With the support of the European Union, CENN, together with partner organisations, hosted a series of training on lobbying-advocacy mechanisms in the focal regions of the Georgia Climate Action Project. The Climate Action Group (CAG) 85 members from the project’s focal regions, representatives of civil society organisations, local municipalities, city councils, educational institutions and members of local youth groups, had an opportunity to get some helpful information regarding climate change actions, identify critical problems and to discuss and plan activities for implementation in the project’s focal regions – Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi, Kakheti and Guria.
The series of training was led by a representative of CENN – Marie Kikvadze, a communications and advocacy specialist. Trainings aimed at increasing the awareness of the local public and civil sector representatives about lobbying-advocacy mechanisms and ways of using and promoting them to address climate change issues at the municipal and regional levels.
During the training, participants received detailed information regarding lobbying-advocacy mechanisms, possible ways of their implementation, problem identification, stakeholder analysis, development of strategy and action plan, development of primary and secondary messages and policy document preparation stages.
As a result of group work, the participants, together with the trainer, identified the main problems related to climate change for further advocacy at the local, regional and central government level until the end of 2022. The following issues were identified among the discussed problems: access to clean water, failure of irrigation infrastructure, and deteriorating of water infrastructure. Identified problems will be communicated with relevant governmental institutions at a local and central levesl. The following steps are to prepare a policy document and develop an action plan and advocacy strategy accordingly. The involvement of experts and training participants will ensure the implementation of an advocacy campaign within the framework of the Georgian Climate Action Project supported by the European Union.
The pieces of training were implemented within the EU-funded Georgia Climate Action Project, which CENN implements in cooperation with the Kakheti Regional Development Foundation (KRDF), Association of the Chiaturians Union (ACU), Racha-Lechkhumi and Low Svaneti Agrotourism Development Association (RLS-ADA) and Young Pedagogues’ Union (YPU). The project’s target municipalities are – Lanchkhuti, Ozurgeti, Gurjaani, Sagarejo, Akhmeta, Zestaponi, Tkibuli, Chiatura, Ambrolauri, and Oni.