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Georgian Alliance on Agriculture and Rural Development Plenary Meeting
Georgian Alliance on Agriculture and Rural Development Plenary Meeting
On 19th of February 2019 Georgian alliance on Agriculture and Rural Development (GAARD) plenary meeting was organized in partnership with People in Need with the support of EU within the project promoting „Regional Civil Society Organizations as Vectors of Rural Economic Development “. The coordinated and secretariat process of the Georgian Alliance on Agriculture and Rural Development (GAARD) is driven by BRIDGE – Innovation and Development.
The event together with alliance members was attended by the representatives of EU delegation Ketevan Khusishvili, the new member organization “Georgian Association of Local Action Groups” and PMC research center representatives.
It is worth to mention that Georgia Alliance for Agriculture and Rural Development (GAARD) was established in 2013, it is already 5 years that GAARD works so effectively and this is the achievement to be proud of as far as there are not many cases when Alliances are stable for so long.
Keti Getiashvili in her welcoming speech expressed gratitude to EU delegation for their support to GAARD since its establishment and mentioned that present plenary meeting is also one of the result of their contribution.
Representatives of PMC Research center presented a policy brief about “Review of Monitoring and Evaluation Practices in the Georgian Government”. The goal of the Policy brief was to investigate the challenges existed in Monitoring and Evaluation system of Georgian Government and development of relevant recommendations.
The representative of EU Delegation mentioned that the revision of monitoring and evaluation existed system is very interesting “the main topic of today’s plenary meeting at the end will have impact on what proportion the delegation from its budget allocates to Georgia budget for the agriculture development. It is very important that such coordination mechanism exists with the help of Alliance and the information sharing with this form is very much appreciated” – said Ketevan Khutishvili.
Participants reviewed the recommendations developed based on findings and discussed in what way it should be advocated to decision makers.
The meeting was attended by the representatives of new organization “Georgian Association of Local Action Groups” who expressed their interest for becoming the member of the alliance and discussed the ways of cooperation with the alliance, made brief presentations about their work and future plans of cooperation with alliance.
At the end of the meeting Biological farming Association- Elkana representative presented to the alliance members advocacy statement developed based on the findings of the research implemented by them in 4 regions of Georgia related to the lobbying of Agricultural Cooperatives long term strategy development.
Participants agreed that alliance will continue active advocacy of the recommendations given in the policy brief and other issues discussed at the plenary with relevant governmental institutions
