Original Partnership

On November 15, 1998, the Republic of Georgia elected more than 20,000 officials for district and local governments. These local elections were the first since 1991, and they brought into office a large number of people who lacked experience legislating and leading a democratic government. In 1999, ICDG received a U.S. State Department grant to assist the Georgia International Training Center (GITC) in Tbilisi in developing in-service training courses on local government law, policy development, and administration. In addition, a corps of skilled trainers was developed to ensure that the program would continue after ICDG's work had been completed.

In 2000, the partnership became a consortium with the addition of two new organizations: the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA) and the Council Association of Georgia. These two entities greatly expand the reach and effectiveness of the consortium by providing knowledge, experience, and reputation. GIPA eventually became the Georgian project leader as well as a national leader in public administration education and training.

Such training courses and skilled trainers are essential to the development of democratic, open, and corruption-free local governments in the Republic of Georgia.

Current Partnership

In 2003, the U.S. State Department awarded ICDG a follow-up grant to continue its capacity-building work with GIPA. For a period of three years, ICDG has managed a faculty and administrator exchange program to improve governmental training and public administration education programs at GIPA. This program has involved joint development of syllabi, coteaching of GIPA courses, and capacity building for higher education administrators. At the end of these three years, the targeted GIPA programs are to be self-sustaining.

ICDG is also supporting agricultural leadership development in the Republic of Georgia through a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant.

Future Partnerships

ICDG and GIPA have begun discussions concerning University of Georgia support of a new Ph.D. program in public administration. Other ideas include joint certificate programs for government officials and the development of a GIPA endowment fund.

[Photos from the Republic of Georgia program]