USAID and the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched the Strengthening Democratic Resilience in Georgia project to help independent media and civil society counter disinformation and support Georgia’s continued development toward a more responsive democracy.
USAID/Georgia Mission Director Peter Wiebler and Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Georgia Petr Mikyska jointly launched Strengthening Democratic Resilience in Georgia, a new project funded in partnership between USAID and the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) under the U.S. State Department's Emerging Donor Challenge Program.
Together, USAID and the Czech MFA will partner with a consortium of Czech organizations led by People in Need (PIN) and including the European Values Center for Security Policy (EVC) and Transitions Online (TOL) to strengthen the ability of Georgia’s independent media to expose and counter disinformation and malign influence. The project is being implemented to strengthen resilience to malign influence in the context of Georgia’s 2020 parliamentary elections and 2021 local elections.
The Strengthening Democratic Resilience in Georgia project exemplifies USAID’s sharpened focus on building “resilience” – helping Georgia build the institutions, infrastructure, and practices necessary to protect its society from malign influence, including disinformation, cyberattacks against key infrastructure, Russia’s continued occupation of Georgian territory, and the consequences of Georgia’s continued economic dependence on the Russian market. USAID’s new Country Development Cooperation Strategy for 2020-2025 prioritizes building Georgia’s resilience against malign influence as a pathway to self-reliance.
The new program is designed and implemented within USAID’s Countering Malign Kremlin Influence (CMKI) framework launched in 2019 to address Russia’s ongoing efforts to undermine territorial integrity, democratic development, and Euro-Atlantic integration in frontline states across Europe and Eurasia. The program directly advances a core objective of the CMKI framework in Georgia – mitigating the Kremlin’s manipulation of the information space.
