Needs Assessment of the Parliament of Georgia

Needs Assessment of the Parliament of Georgia is an EU funded project which aimed at developing a needs-based and realistic strategic reform plan for the Parliament of Georgia. PMCG experts carried out an assessment of the parliament as an institution with specific functions to perform. The assessment was conducted within the framework of the four main functions of parliament:

• Legislative
• Oversight and accountability
• Budget scrutiny
• Representative

That included a review of the resources available to the parliament and an assessment of the degree to which the institution is capable of carrying out the tasks traditionally assigned to parliament in a democratic state.

The study was divided in three parts:

• During the first phase of the assessment, the project sought to understand the parliament’s position under the constitution, its structure and procedures, the balance of power and responsibilities between the political factions in the parliament, the resources (human and material) at the parliament’s disposal, as well as identifying key internal and external stakeholders;
• In the second phase the project team designed questionnaires covering the key areas of parliamentary functions. The questionnaires sought to provide an understanding of how the parliament operates in practice, as opposed to how it is supposed to operate in theory. The main methodology in this part of the assessment consists of one-to-one interviews with key internal and external stakeholders, focus group discussions and wider consultations.

Finally, PMCG experts provided a contextual analysis and detail the results of the baseline study conducted during the first assessment phase. In addition, the parliament’s strengths and weaknesses and their underlying causes were identified and PMCG also provided an overview of the parliament’s key strategic development priorities and an indication of how these priorities can be most effectively addressed.

  Needs Assesment of Parliament