Between 31 July-3 August 2017, several meetings took place in the municipalities of Batumi, Khulo, Shuakhevi and Keda, in the Adjara Autonomous Republic, to  assess possibilities for inter-municipal co-operation for solid waste management. The meetings concentrated on  the different technical options in solid waste management, showing their advantages and disadvantages and aimed to support these mountainous municipalities in their decision making process concerning solid waste management.

The Government of Adjara, the local authorities from three municipalities Khulo, Shuakhevi and Keda, the public company responsible for waste collection services in Batumi and the newly created Municipal Services Development Centre participated in these meetings. Assessment included analysis of the institutional/organisational as well as the technical options proposed by the pre-feasibility study, developed in the first half of the year and field visits in the three municipalities conducted by Alexandra Selz, a Council of Europe expert.

As a result, participants agreed to hold a reporting workshop with final conclusions and recommendations in Adjara in September this year.

The mission concluded with a wrap-up meeting on the inter-municipal cooperation prospects in sold waste management between Khulo, Shuakhevi and Keda municipalities of Adjara and discussions on the on-going Local Finance Benchmarking piloting (II phase), held at the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia in Tbililis, 4 August 2017.

This activity was organised by the Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform within the Good Governance Division, DG II of the Council of Europe. It was funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, within the Thematic Programme “Strengthening institutional frameworks for local governance” under the Partnership for Good Governance (PGG) 2015-2017 for Eastern Partnership countries.