Background
Poor engagement of CSOs in national climate policy design and formulation in Georgia is due to a multitude of reasons: lack of understanding of climate policy processes, institutions and actors, weak strategies for policy engagement, lack of valid data and inadequate use of evidence, poor communication approaches, and working in an isolated manner and a limited capacity over policy influence.
The strong and competent civil society fosters self-reliance and resilience in society by supporting the state as the main provider of social services. The levels of civil society development as well as the environmental challenges linked to the wellbeing of their population according to regions. Common characteristics of the vast majority of CSOs include poor skills, low competence and little to no experience due to insufficient development support and a lack of local initiatives. CSOs in the regions of Georgia tend to be more focused on service provision and do not engage in policy development as they lack the necessary skills, incentives and resources to do so.
Activity Overview
Within the frames of the EU-supported Georgia Climate Action Project (GEO-CAP), CENN is promoting civil society engagement in climate change (CC) policy design and implementation with the project’s implementing partners – KRDF, ACU, YPU and RLS-ADA.
The project is actively working nationwide, in close engagement with CSOs and other actors at national and local levels in ten (10) municipalities of the 4 target regions of Guria, Imereti, Kakheti and Racha-Lechkhumi and Lower Svaneti.
The project activities are directed to empower local CSOs in their actions for inclusive governance and equitable development, demonstrate benefits of innovative projects on water security contributing to CC mitigation and adaptation and protection of human health and the environment as well as increase awareness and recognition of the role of CSOs in advocating for the protection of the environment and human health. The project aims to strengthen up to 50 CSOs. In total, up to 200,000 people will be reached in 10 target municipalities.
Activity Goals
The main objective of the project to strengthen the role of CSOs in tackling CC by establishing a multi-stakeholder national platform and regional action groups on climate change and building trust and collaboration between state and non-state actors for increased climate change resilience and water security.
Main Activities
- Project in close cooperation with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture roof Georgia has established a multi-stakeholder National Climate Platform (NCP) for facilitating engagement of civil society in formulation and implementation of climate-related strategies. In addition, to promote the engagement of regional CSOs in the climate-related policies and process project has created 4 regional Climate Action Groups (CAGs) in project target regions. A number of meetings, seminars and trainings are organized for and with the participation of the NCP and CAGs members;
- Project is facilitating multi-stakeholder participatory processes to identify and assess priority issues linked to climate change vulnerability and water security, and demonstrating the implementation of successful joint measures. A number of studies are developed based on participatory approach in close cooperation with the CAGs members to identify climate change vulnerability and water security issues at local levels;
- Project is actively working with youth, media and local CSOs via organizing awareness raising campaigns to promoting the role of civil society in advocating for protecting the environment, climate and human health; ensuring project visibility to encourage replication.
- The project is working on offering financial support and technical capacity building to third parties for implementing innovative projects on water security contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation, community resilience building and protection of human health and the environment;