PMCG Together With GIPA Launched the USAID Funded Project: Improving the Public Policy Discourse in

Public Forum and Dialogue, the USAID funded project, was implemented jointly by the Policy and Management Consulting Group (PMCG) and the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (www.GIPA.ge).

The 18-month project started in February 1, 2010, and is targeted toward creating a platform that would stimulate constructive and systematic debates and establishing a cooperative practice among different political and social groups of the Georgian society. Within the project framework, 10 policy discourses covering eight (8) core and two (2) ad hoc policy topics are expected to be organized.

The project also considers setting up the Steering Committee that will serve as a decision making board. It will be responsible for defining policy topics and selecting the best policy briefs for further elaboration. At the current project development phase, there are seven (7) identified Steering Committee members: Ted Jonas (DLA Piper), Keti Khutishvili (OSGF), Mikheil Machavariani (Parliament of Georgia), Ia Antadze (Radio Freedom), Zurab Abashidze (Independent Expert), Mikheil Chachkhunashvili (GIPA), Zaza Broladze (PMCG).

The next project phase schedules the identification of eight (8) policy topics by the Steering Committee by the end of February 2010. In March 2010, the first round of policy brief competition is forecast and the best experts were selected to develop the policy papers on the topics defined earlier. The policy discourses will now be organized after each policy paper is revised and approved by an outside expert.