Outreach

Following the presentation of the Program on 22 October 2004 (see material in the News and Events section) and announcing it in local papers and on the Country office web site, the Tbilisi team launched an extensive outreach to civil society organizations throughout Georgia. The Bank's partner organization in this endeavor, The Horizonti Foundation, organized meetings in the regional centers with representatives of NGOs, private business, academia and others, where DM team members told about the objectives of the competition, its process, criteria of selection, and answered numerous questions of those present. A short film produced by the HQ based DM team was shown in all locations, and served as a good illustration of the competition stages and types of projects that could be considered by the Bank.

Number of proposals received

As of 6 December, the deadline for submitting grant proposals for the Georgia DM 2005 competition, the Country Office received 219 applications from all over Georgia. An evaluation committee comprised of representatives of international organizations, local funds and foundations, Youth Voices group and World Bank staff will be reviewing the proposals for the following month, to determine the finalists for the competition by 14 January 2005, as initially planned by the DM Tbilisi team.

Outcomes of fund-raising efforts

As a result of the discussions with potential donors by the Country Manager Roy Southworth and other team members, the Bank had good success in soliciting support from the following organizations that have expressed their interest in contributing to the grant fund: UNDP, DFID, Open Society Georgia Foundation (i.e. Soros Foundation), British Petroleum, Bank Republic  (local commercial bank).