The goal of this project was to strengthen local self-government and to raise public awareness to increase citizens’ involvement in government decision-making processes through the “Participate in Management” project, funded by the USAID-EWMIACCESS Program. Municipalities learned to coordinate public meetings where the local population could discuss community problems. The first meeting discussed the local government code amendment. The project included research on domestic legislation and international best practices of civil engagement.

LDA Georgia held open meetings with the newly elected members of Sakrebulos (like city councils) and members of the Gender Equality Councils in all 12 municipalities of the Imereti region. These meetings were meant to highlight the problems that LDA-administered focus groups identified for female voters in Imereti during pre-election period and also to facilitate dialogue and discussions around these issues. The interviews with various women and videos that visualized some
of the female voters’ problems were also presented to the audience. LDA-Georgia facilitated the discussion with Sakrebulo and Gender Equality Council-members and provided recommendations on addressing some of these issues. They also offered Project: “ Voice of More Women in Local Self-Government ” 14 support in case the local government needed guidance and/or legal counselling.

This project is part of EWMI ACCESS’s wider campaign aimed at empowering women voters to voice their problems and bring their concerns to the attention of politicians and decision-makers. A questionnaire of more than 1,000 women was conducted in September 2017 by EWMI ACCESS-supported Network of Regional Civil Society Organizations.
The survey findings were then presented to local government candidates who were up for election and political parties to get them acquainted with the specific needs that omen face in their communities. EWMI ACCESS also supported other regional CSOs in holding educational, awareness-raising, and female voter mobilization projects that engaged politicians in face-to-face and TV discussions on women’s issues.