Inception Report – Action plan – Khoni, Georgia, 2021 – 2021

Name of Evaluator

Nodar Kherkheulidze

Email

nkherkheulidze@gmail.com

Member

Khoni, Georgia

Action PlanAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen...

Action plan – Khoni, Georgia, 2021 – 2021

1.1 Does a forum exist?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

In June 2021, with a formal lead of Khoni City Hall, the working group was created in accordance of the Mayors’ Decree #b60.60211691 to steer the process of Action Plan development. The working group consisted of City Hall representatives, international multilateral organization – UNDP Fostering Decentralization and Good Governance at the Local Level in Georgia (UNDP DGG), and the key local civil society organizations (CSOs). Thus, the Working Group served as a multi-stakeholder decision-making body to coordinate the co-creation as well as the implementation process between the different self-government agencies, its various departments and CSOs.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Mayors’ Decree on creation the Working Group
• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

1.2 Is the forum multi-stakeholder?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The Mayors’ Decree #b60.60211691 is the major document that regulates the guiding principles of the working group. Although the decree does not explicitly state that a participation of both, governmental and non-governmental representatives is required, it stipulates the pre-defined list of the members: local non-governmental organizations and international organizations. The members include representatives of Municipal bodies (City Hall and Assembly), non-profit organizations such as IDPs Initiative Group, PWDs Organization-“Phoenix”, Regional Initiative Center – “Bright Future”, representative of UNDP DGG, the Council of Civil Advisors and the 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... Equality Council. The last two, represent the civil advisory bodies for the mayor.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Mayors’ Decree on creation the Working Group
• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

1.3 Does the forum hold at least one meeting with civil society and non-governmental stakeholders during the co-creation of the action plan?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

During the AP development phase, three (3) Working Group meetings have been organized, with participation of its governmental and non-governmental members. In an average, 14 participants attended each meeting. Besides, the Mayors’ Degree stipulates that the Working Group shall meet at least once a month, which is well in-line with the 3 meetings held during the 3-month period of the AP development phase (May – July 2021).

Provide evidence for your answer:

Social media news published at official Khoni Municipality Facebook page about one of inviting civil society for collaboration of development of the Action Plan

• Social-Media-News-AP-Development.pdf

Social media news published at official Khoni Municipality Facebook page about one of the Working Group meetings discussing AP development

• 2.3-Social-Media-News.pdf

Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

1.4 Has the action plan been endorsed by the stakeholders of the forum or steering committeeThe Steering Committee is OGP’s executive decision-making body. Its role is to develop, promote and safeguard OGP’s values, principles and interests; establish OGP’s core ideas, policies, and ru.../group?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

According to the Open Government Strategic Vision, the Khoni’s Open Government Action Plan was endorsed by Mr. Bachana Basilia, the representative of IDPs Initiative Group and the member of the MS Working Group. Although all the other CSO Working Group members were actively involved in the AP development phase, the IDPs Initiative Groups official endorsement was considered relevant and sufficient due to the fact that IDPs Initiative Group was an co-applicant of Khoni Municipality’s application for OGP Local program.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

2.1 Does the government maintain a Local OGP website or webpage on a government website where information on the OGP Local process (co-creation and implementation) is proactively published?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

During the OGP Strategy and AP co-creation, Khoni Municipality mainly used an official municipal website and an official Facebook page for publishing the news about 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..., including publishing the draft version of strategic vision and the action plan. Later in the process, the Municipality decided to create the online repositoryAccess to relevant information is essential for enabling participation and ensuring accountability throughout the OGP process. An OGP repository is an online centralized website, webpage, platform or ... dedicated to OGP Local program, that would be integrated into the official municipality webpage. By the end of AP development phase, Khoni created the OGP local program repository, uploaded documents such as Mayor’s Decree on creation of the Working Group, OGP official Website Khoni Page, Strategic Vision, and Action Plan, and proactively published news during the co-creation process. However, as of to date, no data is publicly available about the OGP Local implementation process.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Official Khoni Municipality Facebook page https://bit.ly/3r8wyus
• OGP – Local Program, Khoni Municipality. Online repository https://bit.ly/3qjkmHW

2.2 Did the government provide information to stakeholders in advance to facilitate informed and prepared participation in the co-creation process?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Khoni Municipality led the OGP co-creation process and facilitated Working Group meetings on a regular basis, once a month, during the 3-month period. On average, 2-3 days in advance the key stakeholders were informed about the planned Working Group Meeting, and 4-5 working days were provided for written feedback on strategy or any ideas/inputs to be considered.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Interview with Ms. Dea Tsartsidze, OGP Local program consultant, member of the Working group

2.3 Did the government ensure that any interested member of the public could make inputs into the action plan and observe or have access to decision-making documentation?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

According to the document of the Strategic Vision, all the measures were taken to ensure diverse participation in the process. During the action plan development phase, the local Government used to provide information to its working group members: the advisory bodies and the key stakeholders pre-identified as relevant for the OGP process. At the outset, municipality has also published the news about joining the OGP Local and the upcoming WG meeting via its official Facebook page, that also called for interested parties to participate. Strategic Vision and Action Plan documents where proactively published through the official Municipal and Facebook webpages allowing access for all the interested parties, however, no official feedback or input mechanisms was established, for those other than the WG members.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Interview with Ms. Dea Tsartsidze, OGP Local program consultant, member of the Working group
• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021,
• Social media news published on official Khoni Municipality Facebook page

2.4 Did the government proactively report back or provide written feedback to stakeholders on how their contributions were considered during the creation of the action plan?

No

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

During the active collaboration process, the major work and discussions with local CSOs took place during the Working Group sessions. The Action Plan has been developed collaboratively and all the major issues were addressed and agreed verbally while discussing the strategic vision and the Action Plan on the WG sessions, while the outputs were then reflected in the documents in writing. Accordingly, CSOs have not provided any additional input and/or feedback in a written format. Respectively, the Government has not provided written feedback to stakeholders.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Interview with Ms. Dea Tsartsidze, OGP Local program consultant, member of the Working group

2.5 Was there an iterative dialogue and shared ownership between government and non-governmental stakeholders during the decision making process, including setting the agenda?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Although no procedural guidelines for WG operations have been developed, the WG coordinator ensured repetitive dialogue between the government and non-governmental stakeholders in the Working Group format on a regular, monthly basis. From the very start of the process, when the application for the OGP Local membership was being developed, the collaboration between the government and SCOs was high. This collaborative spirit during the membership application process translated into the shared ownership at the start of the AP co-creation and even strengthened in the process of AP development phase.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Interview with Ms. Dea Tsartsidze, OGP Local program consultant, member of the Working group
• Interview with Ms Tamar Ugulava, Chief Specialist, Devision of Case Proceedings and Public Relations, Khoni City Hall

2.6 Would you consider the forum to be inclusive and diverse?

Moderately

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

All the key stakeholders that constitute the Working Group, such as local government representatives, local non-governmental organizations, Citizens Advisory Boards, and international development organization – UNDP DGG, were invited to participate in the OGP co-creation process by the local self-government. All the parties were allowed to participate in the process, raise concerns, discuss, and engage in the local OGP agenda setting. Even though these stakeholders were identified solely by the local government, at the outset, Khoni municipality also publicly announced the opening of the process and opportunity to participate, via its official Facebook page. However, as the call for public participationGiving citizens opportunities to provide input into government decision-making leads to more effective governance, improved public service delivery, and more equitable outcomes. Technical specificatio... was a one-time measure through the FB page, this might have contributed to the fact that only government identified key stakeholders were involved in the process.

Overall, the process was moderately inclusive and diverse, yet it lacked the involvement of private sectorGovernments are working to open private sector practices as well — including through beneficial ownership transparency, open contracting, and regulating environmental standards. Technical specificat... representatives and citizens to ensure the reflection of their voices into the local OGP agenda.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Interview with Ms Tamar Ugulava, Chief Specialist, Devision of Case Proceedings and Public Relations, Khoni City Hall
• Social media news published at official Khoni Municipality Facebook page about one of inviting civil society for collaboration of development of the Action Plan https://bit.ly/3nkDwv8

Improve access to and delivery of municipal services, especially for the most marginalized communities

1.1 Is the commitment verifiable?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Commitment text presents 5 milestones that are formulated clearly and in a logical order. The milestone outputs are mostly verifiable; however, it is not fully clear what would be the outputs for milestones 1 and 5.

In case of MS. 1, needs analysis shall be conducted, however it is not clear if the needs analysis will be documented into a report, which could be then referred to as the output for the milestone. In case of MS. 5, it is unclear what the “full-scale” awareness raising campaign mean and how “full scale” could be verified.

The commitment intends to open three new service centers in the rural areas, well-equipped to deliver most municipal services locally. The new centers are supposed to provide better accessibility to public services for the local communities. The outcome of the activities is clear and provides enough information to be measured after the completionImplementers must follow through on their commitments for them to achieve impact. For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlin... of the activities.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

1.2 Does the commitment language/activities clearly justify relevance to OGP values?

Unclear

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment seeks to improve accessibility to the municipal services and thus, potentially increase the quality of service delivery through the new service centers, equipment, and specifically retrained staff. However, it does not envisage to change the local government practice in relation to 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, accountability, or participative policymaking at a local level. The commitment text states that the conduction of needs analysis is the basis for linking the commitment to the OGP value of participation. However, it is unclear how this one-time measure improves government practice as usual in terms of transparency and policymaking or how does it make self-governance more accountable. Moreover, even though the needs analysis, as a type of research, could be considered as a major part of evidence-based policymaking, it cannot be assessed as participation and engagement in policymaking.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

1.3 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

a continuation of ongoing practice in line with existing legislationCreating and passing legislation is one of the most effective ways of ensuring open government reforms have long-lasting effects on government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or r..., policies or requirements.

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment aims to continue the ongoing practice of providing existing municipal services through new service centers in the remote areas (no new services added). The new service centers increase the scale of providing municipal service, and fosters the accessibility to service for those, residing far from the municipality center. The commitment does not seek to create a new policy of provide new services.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

1.4 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

is a positive change to a process, practice or policy but will not generate a binding or institutionalized change across government or specific institution(s).

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Potentially, the commitment will increase access to the municipal services and encourage higher quality service delivery, primarily in the remote areas of the municipality, where the access to the services is considered especially limited. The benefits of this commitments could be particularly contrasting during the COVID-19 pandemic era as it would make access to the services much easier among the farming communities located far from the municipal center. However, the commitment does not generate a binding or fosters institutionalized change in open governance approach across government or specific institutions.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

1.5 Are there any recommended changes to the design of the commitment to help improve its implementation?

• The Implementation of the Action Plan could benefit from a milestone that would focus on development of a document outlining procedures required for delivering municipal services in the remote areas. Delivering service from new service centers located remotely from the center, requires new set of procedures and timelines, which is not reflected in the commitment.
• Initiation of an institutionalized citizen feedback mechanism would be an effective way to improve the service delivery in accordance with the citizens’ needs and their satisfaction and at the same time would strengthen the commitments links to the OGP value of participation.
It would allow Municipality to constantly gather, learn, and apply the citizens’ suggestions to transform the services based on received feedback and improve the quality of provided services.

2. Commitment :

To ensure mainstreaming the needs of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in urban development policies/projects/decisions through institutionalized practice of engagement of Municipal Council on Persons with Disabilities.

2.1 Is the commitment verifiable?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment lists three milestones for completion: 1) conducted infrastructural needs analysis, 2) development of ToR for infrastructure rehabilitation, and 3) developed and approved the municipal legislative act on mandating engagement of Municipal Council on PWDs in infrastructure project design stages. The milestones 2 and 3 present specific outputs enough to be verified such as Development of ToR (MS 2) and Development of Legislative Act (MS 3), while it is not clearly stated if the MS 1 – Infrastructural Needs Analysis – will result in a needs analysis report that will serve as a basis for the development of ToR.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

2.2 Does the commitment language/activities clearly justify relevance to OGP values?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The fact that this commitment seeks to create new opportunities for 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... to increase their inclusionOGP participating governments are working to create governments that truly serve all people. Commitments in this area may address persons with disabilities, women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, tr... in social, economic, and political life, makes it relevant to OGP value of participation. In particular, institutionalization of the processes to involve Municipal Councils for PWDs in the infrastructural planning creates the new opportunity for PWDs to directly influence the decision-making process locally.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

2.3 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

a new regulationGovernment reformers are developing regulations that enshrine values of transparency, participation, and accountability in government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or reforming ..., policy, practice or requirement.

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment aims to institutionalize the new practice and introduce a new requirement through the relevant municipal legislative act that will require local government to consider PWDs’ needs during urban planning and design of infrastructural Projects. The legislative act will provide basis for the new practice streamlining the engagement of Municipal Councils for PWDs in urban policymaking, thus if successfully implemented, changes the existing government practice through opening up new opportunities for participation.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

2.4 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

is a positive change to a process, practice or policy but will not generate a binding or institutionalized change across government or specific institution(s).

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The implementation of this commitment will potentially create new latitude for people with disabilities to engage in urban development and relevant decision-making more actively and meaningfully through the institutionalized mechanism. By developing and approving the municipal legislative act, the local government could enable a legal and an administrative environment to guarantee the process of PWDs engagement and require the local government to ensure their participation in the policy planning stage. Although the commitment scope remains limited and might not be the game-changer in the local government practices of decision-making, its activities still carry the prospects for a positive change in terms of institutionalizing a particular civic participation mechanism in a policy area of urban planning and could potentially serve as a fertile ground for further mainstreaming PWDs engagement at the local level decision-making.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

2.5 Are there any recommended changes to the design of the commitment to help improve its implementation?

This commitment and its relevance to the OGP value of participation is majorly grounded on the milestone 3, which envisages institutionalization of the participatory mechanism for PWDs in urban planning and infrastructural projects. However, first two milestones (MS1 and MS2) that represent the actual steps in the urban planning process, i.e., towards the rehabilitation of the Khoni Central Park, precede the adoption of participation mechanism (MS3) through the municipal legislative act. Thus, implementation process will benefit if the legislative act is developed and approved first (MS3), followed by infrastructural needs analysis (MS1) and development of ToR, that would than naturally reflect the PWDs engagements.This commitment and its relevance to the OGP value of participation is majorly grounded on the milestone 3, which envisages institutionalization of the participatory mechanism for PWDs in urban planning and infrastructural projects. However, first two milestones (MS1 and MS2) that represent the actual steps in the urban planning process, i.e., towards the rehabilitation of the Khoni Central Park, precede the adoption of participation mechanism (MS3) through the municipal legislative act. Thus, implementation process will benefit if the legislative act is developed and approved first (MS3), followed by infrastructural needs analysis (MS1) and development of ToR, that would than naturally reflect the PWDs engagements.

3. Commitment :

To conduct an Open Goverment Regional Forum to promote OGP Values and share experience among similar municipalities

3.1 Is the commitment verifiable?

Yes

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Commitment text is mostly clear in providing planned activities along with the expected outputs leading to the fact that milestones are mostly verifiable. However, it is vague what MS1 refers to as a “working space” for the Open Governance Regional hub and how this part of the milestone could be verified. Also, in case of MS2 it is unclear if the “establishment the coordination mechanism and working channels” will lead to any verifiable output and thus leaves a room for misinterpretation. However, both these milestones (MS1 and MS2) lead to the MS3 and MS4 that envisage organizing and conducting forum on open governance (MS3) and the development of the Regional Hub Concept (MS4). Thus, the completion of the first two milestones could be verified on an outcome level, if the MS3 and MS4 are completed.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

3.2 Does the commitment language/activities clearly justify relevance to OGP values?

Unclear

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Although the commitment aims to raise the overall awareness about Open Governance in the municipality by establishing an Open Government Hub and aiming at promoting open government values across the municipality as well as on a regional level countywide, how exactly this commitment would make a government policy, or the governmental decision-making process more transparent, participatory, or accountable remains unclear.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

3.3 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

a continuation of ongoing practice in line with existing legislation, policies or requirements.

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

The commitment does not introduce any new regulation, policy, or requirement. However, it is envisaged that the new Open Governance Hub will serve as an inspiration and encouragement for changing government practices towards more open, transparent, and accountable self-governance culture in the municipality, that could be than scaled up across various regions nationwide. Although the New Hub could introduce new government practices, no indication of a new practice or requirement that is planned under this commitment.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

3.4 Please select one option that best describes the commitment:

is a positive change to a process, practice or policy but will not generate a binding or institutionalized change across government or specific institution(s).

Provide a brief explanation of your answer:

Organizing an Open Government Regional Forum could potentially provide a solid ground to start networking in the region, nationwide, advocate OGP values, or increase the awareness about open governance values, principles, and practices. However, while the commitment text mentions the development of the Open Regional Hub concept, that would aim at creating an institutionalized platform for continuous advocacy of Open Government agenda, the Municipality’s clear vision about the Hub remains unclear. Thus, within its limited scope to organize 1 forum that will serve as the basis for development of concept for Open Governance Hub, the commitment might be assessed as an incremental positive step towards a policy/practice change. However, it is unclear if further steps that are not stipulated in this commitment (e.g., actual establishment of the Hub) could further lead to the binding or institutionalized changes in the municipality.

Provide evidence for your answer:

• Open Government Strategic Vision and Action Plan, Khoni, Georgia, 2021

3.5 Are there any recommended changes to the design of the commitment to help improve its implementation?

Organizing an Open Government Regional Forum will require allocation of human and material recourses (even during the COVID-19 restrictions) to plan accordingly, promote, attract speakers and participants, skilled moderators, facilitate discussion and possibly plan further steps. Accordingly, for the successful implementation first establishment of Regional Hub with dedicated personnel that would then take over organizing the Forum would be more feasible. Concentrating on the establishment of the Open Governance Hub and then organizing the Forum as the Hub’s first activity would be more logical and clearer for the perspective of implementation. Although Forum is considered as an important factor for scaling-up open-government culture in the municipality as well as regional level, compared to the Hub, it does not institutionalize the mechanism for further fostering open government culture in the municipality and transforming Khoni as an open-government oriented self-governance, which is the essence of this this commitment.