A meeting titled “The Role of Municipalities in Developing Social Programming and Services for the Well-being of Children and Families” was convened in Akhaltsikhe for the member municipalities of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia.
The event was organized for 18 target municipalities within the framework of the EU-funded three-year project, “Strengthening Systems and Services for Child Protection in Georgia,” implemented by UNICEF.
The working meeting was inaugurated by Nino Rukhadze, the executive director of NALAG, alongside Jesper Moller, the representative of UNICEF Georgia, and Mzia Giorgobiani, the Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure.
The speakers discussed the crucial role of bolstering municipalities in Georgia’s path towards European Union accession, emphasizing NALAG’s involvement in this process.
NALAG’s experts, Nino Zurabishvili and Davit Melua, also participated in the event.
It’s worth noting that one of the components of the project on municipalities, implemented in partnership with NALAG, aims to strengthen comprehensive, decentralized, child-oriented, and needs-based social programming and the development of social work in municipalities. This translates to better support for children and their families.
The first session focused on “The development of municipal social programs for children and families with children.” During this session, Nino Zurabishvili, the project coordinator and expert, highlighted the accomplishments of the collaborative project between the United Nations Children’s Fund and NALAG.
The initiative achieved the following:
– 18 pilot municipalities learned to develop needs-based and child-centred social programmes to better support the most vulnerable families with children. The social programmes were based on assessing the needs of families and children, enabling the pilot municipalities to address the unmet needs of the local communities through the introduction of relevant initiatives.
– The Intermunicipal Platform on Social Issues in the Samegrelo region was established to share experiences and best practices on social programming. The shared service provision is now being piloted in the region and will later be expanded to other areas.
– National legislation was analyzed to identify barriers to municipalities’ effective participation in the social protection of children and families.
– The central government has recognized the needs-based and child-centred approach to social programming as a best practice and has convened all municipalities to adopt similar approaches.
– A situational analysis of municipal social work was conducted in 10 selected municipalities, and a concept for strengthening municipal social work and services was developed.
– A model for parents’ education and family support service was developed and piloted in 10 selected municipalities.
The initiative corresponds to the new responsibilities assigned to municipalities by the “Child’s Rights Code” adopted in 2019. According to the Code, municipalities in Georgia have a crucial role in child protection and support. This role is twofold: municipalities should be capable of identifying families and children in need and providing them with the backing through community-based social work and services. Municipalities should also be capable of identifying social needs within society and addressing them by developing child-centred social programs.
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