On September 18-20, 2013 in Gudauri, by the initiative of Civil Society Institute (CSI), Civil Development Agency (CiDA) and Consultation and Training Center (CTC), in partnership with the “Civil Society Organizations Development Effectiveness” sub-group of the Eastern Partnership Georgian National Platform, the joint meeting between Donors and Civil Society Organizations was held. The financial support was provided by the European Union Delegation to Georgia.
The main objective of the meeting was to promote dialogue and strengthen the cooperation between Donors and Civil Society Organizations in Georgia. Expectations of the parties involved in this meeting were to establish structural dialogue between donors and civil society organizations and eliminate communication problems. This meeting also aimed to identify: specific areas for cooperation, instruments and mechanisms on how to implement the dialogue, and values, which will be a basis for collaboration among two equal actors.
37 participants have attended the meeting. Majority of them were from Civil Society Organizations (32), 5 out of them were representatives of Donor Organizations. Wide spectrum of CSOs operating in the country was represented in the dialogue: think tanks, welfare, service providers, international non-governmental organizations, regional organizations and etc. Represented at the workshop also were major international and local donor organizations: EU Delegation to Georgia, USAID, and Open Society Georgia Foundation.
The dialogue was interactive and all participants were equally involved. The first part of the meeting was devoted to presentations of the speakers, accompanied by discussions. Then the format has changed and participants were working in small groups and discussing the issues, mechanisms and values for cooperation.
At the end of the meeting, participants presented all findings and results of the small working group sessions and discussed the future plans. They chose the members of the editing team, who will be responsible for continuation of the working process to draft document on Donor and CSOs cooperation based on the issues, instruments and values identified on this meeting. Participants agreed that the editing team will be representative and will engage three CSO and three donor organizations delegates.