Between 18-19th of November, SWAN provided technical assistance to Woman for Freedom in Georgia, for their 2-day advocacy planning meeting with their members. The meeting was organised within the Cities Project and held in the office of Woman for Freedom, in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Between 18-19th of November, SWAN provided technical assistance to Woman for Freedom in Georgia, for their 2-day advocacy planning meeting with their members. The meeting was organised within the Cities Project and held in the office of Woman for Freedom, in Tbilisi, Georgia.
During the first day of the meeting the discussions were focused on the theory of the basics of advocacy and advocacy strategies, reviewing available data from Human Rights Documentation Project (HRDP), outreach observations, and current country situation. This was followed by defining the main issues for sex workers in Georgia, short term and long-term advocacy goals, target audiences, messaging and advocacy strategies and activities on the second day of the meeting.
The agenda of the event is available below:
Day 1 / 18.11.2018
– Welcoming the participants and introductions.
– Discussing the agenda.
– Presenting the updates between two meetings, the status of Organisational Strategy and Planning and new achievements/trends.
– Sharing the advocacy related activities already planned for 2019.
– Getting familiar with the HRDP and data collected during the project.
– Understanding what advocacy is and what the planning process includes.
Day 2 / 19.11.2018
– Discussing and listing the advocacy goals in Georgia in short term and long term as well as identifying the target audiences.
– Discussing the messages and recommendations we want to use in advocacy.
– Potential advocacy activities and key dates.
– Identifying our partners and supporters in implementation of those events.
– Brainstorming on how the plan will be implemented: Sustainability of the plan/ fundraising strategies
Sex workers in Georgia face similar problems as the rest of the regional community. Police violence and lack of protection, stigma and discrimination, weak state response to health needs of sex workers can be listed as some of the main issues faced by sex workers as well as lack of funding of sex worker led interventions which promote and protect health and rights of sex workers in the country.
Woman for Freedom, as a community voice and force, with their strategic planning and advocacy try to tackle and provide community perspective in actions which will lead to improvements and positive change.