EU, UNDP Assist Georgian Parliament to Promote Strategic Vision, Transparency & Accountability

Youth engagement, sport integrity and the development of human capital are in the spotlight of the 2018-2020 Strategy and Action Plan presented by the Parliament’s Committee on Sports and Youth Affairs on 25 April to representatives of the Georgian Parliament, Government, Tbilisi municipality, Olympic and Paralympic Committees, youth organizations and donor agencies.

The event opened with an address from Irakli Kobakhidze, Georgian Parliament Speaker, followed by welcome remarks from Janos Herman, Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia.

Mikheil Kavelashvili, Chairperson of the Parliament’s Committee on Sports and Youth Affairs, stressed that in the coming three years, the Committee will pay particular attention to its primary function of law-making.

“Georgia’s legislation on youth and sports will be developing in several key areas, including youth activities, revision of the Law on Sports and development or revision of the regulations related to international legal instruments and political obligations. The implementation of the Association Agreement with the European Union, sports conventions and the other international political decisions, such as the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, will be at the center of our work,” Mikheil Kavelashvili said.

The Strategy and Action Plan of the Parliament’s Committee on Sports and Youth Affairs has been developed with the assistance of the European Union (EU) and United Nations Development Program (UNDP), based on the results of a baseline research conducted in 2017.

Niels Scott, UNDP Head in Georgia, noted that the recent Global Parliamentary Report, published jointly by the Interparliamentary Union (IPU) and UNDP in October 2017, acknowledges the development of the action plans by the Georgian Parliament’s committees as an innovative approach to increase effectiveness of parliament operation.

Eight out 15 parliamentary committees started publishing their annual reports and three-year strategies and action plans in 2014 when the practice was first initiated with the assistance of the EU and UNDP under their larger initiative for strengthening parliamentary democracy in Georgia. The 2017 Open Parliament Action Plan has mandated all parliamentary committees to develop and publish their annual action plans.