Action plan – Kutaisi, Georgia, 2022 – 2025

At-a-Glance

Duration

Oct 2025

Date Submitted

29th December 2022

Foreword(s)

Kutaisi Municipality was one of the first among the five local governments that joined the OGP National Action Plan 2016-2018 and implemented the commitments such as the promotion of citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More in municipal budget planning. As a participant in the OGP Forum, Kutaisi actively cooperated with various government agencies and civil society organizations to facilitate the process of co-creation during the elaboration, implementation, and monitoring of the action plan.

As the local government of Kutaisi was making efforts towards more openness, the municipality joined the OGP Local program in May 2022. These documents lay out the municipality’s strategic vision and action plan for implementing the principles of the OGP Local program. The action plan includes three commitments, which will be implemented and monitored through the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive... with the active participation of local civil society organizations. For this purpose, there is an inter-agency task force created, as the main coordinating body in the process.

Open Government Challenges, Opportunities and Strategic Vision

This subsection details the Open Government Strategic Vision in your local area that should guide the commitments for the action plan period.

What is the long-term vision for open government in your context and jurisdiction?

First and foremost, the strategic vision of the Kutaisi municipality towards open governance is focused on raising the citizens’ awareness and promoting their participation in decision-making processes. The municipality is also willing to make all its activities fully inclusive, which means that it intends to provide information to various vulnerable groups with a particular focus on the persons with disabilities, and to enhance their participation in the decision-making process.

This strategic vision is closely linked to the municipality’s long-term goal of introducing the concept of “smart” city in Kutaisi. Creation of various applications that will help improve air quality, save resources, and facilitate access to high-quality healthcare and social services will be in line with the implementation of the open government strategy by using modern technologies and innovative approaches.

What are the achievements in open government to date (for example, recent open government reforms)?

Kutaisi is the “first island of integrity” among Georgian municipalities, as evidenced by the elaboration of the 2018-2019 local anti-corruption strategy and action plan through co-creation. As a result of the implementation of the strategy:

• More information was published on the municipal website and more opportunities were created to ensure civic participation;
• Cooperation with civil society became more regular through thematic and multilateral coordination councils;
• The municipality improved its supervision over the constructions, environment and preservation of cultural heritage, as a result of wearing body cameras by the officers;
• Electronic modules were introduced for all the major municipal services;
• Public awareness was raised regarding the whistleblower protection mechanisms.

Moreover, Kutaisi was one of the first to adopt the 2019-2020 Open DataBy opening up data and making it sharable and reusable, governments can enable informed debate, better decision making, and the development of innovative new services. Technical specifications: Polici... Strategy and Action Plan based on the extensive consultations with various sectors. Within the framework of the strategy, the municipality undertook the following obligations:

• Extending the list of information to be proactively published in open data formats;
• Conducting online surveys annually for identifying the information of high public interest;
• Creating an inter-sectoral advisory group to determine the priority sector data and to schedule their publication;

Organizing annual public hackathons on the benefits and uses of open data.

What are the current challenges/areas for improvement in open government that the jurisdiction wishes to tackle?

Low awareness of citizens and low rates of engagement in decision-making processes remains to be an important challenge in Kutaisi municipality, as well as throughout Georgia. This challenge was often mentioned during the public consultations held by the Kutaisi City Hall. Another important challenge is ensuring inclusive governance in the activities of the municipality.

What are the medium-term open government goals that the government wants to achieve?

In the coming years, Kutaisi Municipality plans to take a number of steps in response to the mentioned challenges. Among them, the municipality aims to apply innovative methods and approaches for informing the citizens proactively, to offer various participation mechanisms to them, and to hold large-scale awareness campaigns on these opportunities. In addition, the municipality has several initiatives for promoting inclusive governance, among them, to make the city infrastructure more accessible for people with special needs. However, setting up accessible infrastructure for the people with disabilitiesA government is not open unless it is accessible to all, and governments are working to ensure people with disabilities are afforded equitable services and opportunities to participate. Technical spec... (PWDS) is not enough for ensuring their full participation in the city life. Accordingly, Kutaisi Municipality plans to make various services and information sources accessible for the PWDs, which will make it easier for these groups to get services and use participatory mechanisms.

How does this action plan contribute to achieve the Open Government Strategic Vision?

This Action Plan consists of three commitments:

1. To increase access to information on the website of Kutaisi Municipality and to promote the engagement of people with disabilities;
2. To introduce an SMS platform aimed at proactively informing the citizens;
3. To introduce the online platform for citizen feedback.

The mentioned obligations directly correspond to the strategic vision and priority directions of the municipality.

How does the open government strategic vision contribute to the accomplishment of the current administration’s overall policy goals?

The overall policy of the current administration envisages the use of technology and innovation to implement the concept of a “smart” city, which in turn involves the introduction of open government initiatives and the use of innovative mechanisms for citizen participation in city governance. This strategic vision of open governance will contribute to the accomplishment of these goals.

Engagement and Coordination in the Open Government Strategic Vision and OGP Action Plan

Please list the lead institutions responsible for the implementation of this OGP action plan.

• Administrative units of the City Hall, City Council,
• NGO’s organizations as partners in the process of fulfilling the obligations of the action plan

What kind of institutional arrangements are in place to coordinate between government agencies and departments to implement the OGP action plan?

There  is an inter-sectoral working group created at the Kutaisi City Hall, which is comprised of the representatives of various municipal bodies, as well as civil society organizations and other stakeholders. This group will be the main coordinating body in the implementation of the local action plan of OGP.

What kind of spaces have you used or created to enable the collaboration between government and civil society in the co-creation and implementation of this action plan? Mention both offline and online spaces.

Throughout the implementation of this Action Plan, Kutaisi City Hall actively communicated with civil society representatives and various stakeholders. In particular, there were face-to-face meetings held, where Kutaisi City Hall presented the importance of OGP and the nuances of the process and the visions of local self-government.

The meetings were held at universities, City Hall premises, and local offices. In addition, there were online consultations organized with regard to the plans and future vision of the municipality.

What measures did you take to ensure diversity of representation (including vulnerable or marginalized populations) in these spaces?

In order to ensure diverse representation and participation in the OGP process, the Kutaisi City Hall identified civil society representatives who have rich experience in working on open governance topics and whose participation would bring additional benefits in this process. The City Hall also involved the youthRecognizing that investing in youth means investing in a better future, OGP participating governments are creating meaningful opportunities for youth to participate in government processes. Technical ..., the PWDs and DPOs (Disabled People’s Organization) in the consultation process. Separate information meetings were held with the representatives of the City Hall in order to determine the topics with regard to OGP commitments around the priority issues identified on the basis of public consultations.

Who participated in these spaces?

The following participants were involved in the co-creation process:

• NGOs and civil sector representatives;
• Youth Advisory Council;
• GenderOGP participating governments are bringing gender perspectives to popular policy areas, ensuring diversity in participatory processes, and specifically targeting gender gaps in policies to address gov... Council;
• Municipality employees and representatives of the Mayor;
• University students and academic staff;
• DPOs.

How many groups participated in these spaces?

7

How many public-facing meetings were held in the co-creation process?

10

How will government and non-governmental stakeholders continue to collaborate through the implementation of the action plan?

Throughout the implementation of the action plan, municipal bodies and stakeholders will continue to cooperate closely, abiding by the principles of co-creation, transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More and accountability. The representatives of the non-governmental sector will be regularly involved at various stages of the implementation of the action plan. In particular, once every six months the Municipality City Hall will meet with the stakeholders to present and discuss the updates about the fulfillment of the commitments. In addition, information on the progress of the commitments will be published on the website of the municipality and in social networks.

Please describe the independent Monitoring Body you have identified for this plan.

Local Democracy Agency Georgia is a partner of the Kutaisi Municipality City Hall, which will lead the process of evaluating the implementation of the action plan. However, in order to ensure the independence of this process, other interested parties will be invited to actively engage throughout the monitoring activity. Participation in this process will be open. However, if the interest is high, the municipality will select the optimal number of members of the monitoring group through an open competition.

Provide the contact details for the independent monitoring body.

• Nino Khukhua, LDA Georgia, ldageorgia@aldaintranet.gov

What types of activities will you have in place to discuss progress on commitments with stakeholders?

The Municipality City Hall will hold regular meetings with stakeholders every six months to discuss the progress of the action plan. In addition, the Municipality will proactively publish information on the fulfillment of the commitments.

How will you regularly check in on progress with implementing agencies?

The administration unit of Kutaisi City Hall will inquire information from the responsible units of the City Hall regarding the implementation of OGP commitments on a quarterly basis.

How will you share the results of your monitoring efforts with the public?

The monitoring report will be proactively published on the website of the municipality. In addition, the report will be presented and discussed publicly, and there will be workshops arranged with interested parties.

Endorsement from Non-Governmental Stakeholders

• Davit Chkhobadze, Director of Imereti Development Center
• Archil Elbakidze, Abkhazinterkont, Executive Director
• Gega Orjonikidze, person with Disabilities
• Lana Totadze, Secretary General of RICDOG
• Tamar Moseshvili, Imereti Scientists Union “Spectri”
• Emma Kamkia, Women
• Dimitri Silagadze, Independent Living Center of Kutaisi
• Keti Tsibadze, Coordinator of Kutaisi Office – Network of Centers for Civic Engagement
• Magda Kostava, City Counselor, Chair of the Gender Council