Ketevan Vashakidze, Europe Fund Director on Corporate Social Responsibility. Video is part of The FINANCIAL Annual forum on CSR.
The FINANCIAL Video.
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EPF operates with the belief that societies function best when people take responsibility for their own social and economic prosperity. EPF’s programs equip CSOs and individual civic activists to define and achieve outcomes of enduring benefit to themselves and their communities. We employ a demand-driven approach, which allows civil society actors to determine the issues that are of importance to their communities and to develop interventions that will be effective in addressing identified needs – a critical factor in a vibrant democracy. At the same time, EPF mobilizes communities and/or interest groups around specific issue areas to create demand for change.
The Foundation’s approach is driven by the conviction that CSOs need to build their own local constituencies if they are to contribute to Georgia’s development in a meaningful way in the long term. To build such enduring constituencies, CSOs should work with citizens, informing them how to identify their communities’ needs and interests and help them in linking these needs to appropriate policy initiatives, engaging communities and the government to make tangible progress. EPF believes that directly engaging citizens in translating their interests into viable public policy will make CSOs more effective advocates and more compelling interlocutors with the government.
EPF also believes that substantive and sustainable changes cannot be effected without issue-based partnerships between diverse groups of stakeholders. It is for this reason that EPF has made it its priority to nurture and promote public-private-NGO partnerships that contribute to consensus building and ensures participatory decision making. Such partnerships are also essential for fostering long-term CSO sustainability to address societal needs.
Through its programs, EPF will continue implement its mission and, in the process, will unite local civil society’s efforts in the pursuit of our common goal: Georgia that is democratic, conflict-free, and with civically engaged citizens, socially responsible businesses, and sustainable, accountable, and effective third sector organizations.
