On October 18, 2023, the Ambrolauri Municipality City Hall held a reporting meeting with the population at the Ambrolauri Culture Center, where Irma Fruidze and Bezhan Kobakhidze, the heads of the administration and finance department, shared with the population the 2024 budget project and priorities, the development of which was led by the population forum arrangement with the participation of more than 100 residents of the municipality.

At the forum, residents evaluated the current year’s budget, discussed the problems in the municipality, prepared ideas, and presented recommendations for the next year’s budget. In total, 45 ideas were proposed as recommendations to the local self-government. The ideas were related to the development of infrastructure, culture and arts, education, agriculture development, tourism development and entrepreneurship, environment protection, defense, social issues, sports, and youth. Out of 40 ideas submitted by the population, all of them were partially or fully considered in the 2024 budget. All those who participated in the population forum were invited to the reporting meeting. Information about the event was also provided to other residents of the municipality, who did not attend the forum, but were interested in getting to know the next year’s budget. The meeting had the format of a presentation followed by a discussion. The population had the opportunity to talk face to face, discuss, and hear from the decision-makers about plans and arguments about their planned priorities and the approved budget.

The forum was held within the framework of the project Fostering Decentralization and Good Governance at the Local Level in Georgia (DGG) implemented by the Education Development and Employment Center (EDEC) with the Financial support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It aims to increase the role of citizen participation, especially of young people and women in the municipalities of Baghdati, Ambrolauri, and Dusheti, in the process of decision and local policy-making, by promoting open dialogue between citizens and decision-makers in local self-government and introducing an effective model of engagement.