational experts, journalists, and human rights lawyers and activists.

The commission set up and widely publicized a hotline number for reporting cases of political pressure and discrimination in schools and universities. It also worked closely with nonpartisan election monitoring organizations and directly communicated with educational institutions to identify and respond to election violations. Due to the fear of punishment, teachers remained reluctant to come forward to speak about the problem of politicization of the educational system during elections. To remedy this problem, CEFA continued engaging educational experts and human rights activists in highlighting the issue and proposing recommendations for protecting educational institutions from undue political influence and interference during and beyond election cycles.

CEFA produced and publicized two videos on this topic and published blogs and articles calling for action. It also organized a panel discussion and published a summary report discussing the misuse of administrative resources in the educational sector and proposing recommendations for sustainable solutions to be applied across the country.

Key Issues and Challenges During the reporting period, EWMI ACCESS did not encounter any major challenges under Component One other than those caused by COVID-19. Some activities had to be delayed due to the spike in COVID-19 cases and closure of public schools, such as the activities planned by the Knowledge Café and NACRES. Additionally, EWMI ACCESS was unable to travel to project sites for monitoring purposes due to the COVID-19-related travel restrictions and health risks. Instead, EWMI ACCESS held regular online meetings with the implementing organizations to discuss their progress and plans and attended their online events.

Plans for Next Quarter EWMI ACCESS plans to conduct the following activities under Component One during the next quarter: • Sign grant agreements with and start implementing the six open COG projects on responding to the COVID-19 crisis; • Organize a webinar for the six COG recipients on EWMI ACCESS’ gender mainstreaming and sexual harassment prevention policies; • Announce a new grant competition to support citizen initiatives on COVID-19; • Continue supporting and monitoring ongoing open and targeted COGs; • Issue cascade or repeated grants to the most successful/promising COGs; • Ensure networking and coordination among the ongoing COGs, as appropriate; • Organize capacity building activities for ongoing open, targeted, and citizens COGs;

• Organize a Social Laboratory discussion on the role of COVID-19 in bringing communities together to cope with the immediate crisis and the potential for transforming the newly forged constituencies and networks into more sustainable channels for civic mobilization and advocacy.

COMPONENT TWO: IMPROVING CSO LEADERSHIP, ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY, AND SUSTAINABILITY Under Component Two, EWMI ACCESS provides a wide range of tailored technical assistance (TA) to regional and Tbilisi-based CSOs to help them develop into strong and sustainable organizations. EWMI ACCESS TA emphasizes facilitated learning and 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, EWMI ACCESS provides opportunities for networking and business sector outreach.

EWMI ACCESS works to achieve Component Two objectives by implementing the following activities: (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 64 CSOs throughout Georgia; and (iv) the Business Outreach Program. EWMI ACCESS implements Component Two primarily through its local implementing partners, Center for Training and Consultancy (CTC) and Civil Development Agency (CiDA). CTC is responsible for the CSO Organizational Development Program, while CiDA leads the work on CSO networking and business outreach.

Key Activities and Accomplishments Organizational and Advocacy Capacity Assessments and Technical Assistance to CSOs During the reporting period, EWMI ACCESS and CTC provided tailored organizational development assistance to the following four organizations: Tbilisi Pride, Orbeliani – Georgia, StratCom Georgia (i.e. Information Defense Legion) and Platform Salam.

CTC organized individual consultations and two workshops for the Tbilisi Pride team to develop and integrate an emergency response plan for assisting marginalized LGBTQI persons during the crisis situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a participatory process, CTC and Tbilisi Pride developed a plan for responding to the most urgent needs of LGBTQI persons in the crisis. They also designed a new strategy for adapting the organization’s operation and ongoing projects to the new context and organizing rallies and other advocacy activities during the pandemic. As CTC moved on to a new focus of streamlining internal management procedures, it became clear that the organization was in need to better delineate authorities among different key structural units and create a sound basis for participatory decision-making. CTC organized consultations with the Pride executive team and board members on these issues and designed a plan for continuing its engagement with Pride to

resolve them. By that time, CTC’s scope of work for Pride under the EWMI ACCESS project ended, but CTC continued working with the Pride team beyond its project commitment to help the organization plan and launch the complex process of internal structural changes.

CTC’s remaining work with Orbeliani – Georgia focused on elaborating a set of practical recommendations on enhancing the crowdfunding platform marketing and outreach strategy to better popularize the platform and attract wider audiences, both in terms of project initiators and funders.

CTC and StratCom Georgia held planning meetings to identify and discuss the priority areas for CTC’s organizational development engagement and in the end, agreed to work on elaborating a comprehensive communication strategy for StratCom Georgia and its Informational Defense Legion initiative. They began working on the strategy in December 2020 and expect to finalize this process in February 2021.

Based on the results of the initial OACA and the priorities of the organization, Platform Salam requested CTC’s assistance in improving teamwork and teambuilding. As Salam wanted to organize these capacity building activities offline, EWMI ACCESS and CTC agreed with the Salam team to delay this work until March-April 2021 and organize offline events outdoors, if possible.

Self-paced Online Courses CTC offered self-paced e-learning courses for CSOs and civic activists on an ongoing basis. It launched the courses in March 2020 and has since enrolled 360 users. Of the 360, 279 of them have completed one or more courses successfully and received certificated. So far CTC has issued:

• 80 certificates for completing the Leadership in CSOs course; • 57 certificates for completing the Project Logic in a Nutshell course, • 47 certificates for completing the Roadmap to CSOs course; • 95 certificates for completing the most recently designed and launched Sexual Harassment in the Workplace course. For additional details on the course enrollments and completion please see the table below:

April-December 2020

# Course Newly Course Course Enrollment registered enrollments completion to unique / Completion users Certificates ratio in % issued 1 Roadmap to CSOs 363 107 47 44%

Project Logic in a 2 145 57 39% Nutshell 3 Leadership in CSOs 165 80 48% Sexual Harassment 4 161 95 59% in the Workplace Certificates Issued: 279

As before, CTC asked the enrolled participants to give anonymous feedback on the self-paced courses.

Of those who completed the Sexual Harassment course and responded to the anonymous survey, 81% rated the course content and navigation as very good and 18% rated it 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.

Of those who completed the Leadership in CSOs course 91% responded that their expectations were fully met by the course, both in terms of its content and delivery. Course satisfaction rates for the Roadmap to CSOs and the Project Logic in Nutshell courses were 85% and 89%, respectively.

For additional details on the user survey results please see the table below: Did the course meet your Roadmap to Project Logic Leadership in expectations? CSOs in a Nutshell CSOs Course did not meet my 1% 0% 1% expectations Course partly met my 14% 11% 8% expectations Course fully met my 85% 89% 91% expectations 100% 100% 100%

Was the course content Roadmap to Project Logic Leadership in logically organized and CSOs in a Nutshell CSOs delivered? No 0% 0% 0% Only partly 1% 1% 0% Mostly 9% 10% 10% Fully 90% 89% 90% 100% 100% 100% Was the course navigation Roadmap to Project Logic Leadership in easy? CSOs in a Nutshell CSOs Course navigation was difficult 1% 1% 1% Course navigation was some- 17% 17% 17% what easy Course navigation was very easy 82% 82% 82% 100% 100% 100%

CTC collects participant feedback on an ongoing basis to inform further changes/improvements for the self-paced e-courses.

Promoting the Co-creation/Social Lab Concept for CSOs to Boost Creativity and Innovation During the reporting period, EWMI ACCESS organized a targeted capacity building activity for CTC and other CSOs, namely, Orbeliani – Georgia and NCCE, to design, plan, and undertake effective co-creation processes. EWMI ACCESS contracted one of the most highly- regarded and experienced international consultant groups in this area – Reos Partners – and engaged its consultants in organizing group workshops and individual online coaching sessions for the three organizations, as well as for the EWMI ACCESS team on co-creation.

The group workshops lasted five days and focused on the principles and practices of applying the Social Laboratory methodology. They provided the foundational skills for inviting and supporting co-creation processes with multi-stakeholder groups using the Social Laboratory approach. Reos Partners provided a workbook and materials for the workshop participants.

After the group workshops, Reos Partners organized virtual coaching sessions with the workshop participants to help them apply the principles and practices in their work. While EWMI ACCESS, Orbeliani – Georgia, and NCCE had one online coaching session each, CTC will participate in three coaching sessions with Reos Partners so that it becomes more familiar with the Social Laboratory processes and is better-equipped to spread this practice in Georgian as part of the EWMI ACCESS project legacy.

CTC has already started developing the Facilitator’s Guide on Planning and Organizing a Social Laboratory/Co-creation Process using the knowledge and information gained from its engagement with Reos Partners, as well as the desk research conducted by the organization. CTC will complete the guide in January 2021 and continue working with Reos Partners during January and February 2021 to get additional feedback on the guide, as well as on the overall concept of co-creation.

Networking Facilitation and Business Outreach EWMI ACCESS resumed its partnership with its second local implementing partner CiDA in September 2020. Under the new grant project, CiDA will maintain an up-to-date CSR databank, listing CSR priority areas of Georgian businesses; connect the businesses and CSOs with common interests; analyze the COVID-19 impact on CSR priorities and decisions and promote the UN Global Compact (UNGC) Local Network as a way of promoting the private sector engagement in advancing social causes.

CSR Databank During the reporting period, CiDA began collecting information from business organizations for the CSR Databank. It disseminated a questionnaire requesting businesses to provide information about their CSR priority areas, funds, initiatives, and decision-making procedures.

Within one month, CiDA received completed questionnaires from 20 businesses and expects to receive the answers from the remaining businesses by February 2021. It will then publish the more recent databank and update it on an ongoing basis.

Business-CSO Partnerships As part of its efforts to facilitate the business-CSO cooperation, CiDA organized individual consultations with both groups and succeeded in forging the following partnerships:

• Anika, a CSO working on disability issues, partnered with the company Kodala to assist it in recruiting and employing PwDs.

• Anika also worked with Micro Business Capital to help it employ PwDs and adapt its workplace and environment to the needs of the new employees.

• Anika also established partnerships with other CSOs working on disability issues, namely, SOS Children’s Village and Art Inception Edu, and with business organizations Chikatai and Spilow to join efforts and develop handicraft skills of PwDs and children without parental care to increase their employability. Chikatai and Spilow have already begun organizing online workshops for these groups on how to create toys, facemasks, vases, and other items from secondary materials.

• Lastly, Anika partnered with tech companies, including High Tech Solutions LLC, Mindworks LLC, Edison Tech, Orient Logic, and FINA LLC to develop IT capacities of PwDs. The companies committed to organize capacity building activities for 32 PwDs from different regions. The workshops are scheduled to take place in February 2021.

• Women’s rights organization Sapari partnered with Hilton Batumi, Gagua Clinic, and Eastern European University to help them integrate gender equality principles in their business policies and prevent gender-based discrimination in the workplace. CiDA also worked with experienced marketing and outreach specialists to develop and widely disseminate video blogs for CSOs and civic activists on how to reach out to and successfully pitch civic initiatives to the private sector. EWMI ACCESS’ past work with CSOs and business organizations, as well as the CSO Assessment commissioned by the project clearly pointed to the limited experience and capacities of CSOs in this regard. CiDA’s videoblogs featured: • Davit Chikvaidze, the Founder of International Sales Institute; • Kakha Magradze, Senior Partner at the PR company Gepra; • Tornike Guruli, Head of Marketing at Tegeta Motors; • Tinatin Stambolishvili, Director of Communications at GPI Holding; • Nana Janashia, Head of an environmental CSO CENN.

They addressed the following questions: • What to keep in mind when pitching a civic idea to a business organization? • How to reach out to a business organization? • How to establish a successful relationship with a business organization? • What would motivate a business organization to partner with a CSO?

• How to negotiate a deal with a business organization?

COVID-19 Impact on CSR To promote the understanding of how the COVID-19 crisis has affected CSR in Georgia, CiDA contracted a research company to conduct quantitative and qualitative research into this issue. The company interviewed 71 business organizations, eight CSR experts, and five media organizations and drafted an extensive report summarizing the research findings. The report will be finalized and published in the next quarter and it will serve to identify new trends, approaches, challenges, and opportunities in the CSR field.

Promoting UNGC and Private Sector Engagement To promote the UNGC CSR principles and private sector engagement, CiDA co-produced and hosted a weekly segment in a popular business program on TV Pirveli BM GE, where CiDA’s Executive Director and UNGC Local Network Coordinator Salome Zurabishvili interviewed prominent guests from the private sector, civil society, government, and development community about these topics. During November-December 2020, CiDA hosted four live broadcasts.

The first broadcast featured the winners in the Business-CSO Cooperation category of the CSR Award 2020. The second broadcast featured USAID’s Economic Growth Program and its partnership project with Crystal YES-Georgia. The third broadcast featured high-profile CSR and marketing specialists who shared recommendations for CSOs on how to approach and commence partnership initiatives with business organizations. The last broadcast focused on the impact of COVID-19 on CSR in Georgia. EWMI ACCESS CoP and the research company contracted by CiDA presented the initial findings of the EWMI ACCESS-funded survey on CSR during COVID-19.

Through promoting the UNGC Local Network, CiDA recruited 12 new members – eight companies and four CSOs – to the Network and helped to register them with the UNGC Headquarter (HQ). Additional five organizations – three companies and two associations – completed their registration forms and are awaiting confirmations from the HQ.

Throughout the reporting period, CiDA was in close contact with the Human Rights Secretariat of the Government of Georgia and the Prime Minister’s Office to contribute to the development of the new Strategy and Action Plan on Human Rights and its Business and Human Rights Chapter. CiDA played a major role in drafting of the Business and Human Rights Action Plan commitments related to CSR and sustainable development goals. The Strategy and Action Plan are expected to be adopted in February 2021.

Intersectoral Collaboration Grant Program In October, EWMI ACCESS designed and announced a new grant program on Intersectoral Collaboration encouraging Georgian CSOs and business organizations to undertake joint efforts focusing on minimizing the social, health, and/or economic crisis triggered by COVID-

19. Under this Request for Applications (RfA), EWMI ACCESS received 14 applications. The GRC meeting took place on December 2 and shortlisted one application for funding.

The GRC supported a partnership between the Tbilisi-based CSO the Collegium of Independent Educational Consultants (CIEC), the Georgian Autism Association, and the highest (i.e. fourth-level) multi-profile private clinic Pineo Medical Ecosystems to protect the interests of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families during the pandemic with a special focus on their right to equitable healthcare. The project will be launched in January 2021. It will mobilize civil society and private sector resources to (a) identify and highlight the key barriers to healthcare delivery and access for people with ASD and (b) propose and promote a pilot model for treatment planning and service delivery that meets their needs.

Philanthropy Mapping In October, EWMI ACCESS began working with Catalyst Balkans to carrying out a feasibility study on adopting and contextualizing Catalyst Balkans’ philanthropy mapping tools in Georgia. At the invitation of EWMI ACCESS, Catalyst Balkans conducted an online presentation of its tools for Georgian CSOs and organized individual follow-on meetings with them to assess their interest in and organizational capacities to develop and integrate similar tools in Georgia. The invited CSOs included Orbeliani – Georgia, ForSet, ISET Policy Institute, the Caucasus Research Resource Centers, and the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information. Catalyst Balkans also investigated the availability of the data gathering and managing instruments necessary for the philanthropy mapping tool. In the following quarter, Catalyst Balkans will complete the feasibility study and if it concludes that there is a commitment and potential in Georgia to operationalize similar tools, EWMI ACCESS will continue working with Catalyst Balkans and the selected local partner to realize this objective.

Key Issues and Challenges During this reporting period, EWMI ACCESS did not encounter any major challenges under Component Two other than those caused by COVID-19. Because of the pandemic, CTC and CiDA had to organize most of their activities online.

Plans for Next Quarter EWMI ACCESS plans to conduct the following activities under Component Two during the next quarter: • Continue implementing the tailored Organizational Development Program; • Continue offering self-paced online courses; • Organize capacity building activities for CTC on the Social Laboratory methodology; • Finalize the Facilitator Guidebook and other material on the Social Laboratory methodology; • Finalize and publicize the CSR databank; • Finalize and publicize the research on the COVID-19 impact on CSR priorities and initiatives;

• Facilitate partnerships between business and civil society organizations with similar priority areas; • Promote CRS principles and enabling environment, including through working with the Georgian government; • Support the implementation of the COVID-19 Intersectoral Collaboration grant program.

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 Public Policy and Accountability Grants (PPAGs); and (3) organizing policy forums to deepen constructive dialogue between CSOs, the government, and other policy stakeholders.

Key Activities and Accomplishments Public Policy and Accountability Grants (PPAGs) – Countering Disinformation During the reporting period, one PPAG recipient the Internet Monitoring for Democratic Civic Action (IMDCA) completed its project Who is Who (Vin Vin Aris), while the other four PPAG recipients continued to build societal resilience against hostile foreign electoral interference in the run-up to the 2020 parliamentary election. These PPAG projects played an important role in the low performance of pro-Russian and anti-western political parties during the election. The biggest success story during this reporting period was the use of the PPAG recipient the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) reports as a source of Facebook’s October takedown, in which the social media platform removed 104 accounts, 63 pages, six groups, eight events, and 40 Instagram accounts operating in Georgia that were linked to right wing and disinformation groups. These included the far-right media outlet Alt-Info and the Facebook pages linked to the key anti-western populist politial parties – the Alliance of Patriots and the Georgian Choice. ISFED’s video PSAs warned social media users against sponsored ads and fake media that tried to manipulate public opinions ISFED maintained a regular communication with Facebook, including through sharing its social media monitoring reports, findings, and

recommendations, and continued to advocate for more active measures by Facebook for safeguarding elections in Georgia from malign influences. For that purpose, the PPAG recipient organized two e-mail exchanges with Facebook on ISFED’s social media monitoring reports and on the ad library, and one video chat with Facebook’s threat intelligence team. ISFED’s reports featured in Facebook’s October 2020 Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report.

ISFED published its second and third social media monitoring reports in November and December, respectively. These reports covered 11,469 posts from about 900 Facebook pages and 5,766 posts from about 740 Facebook pages respectively. ISFED found and analyzed dozens of Facebook pages polarizing society around values, pages discrediting the opposition, pages discrediting the government and ruling party, pages of pro-government false media, pro-opposition pages, pro-government pages, and pages in favor of the anti-western parties.

In October, prior to the parliamentary elections, ISFED also published two newspaper supplements in the best-selling newspaper Kviris Palitra on the threat of malign information operations and responsible use of social media. A total of 24,000 copies of the two issues of the newspaper with ISFED’s newspaper supplements on disinformation these supplements were sold.

Additionally, the PPAG recipient used a variety of innovative tools to increase public sensitivity on malign use of social media. To reach out to wider segments of the population, ISFED printed newspaper supplements and developed two PSA videos on the threat of malign information operations and responsible use of social media.

As during the previous reporting periods, ISFED gained a high level of media coverage. Its representatives actively participated in public and media discussions on Social media monitoring by ISFED uncovered disinformation and smear campaigns against political parties and the media disinformation and propaganda, both in Georgia and abroad. Overall, during the

reporting period ISFED’s work was covered 23 times in electronic media and 39 times in online media.

The PPAG recipient On.ge developed and widely disseminated a wide range of publications on anti-western and pro-Russian disinformation campaigns in Georgia in the run-up to the parliamentary elections.

On.ge placed six columns on disinformation metods and objectives in the newspaper Kviris Palitra. This newspaper is widely distributed in regions where people do not use the Internet as the main source of information.

On.ge also wrote original articles about the pro-Russian actors in Georgia and their main narratives; the Georgian March’s political history; scientific findings of the Cambridge University on how improving people’s analytical skills could help turn the tide against an epidemic of fake news surrounding the health crisis; smear campaigns against the pro-western opposition parties; and the new power distribution in the region following the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict.

Additionally, On.ge used humorous and interactive content to reach out to and engage with youth audiences and other citizen groups who express a limited interest in political news and information. The fun publications provided insights about the Soviet life via anecdotes or taught readers how to talk to friends and relatives who believed conspiracy theories. On.ge’s quizzes covered the specific cases of disinformation or general smear strategies. One quiz acted as a survival game in Putin’s Russia; another one tested readers’ knowledge

of pro-Russian actors; the third one tested On.ge enlightened its large Facebook and online community about reader’s media-literacy level, etc. On.ge’s forms of disinformation and how to fight it infographics focused on Russia’s “dirty job” in Georgia, the history of a nti-Russian protests in Georgia, and weaponization of Russophobia by Russia itself. On.ge also created and disseminated short videos about disinformation tactics, hybrid warfare, and fake news.

On.ge’s implementing partner DFRLab continued producing monthly investigative open- source research identifying disinformation campaigns ahead of the parliamentary elections. DFRLab’s articles examined unverified and false claims about Georgia’s transport of military cargo during the Armenia-Azerbaijan armed conflict; alleged blocking of humanitarian aid to Armenia in the same period; Georgian parties activity in social media; anatomy of a network by Alliance of Patriots that was removed by Facebook for targeting Georgian audience with manipulated posts about politics and elections; the story of 2020 election day and protests

that took place afterwards; numerous anonymous Facebook pages that were involved in negative campaigning aimed at smearing political actors; and inauthentic networks promoting ultra-nationalist political party the Georgian March and pro-government media outlet POSTV on Facebook. On.ge translated all DFRLab reporting and research into Georgian for use in a range of policy products and dissemination.

The PPAG recipient the Information Defense Legion created and disseminated a series of brief storytelling videos in connection to the milestone parliamentary elections. The videos thoroughly explained Kremlin's attempts to interfere in the elections of different countries, such as the United Kingdom, Moldova, Montenegro, Kyrgyzstan, and Georgia via spreading disinformation, engaging a large number of trolls, funding policymakers, and even planning a coup. In total, the Legion created five videos that received 17,900 views within days.

Information Defense Legion launched online studio discussions on The Information Defense Legion organized Facebook and held offline meetings two offline and two online public lectures to raise awareness of vulnerable rural audiences about the Russian interference in elections. The main topic of discussion was how Russia can change public opinion using information operations and manipulations.

The Legion continued to monitor anti-western social pages and user’s profiles, Russian media, blogs, and forums to detect disinformation and then publish truthful facts and arguments and spread them widely through its popular Facebook page and platforms.

The PPAG recipient played a particularly important role during the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Karabakh. The Legion responded to the disinformation that alleged that Georgia was taking sides in this war and aimed to raise the country’s tensions with its neighbors. Legion showed how a famous Russian journalist was fabricating facts about the Karabakh war and exposed Kremlin’s another disinformation according to which NATO air forces made Russians leave Georgian airspace leading to possible conflict.

The Legion’s team prepared informative and analytical articles about Russian policy. Mainly, articles revealed Kremlin’s imperialistic intentions, propagandistic tricks (also concerning the COVID-19 pandemic), facts of violation of human rights, malign policy towards other countries. The Legion also prepared several short story-telling video exclusives. The most important videos concerned increasing threat coming from Russia and the benefits of NATO membership as well as the Kremlin's attempts to interfere in neighbors’ domestic politics.

Throughout this quarter Legion released 15 exclusive videos. Legion’s top video exclusive had 253,000 reaches, 211,000 views, and 36,000 engagements. Legion published 38 analytical articles. The most popular post which was about Soviet destructive policy had 40,534 reaches and 4,779 engagements. It conducted two offline and two online workshops in connection to the elections in Georgia. The Legion prepared and released five short but informative storytelling videos about Russian attempts to interfere in other countries' elections. Its team spread information revealing the Kremlin's attempt to interfere and to discredit Georgia during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Because of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the fall of 2020 and the following restrictions, the grantee was not able to fulfill all planned offline campaigns activities. It had to adapt its project, let go of three regional coordinators and move its operations online.

The Legion’s new product, online Studio Discussions was funded by EWMI ACCESS through an amendment to its budget, i.e., the cascade funding. The discussions had a successful start. During the reporting period, the Legion fully designed, equipped, and decorated a studio, and recorded eight discussions which were aired on its Facebook page and YouTube channel.

The main goal of these discussions led by a famous writer was to raise awareness of the Georgian society about security challenges in the region, Russian propaganda, importance of western partnership, and NATO membership. All topics are relevant to building societal resilience against disinformation and malign influence.

The topics so far have included: Karabakh - Caucasus - Georgia: what should we know; Georgia facing propaganda, a war with Russia that must be won; Russian market for Georgian business; and NATO-Georgia relations a consequence of occupation by Red Army.

Total views of the online discussions reached 168,400 in the given period. The Studio Discussions are increasing in popularity, as more and more people are engaging in discussions in the video’s comments section. It is notable that a regional TV channel (TV9) from the traditionally pro-Russian ethnic minority dominated region of Samtske-Javakheti has expressed its interest and soon the Studio Discussions are going to be aired on the mentioned channel.

Volunteers have contributed to Legion’s work in various ways: they have indicated and sent suspicious, fake profiles and important (dis)information that Legion subsequently paid attention to; they wrote analytical articles for the Facebook page, participated in online campaigns (writing comments), shared Legion’s posts widely, etc.

During the reporting period the number of Legion’s Facebook page Likes increased by 9,593, reaching 45,462 Likes, and the number of followers increased by 14,126, reaching 55,669 followers. The total monthly reach of its Facebook page is 1,184,239.

The PPAG recipient the United Nations Association Georgia (UNAG) mostly focused on encouraging citizens to go to vote. In collaboration with the civil.ge online platform, it prepared and launched a 10-day Get Out To Vote (GOTV) campaign in the run-up to the parliamentary elections (October 20 through October 31).

Through the campaign, the project gained 1,134,137 impressions from eight posts. This included three timeline posts, four targeted posts on different cities, and one general post. The timeline posts highlighted the three key messages: Madam Republic with the story of women of the First Republic of Georgia (1918-1921), Movement Shevardeni with the story of youngster UNAG’s GOTV social media campaign inspired first-time voters with stories of Georgian women elected to parliament 100 years ago activists of the First Republic of Georgia, and Indifference towards Elections with the message of importance of voting. Four posts targeted individual cities, which proved most popular in smaller cities especially. Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Gori and Batumi were targeted, telling the stories of those locals who were elected in the first Constituent Assembly. In one anecdote, a girl from the city of Gori printed the post on her t-shirt and voted in that outfit.

In an emotional appeal, UNAG’s Facebook banner reminded citizens how the Constituent Assembly was formed following the free and fair elections in 1919 and laid foundation for gaining independence for Georgia, calling voters to “Go to polls on October 31! Keep the tradition and choose freedom!”

In total, more than 10,000 people liked, commented, shared or read UNAG’s posts. More than 145,000 people saw these posts at least two times during the campaign. The project's quarterly gains were as follows: 1.65 million in total reach, 12,700 reactions, 761 post comments, and 1,860 shares.

The project originally planned an extended GOTV campaign towards the second round of elections as well, but the project plans were eventually scrapped after the mass boycott of the second round of the elections.

New PPAG RfA on COVID-19 On October 5, EWMI ACCESS published a new RFA for PPAGs contest for Georgian think tanks and watchdog organizations to undertake efforts focusing on increasing government transparency, accountability, and efficiency in responding to and recovering from the COVID- 19 crisis through policy research, monitoring, analysis, and/or advocacy. The deadline for submitting applications was October 30. EWMI ACCESS received 14 applications.

The GRC met on November 17 and shortlisted the following two projects for funding of approximately $35,000 each:

• Civitas Georgica: studying and improving infrastructural safety, the safety of the educational process, and staff safety in Georgian preschools and kindergartens, as well as an access to early childhood education during the pandemic and other crisis/emergency situations.

• CEFA: Studying and addressing the learning loss in Georgia caused by the COVID-19 disruption of the education process.

In December, EWMI ACCESS organized the Social Laboratory meetings to finalize the project strategies and activity plans through a participatory process. These meetings included the project teams and the invited participants, namely, child psychologists, leaders of the children’s right advocacy coalition, specialists of early childhood education, educational experts and researchers, principals of public and private kindergartens and schools, representatives of the Ministry of Education, and local and international civil society organizations working on the issue.

Both projects will be launched in January 2021.

Key Issues and Challenges During this reporting period, EWMI ACCESS did not encounter any major challenges under Component Three other than those related to COVID-19.

Plans for Next Quarter EWMI ACCESS plans to conduct the following activities under Component Three in the next reporting period: • Monitor the implementation of grant-supported activities of all ongoing PPAGs; • Organize capacity building activities for PPAGs; • Organize a Policy Forum series.

COMPONENT FOUR: NETWORK OF CENTERS FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT Under Component Four, EWMI ACCESS supports the Network of Centers for Civic Engagement (NCCE) to promote democratic dialogue in Georgia's regions and develop into a sustainable network.

Key Activities and Accomplishments NCCE Hosted Events During the reporting period, the CCEs continued to host and organize online and offline civic discussions. The CCEs partially re-launched their offline operation (i.e. opened all ten regional

offices but limited the number of event attendees to maintain safe distancing), but demand for offline events and services remained extremely low. Overall, during the reporting period, the CCEs:

• Hosted 215 issue-based events, engaging 3,870 citizens, including 2,302 women (59%) and 1,568 men (41%); • Initiated and organized 74 events of their own with 938 participants, including 582 women (62%), 325 youth (35%), and 67 individuals belonging to ethnic minorities (7%).

The chart below shows the distribution of CCE usage by stakeholders: CCES USAGE OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2020 Interational Educational Organizations Institutions Professional and 18% 1% Business Associations 5%

Research & Academic Institutes CSOs 5% 50%

Public Institutions 2% Media Community 2% Leaders Political Parties 12% 5%

Election Media Centers For the 2020 parliamentary elections, NCCE launched and operated the Election Media Centers. The Media Centers opened on September 7, 2020. Since then, they hosted 136 events, engaging 21 political parties and 2,215 citizens – 56% women and 44% men. These events included media briefings, election program presentations, and meetings with constituents.

Focus Group Discussions on Voters’ Priorities To ensure that pre-election discussions addressed the most pressing concerns and priorities of regional citizens, CCEs organized focus group discussions in the regional centers where they are located and studied voters’ priorities in each region. The focus groups captured similarities, as well as differences between the regions. Georgian voters had many priorities, but the most frequently heard concerns included fundamental economic and social issues that

synced with the national-level priorities. These were poverty, unemployment, low pensions, and unaffordable healthcare.

Citizens from the ethnic minority populated regions of Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti complained about the poor quality of Georgian language classes in local schools, as well as about the poor quality of different subject textbooks in their ethnic languages. The opportunities for vocational education were also limited as many citizens were unaware about such programs and the quality of programs was often poor.

The village residents expressed concerns about the inaccessibility of emergency medical services and non-existence of village ambulances. Many villages that are dependent on agriculture for their income also suffer from insufficient or nonexistent irrigation systems. Many villages have no sewage system either.

Women highlighted the problem of lack of kindergartens, particularly in the villages of Bolnisi and Marneuli.

NCCE prepared and published the informational posters and reports summarizing the focus group research results in all regions.

16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence In December, the CCEs joined the global campaign 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence and organized diverse online events and activities to highlight gender equality and women’s issues. This included informational meetings for local citizens about the Crisis Centers for the Victims of Domestic Violence established by the Georgian government to spread the word about their services and accessibility.

NCCE invited Goga Khatiashvili, expert on gender issues to join an online meeting with school students from ten cities to speak about his experience of dealing with domestic violence cases and the role of the society in combatting this problem.

NCCE also hosted a live Facebook event to present Goga Khatiashvili’s book Courage, describing the stories of survivors of child marriage. The book was sponsored by the CSO Equality Now.

As part of the campaign, NCCE painted a mural on the Marneuli CCE external wall highlighting the importance of gender equality. The mural is visible to any person who enters or passes by the office.

Additionally, NCCE created a poster to raise awareness regarding the violence against women and distributed them to ten city halls in the regions where they were put up in citizen reception areas. The poster included the information about the forms of violence and the hotline numbers for reporting abuse.

In total, NCCE dedicated 16 events to the Campaign, engaging youth, women, CSOs, local journalists, and other interested groups.

Portfolio Diversification To continue diversifying its portfolio and build up a new expertise and experience, NCCE implemented a number of advocacy and awareness-raising activities with funding from ACCESS and other donors, including EWMI’s Promoting Rule of Law in Georgia (PROLoG) project, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Georgia, and the US Embassy in Georgia.

With PROLoG’s funding NCCE developed an informational brochure on discrimination in Georgian, Azeri, and Armenian languages. The brochure defined the forms of discrimination and provided a clear guidance on where to refer for protection. NCCE published the brochure on its website, reaching 10,428 people.

Also with PROLoG’s financial support, NCCE prepared two videos on domestic violence and discrimination. The CCEs mobilized youth from regions, recorded their video questions, and sent them to the gender equality expert Goga Khatiashvili and the Head of Equality Department at the Ombudsman’s Office Keti Shubashvili. The videos with questions and responses were published on the NCCE Facebook Page on November 26 and December 1, and reached 35,000 people within a month.

In October, NCCE started a new partnership with UNFPA Georgia. It began working in the Guria region on the issues related to gender-based violence, inequality, and fight against gender-based stereotypes. Its overarching goal was to educate, empower, and engage youth to trigger social changes through local, youth-led initiatives that challenged discriminatory gender norms and mobilized public support for gender equality.

During the reporting period, NCCE also secured funding from the US Embassy in Georgia Democracy Commission Small Grants Program. The project Generation Z – Start up Observatory will be implemented in Batumi, Rustavi, and Telavi and will promote innovative entrepreneurship among youth. The project will be launched in January 2021.

Fundraising EWMI ACCESS and NCCE continued their efforts to raise alternative funds for NCCE’s operational expenses and project-based activities. During the reporting period, NCCE developed and submitted project proposals to two new donors. One grant was awarded, and one was rejected. The awarded project was funded by UN Women and will be launched in January 2021.

Fee-based Services During the reporting period, NCCE generated 34,222 GEL (approximately $10,370) net income through its fee-based services. The highest-earning CCEs were Batumi with 21% share

in the total net income, Marnueli with 17% share, and Zugdidi with 11% share. For the similar information about the other CCEs, please see the chart below:

FEE-BASED SERVICES OCTOBER-DECEMBER, 2020 Zugdidi Akhaltsikhe 11% 8% Telavi 9% Batumi 21% Sagarejo 8%

Gori Rustavi 3% 9% Kutaisi 6%

Ozurgeti 10% Marneuli 15%

Interim Reports by CCEs With the aim of better tracking, consolidating, and exchanging information about the CCEs’ activities in all ten regions, NCCE’s Head Office continued to collect monthly reporting forms from CCEs. The form included basic information about the work completed by each CCE during the reporting period, most significant success stories, event, user/customer, and media coverage statistics, and most significant challenges faced.

Individual Registration of CCEs EWMI ACCESS continued working with the NCCE head office and regional staff to finalize the process of registering the ten CCEs individually as a way of enabling them to transform into community-based organizations, serving the specific interests of their local communities.

The individual registration will allow CCEs to apply for grant funds that are allocated for regionally registered CSOs. It will also encourage them to further diversify their activities and pursue the projects that best reflect local needs and priorities. The registered CCEs will remain a part of the Network and engage in the Network-wide activities as well.

EWMI ACCESS organized numerous discussions with NCCE’s Tbilisi and regional staff to explore the interest in and potential for this type of transformation. These discussions were necessary to ensure a shared understanding of the new path and agree on the exact process through which the transformation would take place. After reaching joint decisions on the overall plan, EWMI ACCESS and NCCE began working on the required legal documentation.

During the reporting period, EWMI ACCESS and NCCE finalized the registration documents (i.e. bylaw, board decision, Director’s consent letter) and prepared a Director’s/Coordinator’s Handbook that details a legal and administrative relationship between a locally registered CCE and the Network. In the following quarter, they will share these documents with CCEs to solicit their feedback, agree on the final versions, and move forward with the registration.

Key Issues and Challenges COVID-19 and the state of emergency affected NCCE’s operations throughout the reporting period. NCCE had to move most of its operations online. COVID-19 had a particularly negative effect on NCCE’s ability to generate funds through fee-based services.

Plans for Next Quarter EWMI ACCESS plans to conduct the following activities under Component Four in the next reporting period: • Continue providing technical assistance and oversight to NCCE; • Continue supporting civic activities of NCCE online and offline, as appropriate; • Continue assisting NCCE in fundraising through business outreach and proposal development; • Assist NCCE in registering CCEs individually; • Assist NCCE in organizing online meetings between local citizens and civic groups and senior government officials and leading professionals from different sectors to enhance citizens’ input on important policy issues and developments during the COVID-19 crisis; • Work with NCCE to explore the potential for CCEs to transform into community- based organizations, pursuing the Community Foundation model or its variations as a way of increasing community relevance.

PUBLIC OUTREACH During the reporting period, EWMI ACCESS continued conducting diverse public outreach activities to inform Georgian citizens, CSOs, media, government, and other key stakeholders about the project. Outreach efforts included 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 EWMI ACCESS-organized events.

Electronic Newsletter During the reporting period, EMWI ACCESS issued six e-Newsletters (three in Georgian and three in English) to more than 1,300 subscribers. These included the Tbilisi-based and regional

CSOs, journalists, international organizations, government officials, educational institutions, and active citizens. The newsletter informed readers about the project developments and future plans.

Newsletters were also disseminated though the Facebook page and website and re-posted on partner organizations’ websites.

New Media EWMI ACCESS actively uses its Facebook page to disseminate news and project updates, announce upcoming events, and engage civil society in conversations. During the reporting period, EWMI ACCESS used its Facebook page intensively to post updates about its new grant programs and ongoing projects. During the reporting period, EWMI ACCESS posted on Facebook 59 times. The number of EWMI ACCESS Facebook page followers increased to 10,613.

Feature Stories During the reporting period EWMI ACCESS produced a feature story on the first-ever initiative to support and empower families of LGBTQI people in Georgia. Another story showcased EWMI ACCESS’ intervention during the pandemic to support children and ensure they get uninterrupted services necessary for their physical and mental health and development. In November 2020, EWMI ACCESS produced infographics on EWMI ACCESS Response to COVID-19 Outbreak in Georgia – highlighting RRG achievements.

EWMI ACCESS Website EWMI ACCESS’ project website is another important means of 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. EWMI ACCESS shares the website articles on its Facebook page for wider reach.

During the reporting period, EWMI ACCESS website had 2,760 visitors (86% new and 14% returning visitors), 3,554 sessions, and 6,470 page views.

Plans for Next Quarter: • Issue feature stories reflecting the achievements of EWMI ACCESS interventions; • Issue monthly electronic newsletters; • Update the EWMI ACCESS website and Facebook page with news, photos, and announcements about EWMI ACCESS.