2017-12-22
ICHANGE.GOV.GE - a new petition portal that has been launched today will enable all adult Georgian citizens and/or group of citizens to submit a petition to the Government of Georgia on various important issues.
Ichange is a project of the Government of Georgia that ensures improvement of the level of accountability of the Government of Georgia to the public and citizen engagement in the decision making process under the auspices of the Open Government Partnership (the OGP).
Head of the Administration of the Government of Georgia Maia Tskitishvili addressed the guests attending the presentation of the portal. In her speech she put particular emphasis on the importance of the portal as a tool of ensuring citizen engagement in the decision making process.
"Ichange.gov.ge represents a petition portal that we have been working on for a long time together with our partners, civil society and all state institutions that will have to deal with the said petitions. You may already know that Giorgi Kvirikashvili announced the launching of the portal yesterday; this is one of the initiatives developed by us under the umbrella of the Open Government Partnership (the OGP) and probably one of the best and easiest tools provided to citizens to reach out to the Government and present their own initiatives through the website; furthermore, as you know, after gaining 10 000 votes throughout a month, the Government of Georgia will have to discuss it and adopt a relevant response by approving the initiative or providing substantiated rejection. This is a great tool for ensuring inclusive governance and serves as an evidence of the openness actively pursued by the Government of Georgia throughout the last several years. The position of the chair of OGP obtained by us this year is yet another demonstration of the direction adopted by us and the wide recognition among the international partners in that regard," - the head of the Administration of the Government noted in her speech.
Representatives of the executive branch of the government of Georgia, civil society, academic circles and international organizations attended the meeting.
The Government of Georgia organized the presentation with the financial support of the USAID>