“Georgia Development Platform” (GeoDP) introduced the qualitative research report conducted in 11 municipalities of Georgia to the partner municipalities. At the meetings held in the five target municipalities (Chokhatauri, Ozurgeti, Batumi, Kutaisi, Oni), the general findings and experiences that emerged during the analysis were presented.

“Based on the findings of the research, we presented the municipalities involved in the project with recommendations that were directly related to a specific municipality. We introduced the experience and practice accumulated in 11 municipalities across Georgia. For different municipalities, different issues have been identified that need to be addressed in order to make the participatory budgeting program even more successful.

Based on the results of the research, it is possible to single out three main recommendations, which are identical for all five municipalities. In particular, these recommendations are:

• Ensuring increased involvement of the population by strengthening information campaigns;

• Promoting the sustainability of the participatory budgeting program by implementing monitoring and evaluation system mechanisms;

• Developing a solid mechanism for program funding growth to take into account the growing interests of citizens and ensure the implementation of initiatives.

A full survey report is provided to each municipality. We have just finished working on the monitoring and evaluation framework document, which we will present to the municipalities in the coming days, which we think will help them implement the recommendations.” – said GeoDP chairman Tengiz Shergelashvili.