Within the Council of Europe Action Plan for Georgia 2020-2023, the Centre supports the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities’ initiative “Strengthening Participatory Democracy and Human Rights at the Local Level in Georgia.” The Centre offers consulting services and supports the project implementation. In June 2022, a Spring School on Data Collection and Management took place in Borjomi, Georgia. The Centre designed the methods for the Spring School and supported its implementation as international consultant.
The event took place from June 8 to June 10, 2022. Thirteen Georgian municipal governments attended the Spring School for local authorities and municipal staff on human rights data and evidence-based policy-making. The Spring School concentrated on data collection principles, tools, and techniques that promote a human rights-based decision-making strategy. It sought to build the capacities of local governments in data management and to co-create effective tools and checklists to promote evidence-based policy-making with the help of civil society organisations. The event was co-organized by the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and Georgia’s National Association of Local Authorities.
At the end of the three-day session, a questionnaire was distributed among the participants to assess the their understanding of the topics and to collect their comments and feedback on the Spring School.
The majority of participants agree (61%) or rather agree (28%) that the Spring School increased their grasp of the human rights-based approach to policy making process . Furthermore, the majority agree (72%) or rather agree (17%) that the Spring School made them aware of the benefits of data and evidence for policy making at the local level. All of them disagreed/rather disagreed that the thematic priorities and information needs addressed during the Spring School were far away from their daily work. The participants unanimously agree that they will apply the information they acquired in their everyday job and will promote similar Spring Schools to their colleagues.
Practical workshops and dynamic group work received overwhelmingly excellent response from participants. They valued the opportunity to share information on successful practices among municipalities and representatives from the Public Defender’s Office and representatives of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia.
As well as to analyse techniques and examples from all over the world. The participants recognize that the Spring School lay the framework for future coordination among the parties present, as well as offering a forum for an open discourse on local concerns and opportunities.
More information in Georgian is available here: ჰერალდ ბერგმანი: „ადამიანის უფლებათა შესახებ მონაცემების შეგროვება საქართველოსადგილობრივ ხელისუფლებას მტკიცებულებაზე დაფუძნებული პოლიტიკის შემუშავებაში დაეხმარება” – საქართველოს ოფისის სიახლეები (coe.int)
