The National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia held its sixth conference the Best Practice Program, during which 12 outstanding municipalities were identified as winners.

Special prizes and certificates were awarded to representatives of the winner municipalities of Ambrolauri, Batumi, Zugdidi, Lagodekhi, Oni, Senaki, Poti, Kutaisi, Dedoplistskaro, Dmanisi, and Ozurgeti.

The event was organized with the support of the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiative “Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG),” the Danish government, as well as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ).

Before the award ceremony, Mzia Giorgobiani, the Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia; Anne Toft Sorensen, the Ambassador of Denmark to Georgia; and Catalin Gherman, the Deputy Head of Cooperation of the EU Delegation to Georgia, addressed the audience with welcome speeches. Additionally, Anna Chernyshova, the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Georgia; Corinne Rothblum, the Acting Deputy Director of the USAID DRG Office; Lidija Christmann, the Head of the Development Department of the German Embassy to Georgia; and Niko Tatulashvili, the Prime Minister’s Adviser for Human Rights Protection, also delivered speeches.

The speakers underlined how important the competition is and praised NALAG for sharing best practices. They also emphasized that year in and year out the NALAG gives impetus to local authorities to improve public services.

The large-scale conference was organized in different sessions, which allowed the audience to learn about NALAG’s new project, “Partnership at the local level for public administration reform in Georgia”.

As the director of the project, Davit Melua, explained, the project, financed by the European Union, is implemented in collaboration with the Georgian non-governmental sector. It aims to monitor the reform of public administration and support municipalities in successfully implementing the said reform.

At the next seasons, representatives from the United Nations Development Program were given the floor. Anatoli Korepanov, a consultant of UNDP, discussed the principles of sports policy development at the municipal level and shared Kutaisi municipality’s experience with conference participants. Tinatin Tkeshelashvili, manager of the project – “EU and UNDP “Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG),” provided insights into the current and future initiatives aimed at supporting the project’s municipalities.

Today, Shota Murghulia, an expert of the USAID’s Local Government Program, presented a study centered on the analysis of local revenue sources in municipalities.

The concluding segment of the conference was dedicated to the award ceremony, facilitated overseen by Nino Zurabishvili, an expert of the BPP.
According to the expert, a record number of 67 applications were submitted for the 2022-2023 competition, encompassing 14 selected thematic categories. In comparison to previous years, 12 projects were recognized as successful and exemplary. Nino Zurabishvili stated that the winner municipalities were identified by the best practice program steering committee. This decision took into consideration the recommendations of the evaluation commission, comprising representatives from the public and non-governmental sectors, as well as experts in the relevant field.

At the large national conference hosted at the “Holiday Inn Tbilisi” hotel, attendees were representatives from central and local authorities, non-governmental sector, international organizations, international development agencies, as well as the leadership of Georgian municipalities and recognized experts in the field.
​The National Association of Local Governments of Georgia has been implementing the Best Practice Program with the support of donor organizations since 2018. This initiative, acknowledged by the Council of Europe, serves as a recognized tool for identifying successful practices of good governance and facilitates their dissemination.

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