Citizens Demand More Information and Activism from CSOs

Public opinion survey results

Center for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG) surveyed 1200 respondents in the nine provinces of Georgia to identify their attitudes towards the non-governmental organizations. The results show that citizens need more information about the CSOs and call for higher CSO activism.

The respondents were selected randomly, and their responses analyzed according to their location, gender, age, education and income criteria. The attitude of the citizens towards CSOs was studied by following indicators: information about the CSOs, confidence of the citizens that CSOs play a positive role in the processes taking place in Georgia, the willingness of the respondents to cooperate with CSOs and the degree of involvement of citizens in CSO activity.

The results show that 66% of the respondents note having little information about CSO activity. Only 9% of the respondents said their knowledge about the third sector was complete. A typical CSO connoisseur is an inhabitant of the big city, with an average income higher than 200 GEL, younger than 45 and with higher education.

The most recognizable CSOs are the Liberty Institute (55,6% of the surveyed aware of their existence and activities), Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (16,8%), and the Red Cross (18,8%). These figures mean that these CSOs are more known, but give no information about evaluation of their activities.

The survey also identified the main sources of information about CSOs. The majority of the respondents – 92,3%- use media to hear about CSO news. Only a negligible proportion of the respondents – 5,2% – use the CSO promotional materials or participation in the CSO activities as the means of shaping their opinion about the civil society organizations.

The respondents say protection of the rights of religious and ethnic minorities as the spheres where CSO activism is the most visible. At the same time the citizens wished the CSOs were more active in fighting corruption, protecting the children’s rights and in addressing the ecological problems.

Both urban and rural residents put anti-corruption in their wish list for CSO activism. Notably, they also said CSOs are most capable of addressing the social problems and employment.

The survey showed that CSOs interact with the society mainly via provision of services. However, only 12,7% of the respondents used the CSO services personally. It is important to stress that most of the direct beneficiaries have positively evaluated the quality of assistance offered by CSOs.

The results of the survey prove the lack of information is the main problem to be addressed by CSOs in the nearest future. “By March, we plan to arrange a meeting of CSOs and discuss the results of the survey,”- Eka Datuashvili of CSRDG told Advocacy.ge. “On this meeting we have to elaborate a strategy to modify public attitude towards the CSOs. By 2005, similar public opinion survey will be conducted once again to show the trend in development of the public attitude towards the CSOs,” she added.

By Julie Giorgadze, Civil Advocacy Program Information Officer