G-PAC News

Volume 2, Issue 2 Feb. 2011 - May 2011

This newsletter is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government or EWMI.

Bridging The Divide Between Donors and NGOs

In April, EWMI G-PAC organized a meeting with NGOs entitled What Are Donors Doing Wrong? The purpose of the meeting was to allow NGOs an opportunity to express their opinions on the donor community. More than 20 leading NGOs participated. Donor organizations and NGOs have a long history of providing much-needed services for the Georgian public where government and the private sector fall short. However, while they often share priorities, the disparities in their access to resources, degree of autonomy, and myriad other factors have created such an imbalance of power that NGOs are calling for change. NGOs complain about the lack of communication. According to NGOs, there are virtually no meetings between NGOs and donor organizations that would give NGOs a chance to discuss, understand and influence donor priorities and procedures. Who defines priorities is another point of contention. According to NGOs, donors define their own priorities, leaving NGOs little opportunity to work in their areas of interest. NGOs also complain that donors are too slow in setting priorities, which is inefficient in an environment like Georgia, where the political landscape can change rapidly. NGOs say they often cannot afford a highquality staffs salary, much less the services of an auditing firm in an environment where small, undependable grants are the norm. A proposed solution would be to hire an audit firm that would offer their services to NGOs for free. There is little doubt that coordination among NGOs and donors has to be improved. G-PAC is offering meeting spaces to NGOs to organize regular discussions, and plans to organize monthly meetings on issues critical to NGOs and donors. These include avoiding duplication of funding, and developing a Donor Matrix that would include a list of donors and their respective programs and grants. For the full report on the meeting, please visit our website www.ewmigpac.org.

Inside this issue

Letter from CoP Enabling Environment Columbia University Communications Expert NGOs Advocacy Capacity Assessment G-PAC Meets NGOs and Donors Mentors for Grantees Training on Advocacy 2 2 3 3 3 4 4

Announcements

University Assistance Grants available and open to all Georgian universities. Paid Internship Grants available to qualified graduate students in public policy, political science or related fields. Citizens Advocacy Grants Round 2 deadline is June 15, 2011

For more information on the above grants and all G-PAC programs, visit our website www.ewmi-gpac.org

Donors Meeting

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Enabling
Letter from the EWMI G-PAC Chief of Party
As in many transitional societies, Georgian NGOs are perceived by the general public as job opportunities rather than organizations with civic responsibilities. Despite this situation, NGOs are not excused from a firm commitment to the highest professional, programmatic and organizational standards. Programs must lead to tangible results and organizations must demonstrate transparency and accountability to their constituents. By making a commitment to missiondriven transparency, Georgian NGOs will not only improve programmatic results but also gain from greater public confidence and trust. This will in return increase the likelihood of domestic public and private financial and overall support to NGOs, thereby ensuring that they are sustainable long after the international donors have left. Currently, the Georgian NGOs rely heavily on Georgian-based international donors through country-specific funding programs. For nearly 20 years, this ear-marked investment has been actively supporting Georgian NGOs. This type of funding can have negative repercussions. In an environment of almost exclusively foreign donor-led funding opportunities, organizations develop to meet the requests of these donors rather than of the people. As result, the general public and government perceive NGOs to be donor-driven and more accountable to their funders than to the public, which diminishes their public influence. In the constant rush to secure funding and demonstrate results to donors, Georgian NGOs place a disproportionate emphasis on project proposals rather than focusing on necessary institutional development. Over the past few years, as many leaders in Georgian civil society transitioned to positions in the government, the weakness in the NGO community was exemplified. It became apparent that the civil society strength relied almost solely on individuals rather than institutions. Relatively easy access to country-specific international funds impedes institutions ability to diversify resources. This situation also limits the scope of work for these organizations to donor motivated issues. Currently, competition is restricted to a small group of organizations that focus on Georgiatailored funds and are able to manage the strict reporting requirements, without the pressure of competing internationally. Very few Georgian NGOs compete against organizations in Europe for funding based on expertise and innovative ideas. G-PAC is committed to assist both the programmatic and organizational capacity development of Georgias advocacy NGOs and think tanks to support their sustainability. Programmatically, G-PAC encourages organizations to implement initiatives that directly address issues raised by the Georgian public. Institutionally, G-PAC empowers the development of governing and managerial structures to demonstrate transparency in both decision-making and spending. G-PACs partnership with Georgian NGOs begins before the conception of the proposal, continues throughout proposal development and implementation, and lasts beyond project completion. G-PAC grant programs combine training, mentoring, and linkages to counterparts in Europe and the US, in addition to funds. While the G-PAC civil society component addresses the immediate needs of Georgian NGOs, the Masters in Public Administration (MPA) component fosters future professionals. In partnership with Columbia University, Ilia State University is developing an MPA program that will provide students with the research and analytical skills to develop effective policies in both the private and public sectors. Through this comprehensive collaboration with the Georgian people, G-PAC strives to build a self-sustaining civil society that is truly independent and owned by the citizens of Georgia. Fron Nahzi CoP, EWMI G-PAC

Environment
G - P A C a n d th e International Center for Notfor-profit Law (ICNL) are working to improve the legal environment so that it better s u p p or ts t h e f i n a n ci a l sustainability of NGOs. In March, ICNL conducted an assessment of Georgias enabling environment which included analyzing the tax code and other legislation providing the basis for NGO sustainability. As initial findings indicated, although Georgia has strong framework legislation, several provisions regulating NGOs income-generating activities and private philanthropy create obstacles that make such activities expensive and risky. Accordingly, these are the issues that G-PAC plans to focus on in the upcoming months. It will further review and analyze the Georgian tax code and other relevant legislation to provide solutions to the identified hindrances. It will also organize roundtable discussions with NGOs and businesses to develop more comprehensive lists of legal hurdles to conducting incomegenerating activities and engaging in philanthropy. Additionally, it will develop a guide that will help NGOs to comply with the tax code . G-PAC will cooperate with the government to bring its attention to issues affecting NGOs sustainability, and to assist it in addressing these issues so that NGOs are better able to make their skills and services available to the general public and the government.

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Communications Training for ISU MPA Faculty and Students

As part of the MPA program, Professor Joann Baney arrived on May 8. During her one-week stay in Georgia, in addition to working with ISU MPA faculty and students, she also provided training to and USAIDs Democracy and Governance staff. She met with the Ministry of Economy and National Investment Agency staff, the Civil Service Bureau and the Ministry of Justice. While in Kutaisi, she conducted a training for recipients of Citizen Advocacy Grants on public speaking and media outreach. Professor Baney teaches communications in the Executive MPA program at Columbias School of International and Public Affairs, and has taught in the Executive MBA program and the Speech Department, also at Columbia. She is faculty director of the FDNY Officers Management Institute, is on the faculty of the NYPD's Police Management Institute, and teaches in a variety of other programs through Columbia's Social Enterprise program at Columbia Business School of Executive Education. She is also an adjunct professor of management communications at Dartmouth's Tuck School and at New York University's Stern School.

G-PAC Public Outreach: Monthly Meetings with NGOs and Donors

As part of G-PACs public outreach program, monthly meetings are held with NGOs in the regions and in Tbilisi. These meetings serve to update NGOs on G-PAC programs and to discuss issues that may require additional support and focus from GPAC, international donors, NGOs, government and various other stakeholders with an interest in increasing NGOs capacity to advocate for and influence public policy reform in Georgia. Most recently, GPAC organized a meeting with more than 20 NGOs on the role of donors in developing Georgias civil society sector (see article on page front page). As a follow-up, G-PAC organized a meeting with donors that have an annual budget of $200,000 or more, and presented NGOs concerns and recommendations to them. G-PAC invites NGOs to suggest topics for discussion for the future monthly meetings. Also GPAC is willing to make its conference room available on a first-come first-served basis. NGOs with topic ideas or who are requesting the use of the G-PAC Conference Room should contact GPACs Public Outreach Coordinator George Kopaleishvili at kgeorge@ewmi-gpac.org.

NGOs, faculty and students at Kutaisi State University,

Advocacy Capacity Assessment

In January, G-PAC, together with the Association of Young Economists of Georgia (AYEG), carried out the Advocacy Capacity Assessment of Georgian NGOs to assess their capacity to engage in effective advocacy, identify their main strengths and weaknesses in this regard, and provide a basis for the deied citizens perceptions and awareness of NGOs advocacy efforts, and their interest in participating in such efforts. The assessment involved in-depth interviews with 100 NG Os throughout the country, analysis of their publications, and 12 focus groups with citizens. The methodology was based on the USAID Advocacy Index, the qualitative indicator used for assessing and measuring advocacy efforts starting from issue identification to follow-up moni-

toring and evaluation. Georgian NGOs overall score was 26.3 out of 40, indicating that despite a number of successful advocacy campaigns, there is substantial room for improvement in the NGO community. For further information and to access the full report, visit our website www.ewmigpac.org.

velopment of a demanddriven capacity-building program. G-PAC also stud-

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Contact
EWMI - G-PAC #5 Marjanishvili St. Third Floor Tbilisi 0102 Georgia Tel (995 32) 202 444 Fax (995 32) 202 441 info@ewmi-gpac.org www.ewmi-gpac.org

G-PAC Supports its Grantees with Mentors

G-PAC has begun to implement its pilot mentoring program by pairing leading Tbilisi-based advocacy experts with G-PAC Citizen Advocacy Grants (CAG) grantees. Initial feedback from the mentors and the CAG grantees on the working relationship has been very positive. Initially, my colleagues and I had concerns on how beneficial the cooperation between us and the mentor would be, noted Ms. Marina Pagava, the Manager of the Project on Rapid Response and Advocacy of IDP Interests through Cooperation implemented by the Institute of Nationalism and Conflict Studies. However, these concerns disappeared quickly as our mentor, David Jijelava, was able to help solve our problem with the lack of qualified interviewers by organizing a series of tailor-made trainings on how to conduct interviews for our staff in the regions, added Ms. Pagava. David is one of the first six mentors participating in the Pilot Mentoring Program. G-PAC plans to make available a roster of Central and Eastern European (CEE) mentors to its future Think Tank Support Grant (TTSG) and Partnership for Change (PfC) program grantees, as well. The CEE mentors will be leading experts and innovative NGO leaders from Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Bulgaria with a track record in transferring skills. This will provide an opportunity for Georgian think tanks and advocacy NGOs to exchange ideas and learn from their CEE peers, who have experienced similar challenges when implementing programs supporting social, economic and political reforms in their countries. The mentors will provide mentoring throughout the project implementation period on an as-needed basis and in line with the needs assessment findings.

What do you think?

G-PAC is interested in your opinions about our work. Please send your comments, concerns, suggestions and any questions you may have about GPACs objectives, main directions and activities to: info@ewmi-gpac.org or via our website: www.ewmi-gpac.org.

Mid-Level Advocacy Training

In May, G-PAC launched its advocacy training program for regional NGOs to strengthen their advocacy capacity. The training agenda was developed on the basis of the Advocacy Capacity Assessment results and NGOs responses to G-PAC question on their training needs (please, see the www.ewmigpac.org for the full report). In preparation for the training, Partners Georgia reviewed participating NGOs advocacy proposals and carried out a pretraining survey asking NGOs to describe their experiences and challenges in planning, implementing and evaluating advocacy campaigns. This allowed Partners Georgia to use concrete examples in its training and to give practical recommendations. I have attended numerous trainings but never had the opportunity to talk about my project and to receive feedback from the trainers and my fellow trainees. Their questions helped me foresee some of the problems I will face and the training provided me with the tools to address them, noted Ms. Lia Gorelishvili, Chairperson of the Board of the Society Biliki, a G-PAC grantee. A total of three trainings were held with more than 60 NGOs, the majority from outside of Tbilisi.

To Kent and Michelle Logsdon. We are both delighted and saddened by the announcement of your new assignment. Thank you for the support, insights, and help you have provided us. Your keen wit and wisdom have positively impacted each of us. Best wishes, G-PAC Team

Policy, Advocacy and Civil Society Development in Georgia, on twitter.com/ewmi.gpac and our blog: ewmigpac.posterous.com.