THIRD ANNUAL REPORT
Award Period: October 31, 2014 – October 31, 2019
Reporting Period: October 31, 2016 – September 30, 2017
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] Delina Fico, EWMI Director for Civil Society Programs, New York: [email protected]
#5 Marjanishvili St., Third Floor • Tbilisi 0102 Georgia • Tel (995 0 32) 2202 444 • www.facebook.com/EWMI.ACCESS
Background ...... 3
Approach ...... 4
Key Activities an Accomplishments ...... 4
Key Issues and Challenges ...... 9
Component One: Citizens become more aware of and involved in CSO Activities ...... 10
Component Two: Improving CSO leadership, organizational capacity, and sustainability ..... 19
Component Three: CSO Policy Research, Monitoring, and Influence Increase ...... 27
Component Four: Centers For Civic Engagement Continue To Provide Space For Public Dialogue ...... 35
Project Management ...... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Public Outreach ...... 41
EWMI ACCESS Annual Report: Oct. 31, 2016 – Sep. 31, 2017 Page 2 of 43
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 five-year $6.4 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: 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 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, 2019.
Note: This report serves both as aACCESS quarterly report for July – September 2017 and the third annual report covering October 31, 2016 – September 30, 2017. The report integrates fourth quarter activities, achievements, and challenges in reporting on ACCESS Year Three 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 assisting CSOs to engage constructively with government institutions at the central and local levels in fashioning responsive policy, generating and leading public debate over transparent and effective governance with all levels of decision-makers, fostering cooperation among CSOs, the private sector, and government institutions, as well as engaging citizens in CSO activities so that they view CSOs as legitimate representatives of their concerns.
In Year Three, ACCESS pursued this mission by: implementing comprehensive grants and technical assistance programs targeting regional and Tbilisi-based watchdog organizations and think tanks; engaging CSOs in open discussions with local and national government, media, citizens, the private sector, and political parties on key local and national issues and the government’s initiatives to address these issues; encouraging CSOs to reach out to citizens and engage them in setting their agendas and designing their advocacy and public awareness activities, as well as in implementing these activities; supporting meaningful and effective cooperation between CSOs and the private sector, and assisting CSOs to exchange practical information and ideas on effective strategies to engage citizens and influence public policies.
ACCESS-supported CCEs continued offering organizational and technical support to CSOs, citizens, political parties, donors, and other groups to organize town hall meetings, information campaigns, policy debates, and other civic events. In the lead up to the 2016 Parliamentary and 2017 Local Elections, CCEs operated Election Media Centers, providing a neutral space to the key electoral stakeholders to learn and distribute election related information.
III. KEY ACTIVITIES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
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Key Activities and Accomplishments – Year Three, Objective One
Launched two consolidated initiatives under Citizens Outreach Grants (COG) program in support of countering anti-western disinformation and empowering women voters. In response to these programs, ACCESS received 78 applications and issued 7 grants, averaging $15,000 each, to CSOs throughout Georgia. The two grant programs complemented ACCESS other ongoing initiatives aimed at supporting Georgia’s European integration and protecting women’s rights. Provided continued and new financial support to additional 7 CSOs to implement COG-supported activities. Through the COG-supported projects, engaged 2,796 citizens, including 1,549 women, 694 youth, and 903 ethnic minorities in civic activities. Capitalized on the opportunity offered by the CineDoc Film Festival to support innovative linkages between documentary film directors and civic activists and funded two short creative documentaries by these groups to help civic activists reach wider audiences and raise the profiles of their advocacy issues. In partnership with CSOs, independent experts, and popular public figures organized 3 CSO Bus Tours, reaching 6 villages and facilitating direct and open discussions between CSOs and citizens from the most remote communities of Georgia. Some of the bus tour videos reached 23,000 views and 11,000 engagements on ACCESS Facebook page. Through two Regional Civic Engagement Weeks (RCEWs) comprised of 60 events throughout the country supported regional CSOs efforts to raise citizens’ awareness about anti-western disinformation and highlight women voters’ needs. The RCEWs directly engaged 1,779 citizens and generated wide media interest, receiving media coverage 40 times. To support emerging civic activists and initiatives in the regions, ACCESS organized 6 Best Practice and Innovation Events (BPIE) on urban activism, engaging 103 participants, including 65 women and 15 youth. As part of the Right to Know Campaign, ACCESS conducted open discussions about its objectives, activities, and progress to date in 5 regional centers of Georgia, engaging 109 citizens and CSO activists, including 60 women, 18 youth, and 14 ethnic minorities. Organized 30 events dedicated to gender equality issues, engaging 612 citizens, including 440 women, 412 youth, and 74 ethnic minorities to promote women’s rights in the context of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence in November – December 2016 and Women’s History Month in March 2017. Continued support to CiDA-led CSO Transparency Declaration and attracted 16 more CSOs to proactively disclose their financial information (i.e. funding sources, amounts, and priorities) to promote greater transparency of civil society in Georgia.
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Key Activities and Accomplishments – Year Three, Objective Two
Conducted 13 new and repeated Organizational and Advocacy Capacity Assessments (8 new and 5 repeated) of Tbilisi-based and regional CSOs and provided tailored technical assistance to them to build their strategic planning, fundraising, and outreach capacities and strengthen their internal management systems. Delivered the second and third rounds of Non-profit Management Program (NMP). The capacity development program specifically tailored to the needs of Georgian CSOs, and launched the first online NMP. In Year Three, NMP engaged 41 CSO managers and civic activists, including 9 men and 32 women. Signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ilia State University (ISU) and received accreditation from ISU’s Quality Assurance Office and Academic Council for the NMP, thus making it the first joint training program by a CSO and an academic institution in Georgia. Assisted the Regional Civil Society Network (R-CSN) to carry out its networking and advocacy activities, establish new partnerships with Tbilisi-based CSOs and the private sector, diversify funding with 9 new grants, and recruit 9 new members. Effectively promoted Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Georgia by supporting CiDA’s work with the CSR Club and the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Local Network, as well as with the Georgian government and CSOs. Through the CSR initiative, achieved significant progress in enhancing gender equality in select businesses by promoting the UN-backed Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) and protecting the rights of people with disabilities (PwD) by facilitating their employment by CSR Club and UNGC Local Network members. For the first time in Georgia, conducted the baseline assessment of the legal framework and common practices in the field of CSR to identify clear targets for the CSR enabling efforts in the future. Put together the first database of the CSR Club members’ CSR priorities to inform CSOs and citizens and foster opportunities for partnerships. Successfully helped CSOs reach out to the private sector to secure funding for their initiatives, as well as launch a joint awareness raising campaign.
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Key Activities and Accomplishments – Year Three, Objective Three
Launched the third round of the Policy and Accountability Grants (PPAG) program focused on countering anti-western disinformation and supporting Georgia’s European integration, reviewed 31 applications, and awarded 4 grants. These grants target some of the most important issues related to Georgia’s EU integration, such as the overarching issue of Georgia’s strategic communication on EU integration and a more specific commitment under the Association Agreement to develop and adopt an effective labor inspection system. Through these PPAG-supported projects, effectively raised citizens’ awareness about the nature and means of anti-western disinformation campaigns in Georgia, exposed numerous instances of information manipulation, and countered the most widespread anti-western myths with fact-based information. Worked directly with the Georgian government, in particular, the office of the State Minister for NATO and EU Integration, to ensure that the State Communication Strategy on EU and NATO contained the governmental commitment to combat anti-western disinformation. Through a targeted PPAG-supported project, successfully advocated with the government to reform Georgia’s road safety system to help reduce the alarming number of traffic fatalities. Successfully completed two more PPAG-supported projects launched in Year Two, providing the Georgian government with actionable policy recommendations on improving safety of intercity transport and raising awareness of 400,000 subsistence farming households on the EU-Georgia Association Agreement mandated food safety regulations. Organized 9 Policy Forum sessions engaging high-level government officials, CSOs, media, the private sector, international organizations, and other stakeholders in constructive discussions about some of the key European integration and urban development issues facing Georgia. 5 Policy Fora that were organized close to the 2017 local elections brought together CSOs working on urban development issues, media, and the Tbilisi Mayoral candidates to discuss Tbilisi’s urban challenges and ways to address them. The Policy Fora engaged 200 citizens, including 83 women and 20 youth. Raised CSO capacities in social media strategies to counter anti-western disinformation and written policy communication by organizing practical workshops on two topics for ACCESS grantees and other leading policy organizations.
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Key Activities and Accomplishments – Year Four, Objective Four
Provided tailored technical assistance to the Network of Centers for Civic Engagement (NCCE) leadership and staff to enhance their capacities to manage CCEs independently, promote their services and resources, and meet customers’ needs. Continued assisting NCCE to develop and integrate effective internal management policies and procedures, including financial and internal control policies, Employee Professional Development Plan, Customer Engagement Strategy, Internship Program, and Volunteerism Concept. Engaged a qualified marketing specialist in developing NCCE’s marketing strategy and action plan to help revamp and promote NCCE’s services and increase its customer base. Supported NCCE to develop and launch fee-based services, generating $51,500 in income to finance its operations. Supported NCCE’s fundraising efforts, enabling the Network to raise $97,653 from sources other than ACCESS, such as the US Embassy, USAID-funded Promoting Rule of Law in Georgia (PRoLoG) project, and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Continued to support CCEs regional activities without interruption and ensured that the event and attendance numbers did not drop despite of the shift from free to fee-based services. In Year Three, CCEs hosted and organized 3,675 civic events, engaging 74,824 participants. CCEs initiated 261 events, engaging 5,982 participants, 3,648 women, 2,400 youth, and 511 ethnic minorities. 8.726 citizens used Internet and 616 used library resources at 10 CCEs. Supported CCEs to establish and operate Election Media Centers in the lead up to the 2017 local elections, providing neutral spaces for journalists and other stakeholders to learn and disseminate election-related information. The Media Centers hosted 152 events, engaging 3,531 participants. 50% of them were women, 27% were youth, and 7.5% were ethnic minorities.
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IV. KEY ISSUES AND CHALLENGES Key Issues and Challenges
In Year Three, similar to the previous years, the overall quality of grant applications received from regional CSOs remained unsatisfactory. This was despite of ACCESS continuous efforts to encourage innovative and effective civic engagement strategies through BPIEs, Right to Know Campaign, COG open days, and other activities. To ease the application process, ACCESS also provided a detailed problem description in the RfA, listed suggestive engagement directions, and stressed the importance of taking part in the COG open days. In the end, ACCESS was able to issue only 8 out of 18 planned COGs. The selected COG recipients received additional coaching and guidance immediately after getting selected for funding and throughout the project implementation period. ACCESS will continue this practice in Year Four as well. In Year Four, ACCESS will also emphasize COG Dos and Don’ts in the respective RfAs, open days, and information meetings organized in the regions. Despite ACCESS efforts to upgrade and popularize the web-based volunteer recruitment and registration platform, in Year Three, the platform remained mainly on hold. This was due to the closing of the organization that initially developed the platform (i.e., Borjghali) and then immaterialized cooperation between the new lead organization (i.e., Helping Hand) and the ministry responsible for volunteer support, the Ministry of Youth and Sport Affairs. Helping Hand had an agreement with the Ministry that they would develop the National Volunteer Strategy jointly, but that agreement led to no results because of senior staff turnover at the Ministry. In Year Four, ACCESS will probe into this potential partnership again, as well as seek engagement of the UK-based MySociety. It will also promote other ICT initiatives for civic engagement that it helped to successfully develop in Year Three and the previous years. ACCESS activities aimed at formalizing the R-CSN structure and management to ensure its effective operation and sustainability were not highly effective. This was due to a number of reasons, including the Network size and diversity, overall weaknesses of CSOs in Georgia’s regions, and limited powers and resources of local authorities. However, ACCESS was successful in popularizing the Network as a strong regional partner for Tbilisi-based CSOs to quickly collect and disseminate information from and to the regions. It was also effective in engaging R-CSN in the nationwide civic and advocacy campaigns, and in diversifying the Network funding. In Year Four, ACCESS support to R-CSN will capitalize on these accomplishments.
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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 and the Civil Development Agency (CiDA) partner to achieve these objectives through the Citizen Outreach Grants (COG) Program, CSO Fairs, Best Practice and Innovation Events, and initiatives aimed at increasing the use of technology to engage more citizens in CSO activities.
Key Activities and Accomplishments In Year Three, ACCESS completed six COG projects, including open and targeted ones. The majority of these projects aimed at galvanizing citizen engagement in local governance to influence policies and decisions affecting local communities.
Completed Open COGs CSI Batumi assisted the Citizen Advisory Council at the Batumi City Council (i.e., Sakrebulo) to diversify its voice by welcoming local youth and their perspectives in the Council. The Council and its new members successfully advocated to fund two local youth-inspired infrastructure projects and are currently pending a final decision on a petition (signed by 500 people from 180 families) to change land status of a local park. This will prevent the park from being auctioned for a large construction project that would disallow communities from using it for recreational purposes.
Stepantsminda, formalized the voice of sparsely populated remote communities of five mountainous villages in the Sno gorge of Kazbegi municipality. The organization collected over 800 signatures on a petition requesting a change in the high voltage electricity line right-of- way design. As a result, the local government changed the route of the high-voltage electricity line so that it will no longer go through Sno.
Young Scientists’ Club of Ozurgeti (YSCO) developed and piloted the first of its kind SMS- based information dissemination system, allowing local citizens in Ozurgeti to receive up-to- date information about the upcoming local government town hall meeting dates, meeting agendas, and made decisions. After successfully piloting the system, YSCO transferred its software and the proactive information provision responsibilities to the local government in Ozurgeti. The latter resorted to making legal changes in its procedures, mandating itself to establish this practice continually. Currently, 1,000 residents of Ozurgeti are signed up to receive daily SMS updates. Building on this successful practice, two neighboring municipalities asked YSCO to replicate the system for them, while YSCO has ongoing consultations with Batumi Sakrebulo on the SMS-based information provision benefits and opportunities.
The Center of Inter-Ethnic Cooperation and Consultation prepared comics on election- related information in Georgian and Armenian, and distributed 4,000 copies of it in ethnic-
EWMI ACCESS Annual Report: Oct. 31, 2016 – Sep. 31, 2017 Page 10 of 43 minority populated communities of Samtskhe-Javakheti prior to the 2016 parliamentary elections.
Local Democracy Agency (LDA) Georgia helped communities in all 12 municipalities of the Imereti region to form Citizen Advisory Councils to engage citizens in overseeing and influencing the local government’s work.
Ongoing Open COGs The COGs focusing on anti-western disinformation have almost completed most of their activities. Radarami, the COG recipient, is touring the country to engage citizens in open discussions about anti-western disinformation using the prominent book on the subject Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia. The grantee organized 20 discussions throughout Georgia, including in the villages populated by Internally Displaces Persons (IDPs) from the 2008 Georgia - Russia war.
The book presentation and follow-up discussions invited local citizens, often youth, to learn about the author’s accounts of the role of media, show business, and entertainment in modern day Russian state building and Russian information manipulation techniques. Radarami invited Georgian authors, intellectuals, and other popular personas to facilitate the discussions and provide their read of the issue. Radarami also provided free copies of the book’s Georgian translation to all book tour participants.
The second COG recipient working on countering anti-western disinformation, the Independent Journalists’ Lasha Bakrade, researcher and professor at Ilia State University talks about the importance of Georgia’s European aspirations in the region, where neighboring House, actively engaged Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan often fall prey of Russian influence famous writers, intellectuals and influential CSO actors in a statement campaign Conversations on Europe. The campaign featured notable speakers in high mountainous villages of Adjara and Batumi universities and public spaces, as well as online, where in a minute-long videos they spoke about Georgia’s European values and identity.
The Independent Journalists’ House also worked with its partner organizations, Transparency International (TI) Georgia, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), and International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED), as well as with media partners
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Batumelebi and Netgazeti to advertise its public meetings and create an alternative discourse to anti-western disinformation in Adjara.
In Year Three, ACCESS launched the sixth round of COG. Referencing the findings of the Media Development Fund’s (MDF) analysis of 2014 local elections and statistics by the Central Election Committee (CEC), according to which, while women represented 54% of all registered voters in Georgia, political parties and candidates rarely focused on women voters’ needs in their election programs, the RfA solicited grant applications that aimed at highlighting women voters’ priorities leading up to the 2017 local elections.
The Grant Review Committee (GRC) selected five applications for funding. The projects started in July 2017 – three months before the elections. All five of them focused on identifying women voters’ needs in Georgia’s regions and bringing them to the attention of political parties and candidates participating in the elections.
The COG recipient Samtskhe-Javakheti Media Center (SJMC) worked with women in Borjomi, Akahltsikhe, Ninotsminda, and Marneuli, particularly targeting the most remote, ethnically and linguistically diverse communities in these municipalities. SJMC effectively mobilized women in traditionally conservative villages, where women rarely participated in public gatherings and never had any say in forming election programs. The organization used its close ties with local newspapers and TV channels to broadcast its activities and reach wider audiences.
Levan Mikeladze Foundation (LMF) centered its interventions in minority-populated
Surveying women voters in Foka, a remote and isolated village in Ninotsminda municipality regions, using more populated by ethnic Armenians formalized communication channels. They recruited locally influential women to educate and inform their peers about the importance of female constituency formation and women’s unified voice. The diverse group of local teachers, former City Hall members, and the candidates nominated by the Shida Kartli religious leaders brainstormed on shared issues and priorities of women and consolidated them to present to electoral candidates in Azeri and Armenian minority populated municipalities of Shida Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti.
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Journalists’ Network for Gender Equality (JNGE) relied on its network of journalists throughout the country to highlight women’s role in elections, but focused its project activities in Kvemo Kartli municipalities, where ethnic Azeri women, most of them working in large agricultural fields, lacked opportunities to voice their needs to local decision-makers. In addition to visiting and meeting with women in their workplace, the organization took advantage of public holidays and large-popular gatherings like concerts and festivals to engage with women voters.
Local Democracy Agency Georgia (LDA), using its contacts and community support, visited all 12 municipalities in the Imereti region to engage women and identify their needs. The series of focus groups in each municipality revealed a list of priorities that the organization will present to electoral candidates in October 2017 in a format of televised debates.
Women for Regional Development (WRD), the only organization with an extensive experience of working on women’s issues in Guria, adopted a grass-root approach to mobilizing and organizing women voters. Focusing on seven communities with pre-identified vulnerabilities (i.e., populated by eco-migrants and religious minorities or distant from the municipal center), the organization organized a door-to-door campaign, visiting the women at their homes and workplaces, including the village markets, to conduct in-depth interviews and encourage their participation in elections.
Even though WRD worked in communities with little to none previous CSO engagement or any kind of civic mobilization work, the organization managed to
Interviewing women voters at the bazaars attract a sizable group of women to work with them on identifying women voter needs and analyzing them to prepare for the upcoming debates with election candidates in October 2017.
Targeted COGs
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Targeted COG recipient, Jump Start Georgia, developed an informative and interactive web platform informing Georgians about the increasing air pollution problem in Georgia’s cities and its health and environmental implications. The platform also encourages its visitors to take individual pledges to help prevent air pollution. While innovative in its approach to citizen engagement and awareness raising, ACCESS plans to build on it in the next year as its programming focuses more on mobilizing citizen efforts on key urban issues like car emissions, lack of green space and pedestrian rights in light of rapid construction, increased vehicle ownership rates, etc.
In Year Three, ACCESS issued three additional targeted COGs. The targeted COG to support the online project, Women of Georgia, featured stories of women of all backgrounds, including ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities, politicians, young women, mothers of children with disabilities, elderly, and any other women whose stories could speak Jump Start Georgia e-platform for raising awareness on air pollution for many others. Since its launch in October 2016, Women of Georgia generated over 53,000 Likes and few hundred thousand engagements on Facebook. Its stories were picked up by national TV channels and many online platforms, inspiring intense and often first-time discussions on taboo issues, such as workplace sexual harassment, children being born through in-vitro fertilization, male-dominated sport, and others.
During the reporting period, the project interviewed 35 women. Many of their stories were quickly picked up by social media sites and national TVs, stirring conversations and engaging
EWMI ACCESS Annual Report: Oct. 31, 2016 – Sep. 31, 2017 Page 14 of 43 thousands in dialogue on the targeted problem. One of the latest posts is shy of 100 shares and over 700 Likes.
ACCESS funding allowed Women of Georgia to widen its scope and put a special emphasis on women’s political participation, as well as women voters’ needs during the upcoming local elections. ACCESS continues to support efforts to promote open dialogue and discussion of issues affecting women’s engagement in other male-dominated areas of life and encourage
partnerships to influence policies and practices affecting women.
As a way of encouraging and enabling CSOs to employ innovative means to engage wider audiences in their advocacy efforts, in Year Three, ACCESS collaborated with CivilPitch, the side-project of the documentary movie festival CineDoc, linking CSOs with filmmakers, media professionals, and donors to join efforts to highlight civic issues through creative documentary features. ACCESS was invited to serve on the CivilPitch Award Committee and, in cooperation with the other members of the Committee, selected two pitches for funding through targeted COGs. The two pitches focused on sustainable urban development – one of ACCESS’ priority areas in Year Three and the future years.
Urban Lab’s project 5 Meters of Rock, pitched in response to urban challenges faced by Tbilisi, will visualize a possible solution to crowded public transportation problem in Tbilisi by introducing an idea of completing a second, unfinished entrance to the metro station Akhmeteli Theatre. The film will document the area’s local residents and people who live in huts near the unfinished entrance and who have come to depend on it for a living, as a way of telling the story behind the rock boulder of 5 meters.
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Level2 Films’ project Level 2, also pitched in a response to urban challenges faced by the capital. This documentary will depict the coming together of multi-story apartment building residents in a fast growing urban setting in Tbilisi. The film will aim to demonstrate how the residents defy the ever-decreasing space for community interaction as manifested in their communal endeavor of building a soccer field on the rooftops of car garages to create a playground for the neighborhood kids.
Both documentaries began their initial preparatory activities in September 2017. The films will be finalized by early spring 2018, in time to be submitted for the CineDoc Festival.
Regional Civic Engagement Weeks In May 2017, ACCESS, CIDA R-CSN and the PPAG recipient, MDF, worked together to plan and organize the Kids at the playground and potential film protagonists, Level2 Regional Civic Engagement Week (RCEW) focusing on anti-western disinformation.
ACCESS and MDF trained fifteen select members of R-CSN on how to detect and check fake news and photo manipulation, and went through a list of the most common anti-western myths spread in Georgia’s regions to reduce public support for Georgia’s European integration.
The trained regional CSOs held 40 public events in Georgia’s ten regions (Guria, Ajara, Racha, Imereti, Kakheti, Samegrelo, Samtkhe-Javakheti, Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Kvemo Kartli, Shida Kartli) as part of the RCEW to transfer media literacy and disinformation detection knowledge to citizens in their communities. Out of 883 citizens who participated in the events 477 were women, 398 youth, and 8 ethnic minority representatives. Citizens also engaged in discussions over the prospects and benefits of Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration.
RCEW participants received various print materials that filled in the information gaps and learned about the MDF resources, such as www.mythdetector.ge and interactive online quizzes testing one’s media literacy.
The second RCEW that took place in September 2017 echoed ACCESS’s ongoing initiative on women voters’ mobilization and needs’ identification. In close partnership with CIDA R- CSN, ACCESS developed a questionnaire that sought to identify women voters’ needs of their respective communities. During September 27 - 29, 23 R-CSN members welcomed and greeted passerby women in city and town centers to inquire about their needs and priorities
EWMI ACCESS Annual Report: Oct. 31, 2016 – Sep. 31, 2017 Page 16 of 43 using the questionnaire. The Week’s campaign entitled Women Demand, Women Elect reached all ten regions of Georgia and surveyed 1,106 women.
The RCEW was carried out in close cooperation and coordination with CECs. This partnership between the 23 R-CSN members and CCEs will continue in the post-election period, when CEC will consolidate election gender statistics and R-CSN member organizations will continue to work with women voters to analyze and monitor politicians’ responsiveness to women’s needs.
Bus Tours In Year Three, ACCESS organized three Bus Tours to remote, under-represented and otherwise marginalized communities in close collaboration with ACCESS grantees, partner organizations, and local CSOs.
In July and September 2017, the Bus Tour participants visited six communities in Georgia’s three regions (Kakheti’s Eniseli and Velistkikhe villages, Samtstkhe-Javakheti’s Zanavi and Gogasheni villages and Shida Kartli’s Tirdznisi, and Kvemo Khviti communities located in near proximity to the Administrative Border Line).
The informal meetings invited local citizens in village centers, yards, and at local recreational spaces to engage in A popular writer and public commentator talks about Soviet-government’s historical atrocities open discussions that led to mass resettlements to Cyberia and loss of many people’s family members about Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations, and economic opportunities provided by the free trade agreement with the EU. The discussions also touched on Georgia’s national security provisions and guarantees as a NATO-aspirant and partner country, and anti-western disinformation strategies and related implications for the future Georgia’s democratic development.
Capitalizing on ACCESS’s Year Two focus on anti-western disinformation, on the one hand, and on the popularity of the new generation, post-Soviet era writers, the Bus Tours welcomed Lasha Bughadze and Dato Turashvili who often write, discuss and criticize anti-western sentiments disguised in anti-liberal, xenophobic, homophobic, and sexist narrative in print, online, and TV media products. Both authors are also the anchors of the most famous TV
EWMI ACCESS Annual Report: Oct. 31, 2016 – Sep. 31, 2017 Page 17 of 43 channel Rustavi 2’s prime-time program that provides counter-narratives to anti-western disinformation. They talked to the citizens that they met with during the Bus Tour about historical, political, and social contexts that shed light on Georgia’s ever-historical aspirations toward the West and exposed foreign-led strategies and techniques that hindered the country’s western course.
For the first time in Year Three, ACCESS used the Facebook Live function to broadcast some of the interactions between locals and Bus Tour participants. Some additional Bus Tour video materials were later also uploaded to ACCESS’s Facebook page resulting in unprecedented hits and engagements. Lasha Bughadze’s heated conversation with a local in Velistikhe, who spoke about his Soviet sentiments, reached 23,000 views and over 11,000 post engagements.
Right to Know Campaign In March 2017, ACCESS, in close partnership with CCEs, organized semi-formal meetings to engage regional CSOs, media, and constituents in open discussions about ACCESS work and pipeline initiatives. The COG and PPAG RfAs on countering anti-western disinformation played a role in defining the Right to Know campaign meeting schedule and locations. ACCESS decided to organize its meetings in Marneuli, Sagarejo, Akhaltsikhe, Gori, and Ozurgeti, as these regions were more vulnerable to anti-western disinformation and had a record of voter preferences for political parties and candidates with anti-western sentiments.
ACCESS welcomed regional CSOs, media, local government, and the public to comment on and suggest improvements to ACCESS objectives and programming activities. The ensued discussions mainly focused on local CSOs concerns, including low citizen engagement and trust toward the civil society sector, as well as the missing cooperation and mentorship between Tbilisi- and region-based CSOs.
ACCESS staff recognized the need for increased and more substantial and regular mentorship between mature and less-developed CSOs. As an immediate response, ACCESS circulated a list of R-CSN members to all interested PPAG applicants and encouraged their partnerships with local CSOs.
In total, 109 citizens and CSO activists, among them 60 women, 18 youth, and 14 ethnic minority representatives participated in the Right to Know Campaign meetings.
Best Practice and Innovation Events In a collaborative effort with CiDA, ACCESS reached out to regional and Tbilisi-based CSOs under R-CSN, to solicit their input in identifying the Best Practice and Innovation Event (BPIE) topics and speakers for Year Three. ACCESS distributed a questionnaire among the R-CSN members inquiring about (a) the biggest challenges faced by CSOs in the regions, (b) preferred topics for experience sharing, and (c) the specific initiatives/campaigns of the Tbilisi-based CSOs of interest to their regional counterparts. The CSOs listed their preferences as, (a) encouraging citizen participation in local decision-making, (b) facilitating youth participation in CSO activities, (c) forming effective coalitions, and (d) successful fundraising.
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Respectively, ACCESS organized four BPIEs in Rustavi, Gori, Ozurgeti, and Batumi on Planning and Managing Civic Campaigns, Mobilizing Supporters, and Effectively Communicating with the Media.
Tbilisi-based activists of campaigns against illegal surveillance, excessive tree cutting and green space reduction, and public littering spoke at length about their experiences of raising awareness about the issues, mobilizing a support base, and media outreach. They discussed with BPIE participants applicability of these methods in the respective regions. 73 people participated in these BPIEs, including 44 women, and 14 youth.
To measure participants’ initial reactions and overall effectiveness of BPIEs, ACCESS piloted a post-event survey asking participants to evaluate the usefulness of BPIEs’ focus and the likelihood of using the received information. 83% of the surveyed participants said that they found the discussions very useful and that they expected to apply the received information in their work.
Additionally, CiDA organized BPIEs in Kutaisi and Zugdidi. The meetings helped local CSOs learn about best practices of financial transparency and bookkeeping. CIDA also informed and invited regional CSOs to explore CIDA-led CSO Transparency Declaration initiative and join their national counterparts in proactively disclosing their financial information, including ongoing projects and donors.
To enable local CSOs to join the Declaration and proactively publicize their financial records, part of the BPIEs focused on providing consultations to the participating organizations on how present financial data in user-friendly format. CIDA invited a financial accounting expert to travel to Zugdidi and Kutaisi and provide face-to-face consultations to the interested organizations. In total, 30 CSOs benefited from these BPIEs. 103 people attended, including 65 women and 15 youth.
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.
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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 In Year Three, ACCESS and CTC selected eight new CSOs for the CSO Organizational Development Program through an open competition, giving priority to ACCESS grantees. These CSOs were Article 42, Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC), Women’s Initiative Support Group (WISG), Orbeliani, First Step, Georgian Democracy Initiative (GDI), Georgian Association of Educational Initiatives SIQA, Institute of Democracy, and Iare Pekhit.
These CSOs received tailored assistance by CTC in accordance with their specific needs as identified through OACAs and described in the respective Capacity Development Plans (CDPs). In particular, In Year Three, CTC also conducted the repeated OACAS of five CSOs.
Non-Profit Management Program In parallel to assessing and coaching individual CSOs, in Year Three, CTC completed the second round of its five-month Non-profit Management Program (NMP) for CSO leaders. 13 participants graduated the Program with certificates in November 2016. Four participants pulled out early due to the Program intensity and inability to attend the required number of classes to pass. The remaining participants completed the Program with a 75% attendance rate.
Taking into account ACCESS suggestions and the requests of the NMP participants, in Year Three, CTC engaged an increasing number of guest speakers in the Program delivery, who enriched the Program with additional expertise and practical experiences. In particular:
Module 1: Introduction, Values, and Strategy guest speaker, Eka Datuashvili (Social Entrepreneurship Development Program Coordinator from Center for Strategic Research and Development spoke about social enterprises globally and in Georgia;
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Module 1: Introduction, Values, and Strategy second guest speaker, Tamar Zaalishvili (Executive Director of First Step Georgia) spoke about the role of strategic planning in the organizational development; Module 4: Project Management guest speaker, Nino Lezhava (Director of Heinrich Boll Foundation in Georgia) spoke about the project idea development; Module 4: Project Management second guest speaker, Tinatin Bolkvadze (Civil Society Program Director at Open Society – Georgia Foundation) spoke about proposal writing and donor requirements; Module 5: Financial Management guest speaker Natela Chighladze (Managing Partner at Crowe Horwarth) spoke about nonprofit taxation and management; Module 5: Financial Management second guest speaker Nikoloz Ostapenko (Taxation Expert at Crowe Horawth) spoke about nonprofit accounting; Module 6: Social Marketing guest speaker Valerian Gorgiladze (Integrated Marketing Communications Consultant and TV show Host) spoke about effective public outreach; Module 6: Social Marketing second guest speaker Irina Khantadze (Executive Director of CTC and Manager of Teacher National Prize) spoke about fundraising and communication with private donors.
After completing the third NMP, CTC conducted the Program evaluation through an online questionnaire asking the participants to grade individual Modules, as well as the entire Program. Additionally, in December 2016, ACCESS and CTC organized a special feedback workshop to get more detailed assessments and suggestions for improvement.
Module # of # of Invited Changes/Comments Session Sessions speakers now after change Strategic 8 11 At least 2 To add information/input about SDGs Management and more and its context invited To enlarge strategic planning part speakers to be enrolled
Participatory 5 5 0 No changes Leadership HR 7 5 0 To update and to shorten the Management program, with less focus on the Motivation related issue as far as the part is broadly covered in Leadership module
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Project 15 15 At least 3 To integrate sessions with invited Management invited speakers including a workshop with speakers donor representatives. to be More focus on participatory enrolled approaches in planning and cross cutting issues like gender
Financial 10 7 0 To simplify the program, take out the Management accounting part, focus more on internal control procedures, budget, definition of overhead costs
Social 12 12 At least 2 To review the module flow and Marketing invited integrate more practical exercises, to speakers ensure that participants design their to be proposals along the module flow and enrolled develop its parts after completion of respective topics (similar approach is practiced in PCM module and it works well) Advocacy for 3 5 At least 1 To integrate the topic on coalition Social change invited building, coordination and speakers communication among partners to be engaged in joint advocacy. enrolled
To strengthen the ties among the NMP participants and between them and CTC, in Year Three, CTC established an Alumni Network uniting alumni of all three programs conducted to date. During the Year, the alumni members met twice to attend the talks by the former Speaker of Georgian Parliament, David Usupashvili on Prospects and Challenges of Georgian Civil society and by the Professor of Physiognomy at Ilia State University, Malkhaz Makashvili on Gender Identity and Sexuality.
CTC also worked with Ilia State University (ISU) to accredit the course and help embed it with the university. In line with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between CTC and ISU, the ISU Quality Assurance Office accredited the NMP course and the University Academic Council approved it for teaching at the university. As a result, in Year Three, CTC and ISU promoted and offered the third round of the NMP jointly and the graduates of the third NMP received the joint certificate.
Lastly, in Year Three, CTC launched the first online NMP course in Georgia to increase its reach and contribute to empowering regional CSOs and activists. ACCESS and CTC conducted face-to-face and online interviews and selected 28 participants out of 80 applicants
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Regional CSO Networking ACCESS regional CSO networking activities continued evolving around the CiDA-facilitated Regional Civil Society Network (R-CSN) bringing together 65 regional CSOs from across the country. To strengthen the Network, in Year Three, ACCESS and CiDA:
Helped set up a Supervisory Board composed of its most active and successful members to distribute management responsibilities and further formalize the Network structure; Worked with the Network thematic groups to help develop their individual action plans; Worked with the Network individual members to identify and address their organizational weaknesses; Engaged the Network members in organizing, managing, and evaluating ACCESS- initiated RCEWs; Promoted and facilitated the Network engagement with the Tbilisi-based CSOs to strengthen linkages between the two players and amplify their influence; Promoted the Network and its resources with international donors and the private sector to diversify its funding.
In result of these activities:
CiDA, using the self-assessment tool developed in cooperation with the USAID/Georgia Human and Institutional Capacity Development (HICD) 2020 program, assessed 52 members of the Network, mapping their expertise and identifying their key strengths and areas for improvement. CiDA will complete this process and publish the assessment results in December 2017. CiDA will use the assessment results to (a) put together and publicize a comprehensive database of the R-CSN members detailing their profiles, expertise, geographic coverage, contacts, etc. to help interested parties find and reach out to potential partners in the regions and (b) provide tailored mentoring to the R-CSN members focusing on the weaknesses identified through the assessment;
R-CSN six thematic groups identified the key problems in their thematic areas and developed action plans proposing the course of action to highlight and address these problems. In Year Four, R-CSN will aim to transform the action plans into more detailed project proposals and reach out to potential donors to secure necessary funding;
R-CSN members built their knowledge and experience in the RCEW thematic areas – women empowerment and countering anti-western disinformation – and increased
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their visibility. The RCEWs also helped further solidify the Network as its members took pride in the high intensity and popularity of the RCEW activities with the key civil society players, including Tbilisi-based CSOs and media;
R-CSN members joined efforts with the Tbilisi-based CSOs to organize additional three nationwide campaigns. On March 8, 2017, R-CSN’s Women Empowerment Working Group joined the Georgian Women Movement in organizing women solidarity demonstrations in Tbilisi and regions with the overarching theme Breaking the Glass Ceiling to highlight the problems faced by women in Georgia when entering politics or pursuing a high-end professional career. On March 29, 2017, R-CSN members joined their counterparts and media organizations in Tbilisi in voicing opposition to an ongoing debate within the ruling party on revoking the self-governing status of Georgia’s seven regional cities and abolishing the direct election of mayors. Lastly, 22 members of R-CSN, after undergoing a Training of Trainers (ToT) in the new Civil Service Law, organized similar trainings for civil servants in their regions and collected their feedback on the new provisions.
CiDA diversified the Network funding, securing funds from 9 alternative sources to implement advocacy, research, and awareness activities, engaging between 9 and 50 members of the Network. It also facilitated interaction between the Network members and the private sector that resulted in the allocation of funds by the members of the CSR Club to support CSO activities, such as organizing an exhibition of the R- CSN member CSO beneficiaries’ handcrafts and launching a nationwide awareness campaign on visa liberalization.
In Year Four, ACCESS plans to continue assisting R-CSN with networking and fundraising as these activities proved to be more successful and result-oriented than the activities aimed at formalizing the Network management.
Promoting Financial Transparency of CSOs In Year Three, CiDA continued advancing the CSO financial transparency web platform, nearly doubling the number of the platform signatories from 18 to 34.
To incentivize the CSOs to regularly publish and update their financial data, CiDA upgraded the platform with a rating system. This system enables organizations to qualify for number of stars that ultimately speak about organizations’ transparency. In particular, the CSOs that publish basic information (i.e. organization’s name, legal status, location) receive one star; CSOs that publish websites and contact information receive two stars; CSOs that update their data at least once a year receive three stars; CSOs that publish annual reports receive four stars; CSOs that publish programmatic report summaries receive five stars; CSOs that publish annual audit reports receive six stars; and CSOs that publish project-based audit reports receive seven stars.
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The scoring/rating system ranks the signatory CSOs based on the number of stars received.
Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility Promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR) was at the core of ACCESS and CiDA business outreach program in Year Three. As part of this program, ACCESS and CiDA:
Supported the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Local Network to (a) organize three Steering Committee meetings and a General Membership Meeting to assess past and plan new activities, (b) develop and publish the Network annual report to present its activities and accomplishments, (c) prepare an introductory package to attract new members to the Network, and (d) help draft and submit the member’s corporate responsibility reports to the UNGC Headquarters;
Supported the CSR Club (a) organize two Steering Committee meetings and two General Membership Meetings, (b) develop and publish the Club annual report, (c) update the Club database with information about the members’ CSR priorities and activities, and (d) link its members with the Tbilisi-based and regional CSOs.
Through this intensive interaction with and support to the UNGC Local Network and CSR Club members, CiDA:
Advanced women empowerment agenda with five businesses committing to adhere to the UN-backed Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) and working with CiDA and Sapari, one of the leading women’s rights CSOs, to develop and implement individual WEPs action plans. Through CiDA’s facilitation, Sapari analyzed statues, HR policies and manuals, and other relevant internal procedures from the gender equality perspective and offered concrete recommendations for improvement to the five companies.
CiDA and Sapari conducted two trainings for the company staff in gender equality in HR management, Public Relations, and CSR, and preventing and addressing sexual harassment at workplace. Sapari also assisted the companies to develop internal communication strategies to inform their staff about the planned and implemented changes aimed at empowering women employees. It prepared the information leaflet regarding gender-based discrimination at the workplace, and sexual harassment and grievance mechanisms, as well as the video featuring the CEOs of the target companies discussing the importance and the business case of gender equality.
In September 2017, as part of the CSR Week, CiDA organized a lunch discussion on Business Partnerships around Gender Equality targeting the UNGC Local Network and CSR Club members to increase their commitment to fighting gender based discrimination, sexual harassment, gender pay gap, and the challenges related to maternity and paternity leaves.
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Lastly, CiDA successfully raised funds from the Swedish Development Agency (SiDA) and Philip Morris, Georgia office for empowering women entrepreneurs in Georgia’s regions through encouraging sustainable CSO-business partnership around the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5;
Bridged a gap between the private sector and CSOs with the CSR Club members (a) volunteering to employ 25 CSO beneficiaries, (b) allocating small funds to support CSO activities, and (c) funding and co-participating in the CiDA-initiated nationwide campaign to raise Georgian citizens’ awareness about the EU visa liberalization and the related opportunities and regulations.
Additionally, in August 2017, CiDA facilitated a meeting between regional CSOs and the CSR Club members who expressed interest in supporting sustainable projects in Georgia’s regions. The businesses shared their CSR strategies and procedures with participating CSOs and encouraged them to apply for funding.
Currently, CiDA is in the process of facilitating a follow-up communication between the four CSOs and business organizations who took part in this meeting;
Supported People with Disabilities (PwDs) by facilitating their employment. Through its collaboration with the Tbilisi-based CSO, International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) Georgian Committee, CiDA organized a job fair for PwDs, where businesses, including the CSR Club members, held job interviews with interested PwDs and in result, employed 15 of them.
In July 2017, CiDA began designing a more systemic approach to supporting PwD employment and together with the ICBL expert, developed a special assessment tool for assessing the business readiness to employ a PwD. CiDA has already piloted the assessment with three business members of the CSR Club and in the following Year will introduce the tool to other interested businesses.
As part of the CSR Week, CiDA organized a master class in Employment of PwDs in the Private Sector giving practical recommendations to participating CSOs and businesses on the workplace inclusion of PwDs;
Finalized the CSR Award concept and announced it at the CSR Club General Membership Meeting, as well as through the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) network to solicit applications. The Award aims at enabling participating businesses to gain recognition among the peers as a leader in CSR, increase their credibility and reputation among the consumers, partners and investors, and positively influence the CSR development in Georgia.
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CiDA will present the Award in 3 categories: (a) best project in the area of human rights, (b) best project in the area of environmental protection, and (c) most successful partnership between a business and a CSO for sustainable development. The assessment criteria will be as follows: (a) compliance with international standards (5%), (b) compliance with the company’s overall strategy (10%), implementation (55%), and results (30%);
To promote CSR at the government level, in Year Three, CiDA worked primarily with the Human Rights Protection Secretariat of the Government Administration and Public Defender’s Office. In partnership with the Secretariat, CiDA conducted a baseline study on business and human rights in Georgia, analyzing the legal framework and practical aspects of human rights protection in Georgia’s business community. CiDA will submit the final draft of the study to the Danish Human Rights Institute for expert review and feedback. Once finalized, the study will serve as a guide for developing the next Human Rights and Business Chapter of the National Human Rights Action Plan of the Georgian Government.
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
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In Year Three, ACCESS Public Policy and Accountability Grants (PPAGs) supported action- oriented projects that aimed at countering anti-western disinformation and popularize Georgia’s European integration among Georgian citizens. Since public opinion polls showed a decline in public support for NATO/EU amidst rising tide of anti-western propaganda, in consultation with USAID Georgia, ACCESS decided to work with national CSOs to reverse that trend.
The new PPAG RfA retained its focus on supporting Georgia’s European integration through policy research and advocacy, though it emphasized achieving this objective through increasing citizen awareness about and engagement in the process, and/or effectively countering anti-western disinformation. Out of 31 organizations who responded to the call, ACCESS GRC selected 4 for funding, each averaging $50,000. The PPAG recipients launched their projects in March 2017 with a joint event and under the slogan Stronger Together – Stronger with Europe.
Throughout the Year, PPAG recipient Integration – Road to NATO and EU carried out an intense media campaign to raise public awareness about anti-western propaganda. On a biweekly basis, it aired 20-minute lively discussions with well-liked Georgian writers and anchors. It also prepared TV stories on specific anti-western myths, methods of anti-western propaganda, and Georgia’s European values.
These TV products reached the popularity ratings equal to those of the Rustavi 2’s, the most watched national TV station’s, most popular political and news shows. They were watched by an average of a third of all TV viewers of different ages at given time both in Tbilisi and regions.
Overall, during the eight months since its launch, the project aired 11 TV discussions and 11 video-clips for over 500 times, including in prime-time. The video products were viewed over 700,000 times on the Facebook page and website of Rustavi 2, and received more than 6,000 shares. Most popular videos were the ones about the Sovietization of Georgian church (167,000 views, 3,518 shares), the myths about Putin (67,000 views, 237 shares), fake news and methods of anti- western disinformation (55,000 views, 344 shares), Russian historical and ongoing occupation (52,000 views, 494 shares), European family values (33,000 views, 183 shares), and elderly in the EU (31,000 views, 237 shares).
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Another PPAG recipient, Media Development Foundation (MDF) conducted an ongoing media monitoring to track and respond to individual instances of anti-western disinformation. It analyzed the fake stories, fabricated videos and photos, and scrutinized their sources. MDF also actively engaged with youth and CSOs in Tbilisi and regions to promote media literacy using real case studies.
Throughout the project implementation period, ACCESS worked closely with MDF to help it overhaul its Myth Detector articles and portal to make them more catchy, user-friendly, and multimedia-supportive so that they could attract a higher number of viewers. In result, MDF became a frequently used source of information for the EU’s anti-disinformation unit and Georgian journalists reporting on anti-western propaganda, including Rustavi 2, Imedi TV, Public Broadcaster, Adjara TV, and TV Pirveli, who often prepared TV reports based on MDF’s research and interviews.
In total, MDF published 128 Myth Detector articles on disinformation cases; checked and debunked 11 Soviet myths, 22 photo manipulation, and 5 video manipulations; created 17 caricatures for Myth Detector articles; developed and disseminated 8 anti-propaganda quizzes via Facebook; prepared and aired 26 TV stories in the TV Pirveli morning show; translated these TV Shows in Azeri and Armenian languages and aired them in the three TV stations in ethnic minority regions; organized 33 studio interviews on week’s myths; provided 16 pieces of disinformation for the EU vs. Disinfo platform; aired 5 Public Service Announcements (PSAs) by 5 TV channels (Rustavi 2, Georgian Broadcaster, Palitra News, Georgian Dream Station, and Maestro); and conducted 4 regional media literacy workshops with 71 youth participants, including 50 female.
Due to MDF’s increased visibility in the social media and electronic, it too became a target of disinformation and trolling by propagandist platforms and affiliated individuals.
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The PPAG recipient, Transparency International (TI) Georgia implemented its project together with over 20 CSO Coalition for Euro-Atlantic Georgia. They organized civic campaigns in Georgia’s western regions to confront the most widespread anti-western myths and engage local citizens in open discussions on Georgia’s European integration. This included community meetings in the remote villages and interactive discussions at the Centers for Civic Engagement, as well as regional universities, using information leaflets, caricatures, posters, info graphics, video clips, and other visual material and informational material.
TI Georgia held face-to-face community meetings with the residents of 20 villages in Adjara, Samegrelo, and Imereti regions. TI Georgia also developed and disseminated 6 video clips and 30 info graphics highlighting EU integration benefits for Georgian citizens. In Year Three, the video clips reached over 400,000 Facebook users.
The fourth PPAG recipient, In Depth Reporting and Advocacy Center (IRAC) explored and popularized economic benefits of Georgia’s European integration and success stories of Georgian farmers and companies already exporting to the EU. To do so, IRAC published over 50 articles on its web-platform EUGeorgia.info and held community information meetings with local farmers, civil servants, and small-scale producers in 6 villages/towns. Its media partner, Georgian Association of Regional Broadcasters (GARB) aired 11 TV talk shows and additional TV stories discussing prospects of niche regional products for the EU market, inviting local farmers to talk about their success stories, and responding to questions from viewers.
Original in-depth research articles by IRAC journalists and researchers remained the single most important source for the Georgian media, government, and the EU delegation concerning concrete DCFTA success stories. They were regularly re-posted on the EU delegation, EU and NATO Information Center, EU Agriculture Support program (i.e. ENPARD), and the Georgian government websites.
Overall, ACCESS-supported CSO activities against anti-western disinformation led to multiplication and high media interest in the issue with increasing number of news and news
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ACCESS grantees, especially MDF and Rustavi 2, played a crucial role in mainstreaming myth- busting and fact-checking content, and publicly and consistently challenging actors and sources of disinformation.
In parallel to the campaign against anti-western disinformation, ACCESS grantees held dialogue with government authorities which produced a significant impact on the policy level.
In April 2017, the government adopted a new Communication Strategy for 2017-2020 reflecting ACCESS’ recommendations and the issues raised at the ACCESS-organized Policy Forum. Unlike its earlier version, the new document directly recognized the problem of Russian propaganda and defined “prevention and reduction of the influence of anti- western propaganda” as one of its objectives.
In response to ACCESS’ recommendations to take a systemic and holistic approach to disinformation threats and pursue a unified strategy for keeping citizens informed about the EU as well as NATO, the document also pledged to use “consolidated government approach” to counter disinformation “based on the results of public opinion polls and analyses of target groups, key mis-perceptions and information gaps in the society” and highlighted the importance of communicating on NATO in addition to the EU.
Round-Two PPAGs In Year Three, ACCESS oversaw a successful completion of one targeted PPAG and two open PPAGs of Year Two.
In April 2017, the Parliament of Georgia adopted a new law introducing the demerit points system and undercover traffic policing to help reduce the alarming number of road fatalities. For six months prior to that, ACCESS had been supporting a coalition of local road safety CSOs led by the Georgian Alliance for Safe Roads (GASR) to conduct intensive awareness-raising and advocacy campaign. Via flash-mobs, street protests, mobilization of media and TV ads, the coalition managed to tip public opinion in support for legislative action. To facilitate alliance-building, GASR also formed effective partnerships with leading MPs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the media, Public Defender’s Office, and human rights CSOs.
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In the run up to the vote, the coalition members met with the authorities to discuss their policy recommendations and followed through the bill in all parliamentary debates to dilute potential resistance. As a result, the Parliament unanimously passed the bill.
The legal changes are expected to reduce road fatalities by 30-50%. Official statistics from September 2017 already showed a significant decline in two types of violations and a small decrease in one type of violation after the law entered into force on July 1, 2017.
Two open PPAG recipients from Year Two were also successful in achieving their objectives. The joint project by Tbilisi-based CSOs, Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC) and Partnership for Road Safety (PfRS) improved public awareness of the safety problem of Georgia’s intercity transport. After completing the quantitative research of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT), CRRC Georgia found that 96% of the observed minibus drivers engaged in at least one type of dangerous driving behavior. CRRC Georgia and PfRS also found that the vast majority of 23 minibus stations in Tbilisi didn’t’ have proper infrastructure, sanitation, and equipment standards, and added to the problem of traffic congestion, passenger discomfort, and high risk of accidents. Despite of large numbers of Georgian citizens traveling from and to regions on a daily basis, CRRC Georgia’s and PfRS’ assessment was the first one of this kind, revealing an alarming situation on Georgia’s intercity roads.
CRRC Georgia and PfRS shared their findings and recommendations with responsible state institutions. In response, the government reflected the recommendation to “improve intercity transport safety through legislative amendments” in its road safety Action Plan to be implemented in the coming years.
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Another round-two open PPAG recipient, the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC) completed the project that aimed at promoting Georgia’s European integration by raising awareness among rural farmers and small-scale producers about EU directives on food safety, veterinary, and plant protection.
EPRC prepared two policy papers, urging the government to better explain the rationale behind the animal identification requested by the EU and allocate adequate resource for completing the animal registration process in time. The policy papers offered concrete recommendations for achieving these two objectives.
In addition to policy analysis, EPRC trained and consulted over 1,000 farmers and small-scale producers from 5 regions of Georgia in the DCFTA requirements affecting their farms/enterprises.
Policy Forums In Year Three, ACCESS organized 9 Policy Fora in Tbilisi focusing on two topics – anti- western disinformation and urban development.
In December 2016, the Policy Forum assessed the scale of anti-western propaganda in the Georgian TV space, online media, and Russian TV channels re-transmitted in the country. The Forum was the first attempt in the CSO/media community to discuss effective and acceptable methods for countering the spread of anti-western disinformation in the media.
In June 2017, ACCESS and GASR organized a Policy Forum on mandatory technical inspection of vehicles to be re-introduced in Georgia in January 2018, in line with the EU-Georgia Association Agreement. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Georgia is third in the world by the number deaths (300 per 100 000 residents) caused by air pollution largely attributable to its obsolete, mass-emitting car fleet.
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The Policy Forum aimed at reminding the government of the urgency of PTI and building consensus among stakeholders over a model that would effectively contribute to reducing road fatalities and air pollution. High-level participants from across the Government, USAID, EU Delegation, and foreign private companies attended the Policy Forum. Most importantly, Georgian PTI operators, CSOs, and experts engaged in direct dialogue with those responsible for the reform in the government. In September 2017, the government publicly announced its commitment to adhering to the January 2018 deadline to re- introduce PTI.
In July 2017, ACCESS went out to the regions to engage in public discussions over the most pressing urban challenges – air pollution, road traffic, and public transport – and mobilize public support for unpopular reforms. Through the two Policy Forums in Rustavi and Gori, ACCESS and its grantees informed local citizens, especially drivers and those employed in the transport sector (i.e. most likely opponents of the reform) about the new traffic regulations, including demerit system and undercover traffic police. In an unprecedented move, the Policy Fora brought together traditionally critical watchdog CSOs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to persuade local citizens about the benefits of the traffic regulation reform. Participants also discussed the details of the planned PTI reform as a way to ensure both safe roads and clean air.
In September 2017, ACCES held open discussions with five Tbilisi Mayoral candidates, each as a separate Policy Forum (Aleksandre Elisashvili, independent candidate; Zaal Udumashvili, the United National Movement; Elene Khoshtaria, European Georgia; Tengiz Shergelashvili, Development Movement; and Giorgi Vashadze, Unity – New Georgia) to scrutinize their electoral programs and share CSO recommendations. The discussions focused on the key urban development challenges of Tbilisi, such as traffic, public transportation, parking, green spaces, and construction. ACCESS invited its grantees, prominent field experts, watchdog CSOs, international organizations, and the media to ask questions and propose practical solutions. These were the only CSO-candidate meetings organized in the run-up to the 2017 local elections.
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Technical Assistance In Year Three, ACCESS continued to offer its grantees and other think tanks Technical Assistance (TA) activities such as peer review, training, mentoring, and institutional support.
ACCESS Public Policy and Accountability Advisor (PPAA) conducted peer-reviews of Year Two PPAG recipients’ policy papers. None of the four PPAGs granted in Year Three were subjected to peer-review as they focused on awareness raising and did not have policy research components.
ACCESS organized two workshops for PPAG and COG recipients – a workshop o effective strategies to counter anti-western propaganda in social media and a workshop in professional communication. The first workshop mapped the Georgian social media landscape and fake news platforms, and transferred effective online communication skills to the participants. After the workshop, the participants created a Facebook group Anti-propaganda and quickly engaged a increasing number of social media users in discussing anti-western disinformation, fake news, and propaganda, and disseminating counter- propaganda products. Currently, the Facebook group has 2,447 members. Before this, social media were never used in a targeted way (beyond the Myth Detector) to combat fake news and hostile influence, and mobilize the like-minded citizens.
The second workshop aimed at cultivating think tanks’ policy communication skills. A prominent think tank expert, Dr. Hans Gutbrod trained participants in effective communication through policy briefs and media outreach. As part of the workshop, the participating think tanks developed policy briefs on the selected policy issues studied by their respective organizations.
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 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.
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Key Activities and Accomplishments
NCCE Organizational Development In year Three, CCEs continued hosting and organizing civic discussions and offering fee-based services, while the NCCE focused on setting up solid management structures, developing and putting in place internal rules and procedures, liaising with the donor community to attract alternative funding, and testing out and streamlining fee-based services.
To support NCCE staff capacity building, ACCESS organized two workshops for the NCCE leadership and CCE staff. The workshops summarized the work of the NCCE and its Election Media Centers, reviewed the Network revenue generating activities, and discussed and revised the Network operational documents, including the Code of Conduct, HR Manual, Gender Mainstreaming Policy, Travel Manual, and Strategic Framework. The CCE staff also underwent training in Business Networking and Customer Relationship Management to improve their administration of fee-based service and attract new customers. Additionally, Marneuli CCE Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator attended training by the Women’s Fund on Organizing Women Groups and Telavi CCE Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator took part in training by World Vision in Motivation for Social Change. Kutaisi and Zugdidi CCE Coordinators were accepted to participate in the international training program Local Governance with a Rights Based Approach by the Swedish International Center for Local Democracy (ICLD).
The Peace Corps Response Volunteer (PCRV) Carrie Kagawa worked with ACCESS, NCCE leadership, and CCE staff to finalize NCCE’s Employee Professional Development Plan (EPDP), Structured Internship Program, Volunteer Recruitment Concept, and Customer Engagement Strategy.
EPDP is designed to ensure effective utilization of employees’ work time and capacity, guide employees in daily routine, and provide opportunities for growth and professional development. Based on this document, NCCE will assess the work of its regional staff and develop individual Professional Development Plans for each employee. The Customer Engagement Strategy aims at helping recruit new customers and retaining loyal customers for CCEs. NCCE piloted the Structured Internship Program in November 2016 and after its success, launched the Program in all ten localities. Three-month, part-time, unpaid internships with CCEs provided local students and young professionals the opportunity to obtain work experience and professional development through direct participation in CCEs’ daily activities. It also assists CCE staff in managing their tasks more effectively.
In Year Three, the NCCE Finance Manager was upgraded from part-time to full-time employment. This addressed the staffing capacity challenge that hindered the NCCE work in the previous period. NCCE also hired a Finance and Administrative Assistant to assist NCCE office and ten CCEs in gathering, reviewing, and maintaining financial documentation.
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CCE Marketing Consultancy In order to support NCCE efforts to generate income through fee-based services to ensure its sustainability, ACCESS contracted a marketing company Brandsellence to help NCCE develop marketing strategy and action plan and unrolling the campaign. Brandsellence reviewed NCCE-related material, conducted site visits to 8 CCEs, and interviewed CCE staff, and came up with a number of practical recommendations, such as: Changing the pricing strategy and doubling prices on all existing paid services; Narrowing the CCE customers’ list enjoying free usage of the centers on a monthly basis; Adjust NCCE staffing to marketing needs through hiring an assistant for the Executive Director and creating marketing support groups consisting of CCE staff on a rotating basis; Creating a stable system of quality management through regular assessment of customer satisfaction; Introducing a discount system for CCE loyal users; Applying new technologies, such as developing a mobile application for CCE booking and upgrading the CCE site for easy reach of paid services, etc.
Brandsellence developed a detailed marketing strategy and action plan for NCCE and CCE staff, including the budget for the strategy implementation. In Year Three, NCCE already made changes to the pricing policy in line with the Brandsellence recommendations, though the main parts of the marketing strategy will be integrated into NCCE operations in Year Four.
Fundraising Efforts NCCE, in cooperation with ACCESS, submitted grant proposals to seven donors and finalized the grant agreement with EWMI Promoting Rule of Law in Georgia (PRoLoG) project.
US Embassy awarded $3,167 USD to NCCE to help organize the Embassy events dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the establishment of US-Georgia diplomatic relations. These events took place in Kutaisi, Telavi, and Zugdidi.
NCCE also started the five-month project with the funding of UNFPA. The project with a total budget of $19,440 covered 10% of NCCE Executive Director’s and Sagarejo and Telavi Coordinators’ salaries for five months. The similar project will support Marneuli CCE to during September-December 2017. The project with a total budget of $19, 000 will cover 40% of Marneuli CCE Coordinator’s and Finance and Administrative Assistant’s salaries for four months.
With the $65,000 funding from PRoLoG, NCCE started implementing the 10-month project to support the Human Rights Council Secretariat in disseminating information about the ongoing and planned reforms in the justice sector.
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The Ozurgeti CCE partnered with a local CSO, Health Care and Human Rights Study Center, to carry out an eight-month project Assisting CSOs and Social Workers to Strengthen Family Support Services in Guria. The project is funded by the Austrian Development Cooperation and aims at enhancing family support services by engaging CSOs in developing a new service model based on international best practices. The Ozurgeti CCE, together with Ozurgeti Women’s Club representatives, is responsible for project’s overall coordination and advocacy activities.
Finally, NCCE generated $51,500 income through its fee-based services and in line with the Georgian tax legislation, became a Value Added Tax (VAT) payer.
CCE-hosted Events CCEs continued hosting, as well as organizing public discussions on issues of public concern and offering Internet and library resources to their users. During the reporting period: CCEs hosted 3,675 issue-based events. This number includes 261 issue-based discussions organized by CCEs. These discussions engaged 5.982 citizens; 74,824 participants engaged in all issue-based events; 8,726 people used Internet facilities; 616 people accessed the library materials; 218 public events were dedicated to gender equality and women’s rights issue.
The distribution of CCE usage by stakeholders was as follows: CSOs remained the main users of CCE services with 51% of all usage; Community leaders (a.k.a. non-registered civic activists) came second with 15%; Professional and business associations were third largest users with 8%; Government (local as well as central) stood at 6%; Research and academic institutions, together with development and cooperation organizations and projects stood at 6% usage level; Political parties and the media stood at 3% each.
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CSOs Political Parties Media Community Leaders Women Clubs Government Research & Academ Inst-s Prefessional & Business Assoc Development Organizations Educational Institutions Other
This chart below describes the dynamics of the CCE usage throughout the year: 10000 9000 8000 7000 6000 5000 Discussions 4000 Participants 3000 2000 1000 0
During the 2017 local elections, CCEs established and operated Election Media Centers in all ten localities, offering a neutral space to journalists, political parties, candidates, CSOs, government, international organizations, citizen groups, and other stakeholders to engage with each other and their constituencies to learn and disseminate critical election-related information. The Media Centers functioned throughout the election cycle and facilitated an uninterrupted flow of information.
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As of October 2017, the Media Centers hosted and organized 152 events, engaging 3,531 citizens. These events received media coverage in 134 instances.
Women’s History Month and 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence In March 2017, all ten CCEs marked the Women’s History Month by holding two events each (20 in total) and hosting 8 events organized by other organizations dedicated to women’s issues in Georgia. CCE-organized events engaged 435 participants, including 312 women, 123 men, and 64 ethnic minority representatives from Akhaltsikhe and Marneuli.
These events included TED Talk Shows on gender stereotypes, gender equality, gender roles, and gender-based violence that were followed by discussions engaging local activists, public figures, and invited experts. Several Centers also invited women to talk about their personal experiences of breaking stereotypes, escaping domestic violence, and/or succeeding career wise and reaching top positions. The events received wide coverage by local media.
In November-December 2017, CCEs joined efforts with the Tbilisi-based CSOs to mark 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence. The CCE staff co-organized the protest actions in their cities to highlight the issue and call for the government’s action to effectively prevent and address domestic and other types of gender-based violence in Georgia.
USAID TAG COORDINATION
In Year Three, ACCESS cooperated closely with TAG implementers, in particular with Media for Transparent and Accountable Governance (M-TAG) and Good Governance Initiative (GGI). ACCESS regularly shared information on its priorities and planned activities and invited TAG implementers to engage in organizing and evaluating these activities. In particular, during the Year:
ACCESS fostered relationships between its grantee CSOs and M-TAG partner media organizations in the regions; Invited M-TAG staff to brief NMP participants in media outreach; Engaged GGI in identifying its grant program priorities; Through its grants, assisted GGI to strengthen Citizen Advisory Councils in the regions; Facilitated a partnership between GGI and R-CSN to promote iChange platform; In partnership with NCCE, provided support to TAG partners in organizing their regional events and activities.
ACCESS also engaged with USAID’s economic governance program ZRDA soliciting its input into assessing the feasibility of the grant projects submitted to its PPAG program. Additionally, it informed ZRDA about its ongoing initiatives targeting rural farmers and introduced the grantees working in this area to the ZRDA staff for future cooperation.
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Finally, ACCESS regularly shared with TAG partners detailed lists and descriptions of its COGs and PPAGs and extended invitations to the partners and their grantees to take part in the Policy Forums, RCEWs, BPIEs, and other events and activities organized by ACCESS.
PUBLIC OUTREACH
During Year Three, ACCESS continued conducting diverse public outreach activities to inform Georgian CSOs, media, government, and citizens about its objectives and activities and solicit their input into planning its future initiatives. Public outreach efforts undertaken during Year Three included: disseminating project information and news through ACCESS-organized civic and information-sharing events in Tbilisi and regions; producing and disseminating Fact Sheets on project components and grant programs; using social media tools; issuing and circulating monthly e-newsletters to over 1,000 recipients; disseminating project information through partner organization’s websites (i.e. www.cso.ge, www.cida.ge), and ensuring wide media coverage of ACCESS-organized events.
Right to Know Campaign As part of its Right to Know Campaign, ACCESS organized five information meetings during November-December 2016 in Gori, Sagarejo, Marneuli, Akhaltsikhe, and Ozurgeti, where ACCESS DCoP and program staff presented ACCESS goals and objectives, progress to date, future plans, and information on the grant programs, and disseminated project Fact Sheets. The meetings engaged more than 100 citizens and CSO, media, and local government representatives in discussing ACCESS work and plans and the key problems faced by Georgia’s regions. ACCESS also used this opportunity to speak at length about its grant programs for regional CSOs and strategies for effective proposal writing.
Information Fairs ACCESS participated in various information and resource fairs to publicize the project activities and opportunities.
In January 2017, it took part in the Peace Corps Georgia Annual Resource Fair, where it presented its project components to interested groups and individuals, including Georgian and international CSOs, Peace Corps volunteers, local school teachers, and students.
In April 2017, ACCESS and NCCE participated in the ACCESS Staff at the Friendship Fair in Tbilisi US-Georgia Friendship Fair held in Tbilisi, Telavi, Kutaisi, Zugdidi, and Batumi to mark 25th anniversary of US-Georgia democratic relations. The fair featured USAID Georgia and its partner organizations implementing civic, educational,
EWMI ACCESS Annual Report: Oct. 31, 2016 – Sep. 31, 2017 Page 41 of 43 agricultural, social, economic, good governance, and cultural projects across Georgia. At the fair, ACCESS and NCCE representatives discussed their activities with interested citizens and distributed information fliers describing ACCESS grant programs, trainings, tailored technical assistance to CSOs, and NCCE services. Additionally, ACCESS disseminated analytical and informational materials developed by its grantees. ACCESS local implementing partner, CiDA also took part in the US-Georgia Friendship Fair with ACCESS and informed citizens about the work carried out by R-CSN throughout the country.
Fact Sheets ACCESS developed and printed new Fact Sheets shifting from component-based structure to the sector-based one to better respond to the needs and interests of its constituents. In particular, the new Fact Sheets describe ACCESS overall goals and approaches, grant programs for regional and Tbilisi-based CSOs, NMP, tailored capacity building, and CCEs. ACCESS circulated the revised Fact Sheets during the project events and information fairs both in Georgian and English.
Success Stories ACCESS produced regular Success Stories about the project achievements and disseminated them through online media and project events. Success Stories highlighted the impact of ACCESS interventions, including its role in the policy-making process (i.e. improving the State Communication Strategy on EU Integration and reforming Georgia’s road safety system), changing the lives of ordinary citizens (i.e. engaging youth in the local decision-making in Batumi municipality and improving public infrastructure through increased citizen engagement), and diversifying funding sources for CSOs (i.e. supporting fundraising efforts of NPM participants).
Electronic Newsletter Another public outreach tool used by ACCESS to keep CSOs and citizens informed about its activities and resources is the project Electronic Newsletter that it develops and disseminates monthly. The Newsletter is published in English and Georgian and distributed through the mailing list with a total of 1,000 recipients, including CSOs from all regions of Georgia, journalists, ACCESS partners, government officials, international organizations, and citizens. In Year Three, ACCESS issued 24 Electronic Newsletters in the two languages.
New Media ACCESS actively uses its Facebook page to disseminate news and project updates, announce upcoming events, and engage civil society in conversations. ACCESS updates the page daily. In Year Three, it posted on Facebook 320 times. Some of the most popular posts reached over 60,000 users and had 24,000 views. Currently, the ACCESS Facebook page has 3,442 followers. This number has nearly tripled since Year One.
ACCESS also uses Scribd to publish and disseminate project documents.
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ACCESS Website ACCESS uses its website to disseminate project-related information. The website features information on project components, news, announcements, achievements, photo gallery, calendar of the upcoming events, and other issues. All information is posted in Georgian and English. ACCESS shared the website articles on its Facebook page for wider reach. In Year Three, ACCESS website had 6,825 visitors (65.1% new and 34.9% returning visitors), 10,302 sessions, and 19,674 page views.
Media Appearance In Year Three, ACCESS activities gained wide media coverage in national and local print and electronic media. More than 700 media reports were dedicated to project events and activities.
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