On 20 September 2018, at the meeting of the members of Tetritskaro Local Action Group (LAG) that was held at City Hall of Tetritskaro municipality, in the framework of EU ENPARD project “Rural Development for Sustainable Growth of Tetritskaro Municipality”, Association Rural Development for Future Georgia and the members of Tetritskaro LAG announced the results of the first grant competition.

During the meeting, participants overviewed the entire process of the first grant competition and voted and approved the final results. The event was attended by the representatives from RDFG, the members of Tetritskaro Local Action Group and the representatives of Tetritskaro municipality.

The purpose of the grant competition is to improve the standard of living and socio-economic situation in Tetritskaro municipality based on the priorities of the municipality development strategy developed by Tetritskaro LAG. The local grants are awarded to achieve the strategy objectives.

During the first grant call 264 project ideas have been identified and 127 project proposals have been presented from which 69 projects submitted the full project proposals. In the last phase, 37 applicants presented their projects to the Evaluation Committee and at the meeting 37 projects have been supported by the LAG members.

„Many residents of Tetritskaro municipality became interested in the first grant competition announced by RDFG in Tetritskaro. This was an opportunity for people living in the municipality to realise their ideas. The members of the committee have been actively involved in the projects’ assessment process for 5 months. Today we finalised the first phase of the grant call through the approval of 37 winner projects and I think, this event is the beginning of the new phase of Tetritskaro development.” – stated the executive director of Tetritskaro LAG, Nino Tikurishvili

In addition, during the meeting the participants have defined the period and structure of the second grant call.

The project “Rural Development for Sustainable Growth of Tetritskaro Municipality” is implemented by Association Rural Development for Future Georgia (RDFG) in the framework of the second phase of European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD).

ENPARD II uses a LEADER approach to economic development. Fundamentally, it is the energy and resources of the local people that contribute to the rural development process by forming partnerships at a sub-regional level between the public, private and civil sectors. The LEADER approach is associated with local empowerment through local strategy development and resource allocation. The main tool for the application of the LEADER approach to area development and involving local representatives in decision-making is the Local Action Group (LAG).

The project partners are Agro-Technology Association (ATA), Lithuanian Local Action Groups Network and the Ministry of Agriculture of Lithuania.