East-West Management Institute

Usaid rule of law (rol) program in Georgia - see schedule o.the usaid rule of law (rol) program in Georgia is a five-year, $25 million activity funded by the united states agency for international development that began on january 1, 2022. The rol program has three objectives: 1) to strengthen the independence and effectiveness of justice system institutions, including the courts, the Georgian bar association (gba), the legal aid service (las), the public defender's office (pdo), and law faculties; 2) to enhance equal access to justice for all, in particular women, ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities, among other marginalized groups; and 3) to increase citizen and institutional oversight of justice institutions. Other key elements of the rol program include building the capacity of individual judges throughout Georgia, promoting alternative dispute resolution (adr) mechanisms, and promoting a people-centered approach to legal and judicial reforms. Ewmi is implementing this project in collaboration with the following organizations: the american bar association rule of law initiative (aba/roli), the international legal foundation (ilf), street law, Inc., northwestern university's pritzker school of law, the center for justice innovation (cji), and the european human rights advocacy centre (ehrac). The following are some of the rol program's key activities undertaken in year 2023:objective 1: strengthen justice system institutions continued its support to three rule of law practice groups focused on the women's rights, freedom of expression, and child rights. These three groups have a total of 72 civil and administrative judge members, and met a total of nine times to exchange ideas and best practices in each of the subject matter areas. Supported two women's rights practice group member judges to participate in the international association of women judges' conference in morocco, and three judge members to participate in the u.s. national association of women judges' conference in indianapolis. In partnership with radio liberty, supported the release of three-monthly video podcasts concerning judicial decisions, garnering hundreds of thousand views on social media. Supported the constitutional court by assigning an international expert to prepare a comprehensive report on the causes of the delays in the delivery of some court decisions. Organized (with aba/roli) study trips to the u.s. for 26 Georgian justice sector professionals to learn about american judicial experiences, freedom of expression, child protection and people-centered justice. Launched the "open door" initiative for Georgian judges that helped them to apply for educational opportunities abroad. Two judges received financial support to participate in programs at stanford university and at the university of leiden (netherlands). Established a "court staff educational fund" for court personnel. One tbilisi appellate court staff member has benefited from the program by enrolling in an online training course on corporate criminal liability at cornell university law school. Through aba/roli, assigned five u.s. Judges to work for several months to provide hands on mentoring to Georgian judges in batumi, tbilisi, rustavi, kutaisi and akhaltsikhe. Awarded a grant to the gba to help expand bench-bar meetings and facilitate inter-professional dialogues through organizing meetings for lawyers and judges, discussing key legislation, and expanding the role of gba in the selectin of judicial candidates. Awarded grants to six partner Georgian law schools to develop new courses on human rights, facilitate professor exchanges, involve students in legal research, and draft amicus curiae briefs. Supported from northwestern university's work to strengthen legal clinics at three Georgian law schools. In partnership with street law, worked with six law schools to train their law students on how to provide legal assistance to underrepresented members of their local communities.objective 2: enhance access to justice the program assisted the pdo by training 46 members of its staff on protection of human rights. Nine strategic litigation grantees provided legal aid to over 3,732 beneficiaries and appeared in 739 court representations. This resulted in significant legal victories including eight national precedents in the areas of gender equality, freedom of assembly and child rights. Helped the las to strengthen its quality assurance system and professional development through expert mentorship. Awarded a grant to the Georgian association of arbitrators (gaa) to enhance arbitration practices. Awarded a grant to the mediators association of Georgia (mag) to raise awareness and promote use of mediation through organizing large-scale events involving judges, court personnel, lawyers, and consultants.objective 3: increase oversight of justice institutions awarded 13 grants to csos, focusing on raising awareness about justice system through media, public meetings, and debates involving student and professors. Through the "open door" grants program, supported six new projects and continued funding two from 2022 addressing various justice sector issues, including improving access to court decisions. Established a new rule of law hub in kutaisi to improve access to justice and knowledge of legal reforms to that region. The project also continued its support to the existing rule of law hub in batumi, reaching approximately 900 citizens in the region with information about human rights, judicial processes, and the rule of law, and providing professional training and networking opportunities to approximately 400 judges, lawyers, and representatives from csos and academia.

Uganda civil society strengthening activity (cssa) - see schedule o.the civil society strengthening activity (cssa) supports the capacity strengthening of ugandan civil society organizations (csos) to influence and contribute to improved development outcomes in four thematic areas: 1) health, with particular attention paid to achieving the country's hiv/aids reduction goals; 2) education, youth, and child development; 3) agriculture and food security; and 4) democracy, rights, and governance. To achieve its aim, cssa implements activities under three components: (i) strengthen the advocacy capacity of csos to influence national and local development; (ii) improve the organizational capacity of advocacy and service delivery- oriented csos to sustainably fulfil their stated missions; and (iii) promote a more supporting enabling environment that sustains a vibrant civil society. Cssa's target direct and indirect beneficiaries including umbrella and individual csos, women, youth, vulnerable populations, people living with hiv/aids (plwha), and other underserved communities. Cssa's priority geographic areas include gulu, kaabong, kotido, lamwo, lira, masindi, mbarara, moroto, omoro, nwoya, and rubirizi districts.by the end of 2023, cssa awarded grants to 24 leading csos and cso networks in uganda to undertake cso advocacy initiatives that engage multiple stakeholders including government actors, media and the private sector, and advocate for improvements in policy. One of the major aspects of cssa's impact has been changing the mindset change of its partners at different levels. For example, owing to initiatives like the cso-private sector dialogue, cssa partners have realized the possibility of raising funds from diverse sources like private companies and social enterprises, as opposed to reliance on only grants from traditional donors. As a result, some partners have already brokered working relationships with the private sector, and are considering other alternative sources of funding. Due to cssa's capacity support, its partners have realized the value of compliance. They are more aware about their safety, and security, and are putting in place backstop measures, as seen from their increased request for digital literacy and security capacity development. The persisting mutual distrust between csos and state institutions in uganda hinders csos' advocacy efforts. Cssa partners are devising better engagement approaches to reverse this trend. With cssa's support, some cssa partners are tweaking their advocacy agenda around initiatives that state actors are championing. For instance, working closely with the national identification registration authority (nira), africa youth development link (aydl) is mobilizing young people to register and get national identity cards and is seeking cooperation with the electoral commission of uganda (ec) to mobilize young people to register to vote. This will contribute to achieve aydl's advocacy goal of increasing the number of young people that take part in the upcoming 2026 elections. Such strategies have led to greater appreciation by government of the efforts of csos, while also reducing mistrust that would potentially have led to conflict between the two sectors. Cssa has created opportunities for its partners to share and learn from each other, and from other civil society and government actors. This includes setting up coordination mechanisms for cssa partners that work on the same cssa thematic area. In these coordination sessions cssa partners are able to identify areas of synergy, as well each other's unique advantages that they can leverage on. For example, cssa partners that work on hiv/aids developed a milestone tracker with specific activities to be collectively undertaken per month. Cssa is also encouraging its partners to work with others within the civil society sector to build scale, as well as establish solidarity networks for collective response to threats. Cssa has identified opportunities for possible collaboration, partnership, and funding, and shared them with its partners. As a result, some cssa partners have even undertaken joint fundraising, engagement, and activity implementation. Under the health thematic area, national forum of people living with hiv/aids networks (nafophanu) is working on various issues with non-cssa partners such as baylor college, social behavior change communication activity (sbca), and unypa, among others. Through compliance clinics, the enabling environment working group and the know your rights training, cssa provided technical assistance to its partners on understanding and complying with the requirements of the anti-money laundering (aml) act.moreover, in 2023, cssa partners supported civil society to anticipate and respond to a challenging operating environment. Legal compliance and digital security clinics for csos helped civil society limit interruptions to their work by enhancing their compliance with laws regulating csos and identifying gaps in digital security practices, respectively. The legal aid service providers network (laspnet) rapid response support of human rights defenders helped activists navigate their arrests.

Georgia civil society engagement program - see schedule o.the usaid civil society engagement program in Georgia is a five-year, $17 million activity funded by the united states agency for international development and implemented by East-West Management Institute, Inc. that began on november 1, 2021. The csep program has four objectives: 1) resilience building and strategic communication support for civic actors; 2) enhance the capacity of civic actors to address citizen-identified issues; 3) foster partnerships among civil actors and between civil actors and other sectors; and 4) develop an ecosystem for the sustainability of civic actors. The following are some of the csep program's key accomplishments in year 2023:objective 1: resilience building and strategic communication support for civic actors in partnership with national democratic Institute (ndi) Georgia, the program concentrated on three primary objectives: scenario planning, strategic communication, and legal advocacy, with a strong emphasis on communication. In 2023, the program has yielded significant results, including an improved understanding of strategic communication, effective messaging, and appropriate messengers; and an increased ability to anticipate threats and avoid amplifying propaganda narratives, among supported civic actors and groups. In collaboration with ndi and caucasus research resource center (crrc), conducted several key research initiatives to improve communication and advocacy. These included developing a flexible long-term research plan, producing reports on lgbtqi+ issues, conducting nationwide poll on Georgian identity, and preparing a focus groups on women's rights. Ewmi and its partner icnl/ecnl also concentrated on supporting partners in monitoring restrictive practices that curtail the freedom of expression and assembly. Objective 2: enhance the capacity of civic actors to address citizen-identified issues supported 28 innovation and challenge grant (icgs) projects to a diverse range of civic actors, including the csos, civic movements, and think tanks. The thematic areas included: education, healthcare, environment, labor rights, student activism, and Georgia's eu aspirations. One of the icg grantees has received two awards for their work supported under the program: the "audience's choice" award for the best initiative of the year and community foundations' award. Supported 4 strategic and policy grants (sspgs) to support evidence-based policy analysis and advocacy in the citizen-identified areas of social protection, healthcare and education. Awarded two rapid response grants (rrgs) and 30 in-kind grants through its partner orbeliani Georgia. One of the rrgs awarded investigated the possible causes of the tragic landslide in shovi in 2023 and also offered recommendations on actions that should have been taken to prevent the scale of the tragedy as well as recommended actions that should be taken in the future to ensure that the government's prevention and response measures are effective. Organized one bus tour to guria to allow activists, csos and journalists from tbilisi to discuss some pressing local issues.objective 3: foster partnerships among civic actors and between civic actors and other sectors in partnership with zinc network and center for training and consultancy (ctc), the program continued to strengthen partnerships through co-creation processes, facilitating 17 social labs and three design sprints, as well as continued on-demand communications support for the program's beneficiaries. Continued its work on three thematic social media listening activities piloting longer monitoring periods to provide more meaningful understanding of public discussions on topics of interest. Ewmi proactively supported its grantees and beneficiaries to mitigate emerging risks through effective communication efforts. For example, program's grant recipients produced 50 videos demonstrating the positive impact csos have on the lives of everyday georgians. To acknowledge the outstanding work of the program's women beneficiaries, ewmi's partner zinc network also produced three videos featuring the stories of three women working in the fields of ethnic minority women's empowerment, pediatric oncology, and education. Objective 4: develop an ecosystem for the sustainability of civic actors developed a resource mobilization guide and assessed the ecosystem of online giving/donation-based crowdfunding in the country to support financial sustainability of the csos. In partnership with the global compact network Georgia (gcng), trained csos and facilitated the opportunities for them and business representatives to meet, build connections and explore partnerships. Additionally, it hosted an annual partnership fair that brought together representatives from 36 csos and 38 businesses, providing a platform for enhanced collaborations. Continued supporting the ncce and cces in diversifying their resources and activities. Cces held more than 500 events and ncce recorded significant income from private sector activities as well as from the other donors.

Citizen engagement accoutnability activity : $2,817,106, including grants of $1,323,696. Judiscial system strengthening activity in uzbekistan : $1,823,380, including grants of $175,745. Rule of law and anti-corruption activity in the kyrgyz republic : $1,643,644, including grants of $359,712. Partnership for justice activity : $719,230, including grants of $279,137. Labor rights activitiy - solidarity center : $556,785, including grants of $281,029. Promoting freedom of expression in malaysia ii : $517,875, including grants of $461,028. Access for all : $466,186, including grants of $242,015. Reduced case backlogs and improved efficiency in the high court in albania : $446,303, including grants of $0. Asean parliamentary - civic partnership : $398,800, including grants of $318,200. Promoting religious freedom : $301,081, including grants of $243,989. Righttrac : $229,594, including grants of $165,059. Strengthening public support for the freedom of expression in malaysia: $213,592, including grants of $184,190. Internet monitoring and action project : $194,597, including grants of $131,782. Social engagement support activity : $157,130, including grants of $48,686. Croatia court excellence activity : $155,485, including grants of $0. Mykty aimak : $104,175, including grants of $0. Promoting freedom of expression in malaysia i : $97,655, including grants of $69,307. Mangroves for coastal resilience : $80,287, including grants of $9,332, and revenue of $101,573. Bolstering human rights protection and access to justice : $78,255, including grants of $73,998. Open development initiative : $67,234, including grants of $43,913. Harnessing data for democratic devlopment in south and southeast asia : $65,125, including grants of $7,373. Indigenous data sovereignty project : $62,402, including grants of $2,500. Global index on responsible artificial intelligence : $61,436, including grants of $61,269. Improving access to independent news and information : $61,250, including grants of $54,247. Youth empowerment serbia : $59,484, including grants of $44,761. Land Management information system : $54,562, including grants of $19,756, and revenue of $65,414. Inform, connect, report and advocate for the freedom of expression : $51,391, including grants of $30,000. Odi-storytelling platform for women leaders in water governance : $44,301, including grants of $3,050. Georgia civil society engagement program : $43,297, including grants of $0. Promoting democracy and freedom of expression : $29,769, including grants of $28,091. Partner legacy support program (plsp) : $27,518, including grants of $27,518. Indigenous knowledge and data sovereignty project : $24,794, including grants of $17,087. Combating disinformation : $17,724, including grants of $17,672. Measuring opportunities for women in peacekeeping : $16,735, including grants of $0, and revenue of $17,829. Bolstering human rights protection and access to justice : $16,006, including grants of $13,036. Small grants : $13,657, including grants of $13,656. Nonprofit employment data project 0 : $13,151, including grants of $0. Data for democratic development program research : $11,362, including grants of $9,721, and revenue of $24,000. Open development initiative : $5,378, including grants of $-3,109. Information, safety and capacity project : $0, including grants of $0. New america ptp grant : $315, including grants of $0.