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Self-Government Bodies and the Decentralization Process

Civil society organizations (CSOs) play an important role in Georgia in the process of the self-government concept elaboration, refinement of legislation, development of self-governance practices, promotion of citizen participation, and monitoring and evaluation of self-government’s performance.

In recent years, a number of reports were prepared by civic organizations with the main purpose of analysing and evaluating the decentralization process in Georgia.

This report is mainly based on the CSOs’ meeting on 12-13 December 2015, in Gudauri, with the participation of NGOs working throughout the country and regional NGOs, which are the members of the Regional Civil Society Network. The discussion was devoted to the reform of self-government and in general, the evaluation of the decentralization. Recent reports of civil society organizations and various assessments are also used in this report. 

This report aims to bring together civil society’s recent assessment of self-governance reform and work performed, based on which it presents a vision which might be effective solution for the identified problems. 

Self-government is the authority that has the closest contact with society. Therefore, the implementation of positive reform is impossible without the engagement of the civil society. The activities, experiences and expertise of the latter will be essential for the development of reform. Additionally, cooperation of the central, as well as municipal authorities and representatives of communities is important for overcoming challenges and achieving a true decentralized local government.

This report was prepared by the Civil Development Agency (CiDA) and the International Society for Fair Elections and Democracy, in cooperation with the Regional Civil Society Network (R-CSN) and national civil organizations.

The report was compiled with the support of the Open Society – Georgia Foundation, the East-West Management Institute's ACCESS programme funded by USAID, and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).



Self-Government Bodies and the decentralization process