The FINANCIAL– Last week the Eurasia Foundation Network presented New Eurasia Foundation, comprising the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia, Eurasia Partnership Foundation, East Europe Foundation (Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova) and the Eurasia Foundation (United States).
Since 1993, Eurasia Foundation and the network have invested more than USD 360 million in local and cross-border projects to promote civic and economic inclusion throughout the Eurasia region.
“We presented the Eurasia Foundation Network, heir of Eurasia Foundation. EF has been working in Georgia for more than 14 years and assisted the development of civic society and the current economical situation in Georgia. Also we presented new programs and priorities for 2008,” Ketevan Vashakidze, country director of EF told The FINANCIAL.
“Eurasia Partnership Foundation is both a grant maker and a program implementer and is guided by several programs. One of our priorities is still the Open Door Grant Mechanism, which means to support innovative and sometimes risky pilot projects and to test new ideas on a small scale. When projects supported through the Open Door Grant program demonstrate success, the foundation can help to replicate them at a larger scale or in different geographies,” she added.
According to Vashakidze, one of the main programs is civic monitoring to foster increased, better informed citizen participation in political and economic decision making and this program aims to promote and enhance the impact of participatory civic monitoring.
“The foundation is assisting the economic development of Georgia through the promotion of education in tourism and provision of informational support for the industry. The goal of the program Corporate Social Investment is to promote the private sector’s interest and involvement in addressing the country’s development needs by building the capacity of private companies to design and implement social investment projects,” Ani Jobava, EF Program Manager told The FINANCIAL.
“EPF defines social investments as a type of investment linked to companies’ core businesses, which addresses root problems of development rather than providing short-term humanitarian support. As a result, companies operating in Georgia will be aware of social investment as a concept and its application. They will also develop systems for social investment,” she added.
According to Vashakidze, since 1995, Eurasia foundation (EF) and Eurasia Partnership Foundation (EPF) have received core funding support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In 2008, the Swedish international Development Agency (SIDA) became a founding partner in the launch of the new foundation with a commitment of USD 3 million over the next three years for EPF’s programs in Georgia.
“We have no minimal and maximal budget for grants, it depends on the idea or project they want to realize, but our grant managers will check very severely whether prices presented in projects are real. The grant budget for 2008 makes approximately 2 million, though we are always having negotiations with donors and trying to bring in more and more,” Vashakidze told The FINANCIAL.
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