Big deal: support to develop digital Georgia

Since September 2015 are our attention turned to Georgia to to support the development of democracy and economic growth in Georgia through governmental use of ICT tools. We provide  expert advice and assistance in the framework of the twinning-project on support to strengthening e-governance in Georgia funded by EU.

For eGA it is the third twinning project but the first one where we are having the leading role. It is a success story – as after joining EU it is the first time when Estonia is acting as a lead partner in the twinning project implementation. The aim of our activities is to strengthen the institutional and human resource capacities of the Data Exchange Agency (DEA) with necessary skills and knowledge in e-government. Established in 2010, DEA supports development of electronic governance and electronic data exchange acting as a Georgian Governmental Gateway through strategic, legal, policy, technical and operational activities in the field.

In the scope of the project, approximately 130 expert missions and 5 study visits will be implemented. The wide range of topics will be covered: up e-elections to developing strategy of digital Georgia and advising in the field of cyber security and legislation issues.

Since May 2016 42 expert missions are implemented, 8 workshops for Georgian high-level officials and managers of relevant ministries and agencies are organised, 4 meetings with high level Georgian government officials (including Prime Minister and Minister of Justice) have taken place, 2 study visits to Estonia and Italy are conducted. In addition to the short term expert missions, our resident twinning adviser Mr. Ivar Tallo stays in Georgia and provides necessary policy advice and support to the beneficiary throughout the project.

Following results will be achieved by the end of the project:

• Georgia’s  e-Government    and    information     society    legal    and regulatory framework verified and updated to meet EU standards
• Organisational  and institutional framework of DEA revised in light of expanded  tasks outlined  in e-Georgia  strategy.
• Training capacities  of DEA reinforced  through  establishment   of knowledge base, introduction   of evaluation  and  quality  assurance  training  methods,  and  development of training
• Capacity of DEA to design, develop and deliver customised consulting and benchmarking services to government partners strengthened.
• DEA’s public outreach and targeted marketing capacities improved.

Twinning project lasts for 18 months and will be implemented in partnership with Estonian Government Office and CSI-Piemonte from Italy.

e-Govenance Academy has engaged into Georgian e-developments since 2004, successfully implemented several projects such as: Deer Leap Programme– International e-Learning with One Computer per Classroom and conduced several ICT Policy Trainings for Georgian decision makers and high government officials etc. According to the Estonian Development Co-operation Strategy Georgia is also one of the priority partner countries for our development aid projects.

Read more about the project on the project web-site.

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