Democratization societies for aggregating and representing citizens’ interests and priorities in a common policy platform. In 2006, ODIHR completed piloting a methodology for developing a capacity for critical self-assessment within political parties in order to strategize their development more effectively. It engaged all of Georgia’s six main political parties; a leading Tbilisi think tank, the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Development and Democracy (CIPDD); and the Netherlands Institute for Multi-party Democracy (NIMD) in a joint interactive assessment project. As follow-up throughout 2007, ODIHR implemented a multifaceted programme of activities requested by the parties themselves, including a series of tailor-made workshops on strengthening local party leadership, strategic planning, party funding, and training for a cross-party cadre of trainers. These events also provided an opportunity to share international experiences, with European experts playing an important role in the discussions. The programme included the first steps towards developing a Georgian version of the interactive web-based tool VoteMatch.1 Intended to assist voters in making betterinformed choices at election time, the proposed development of VoteMatch provided another impetus for the parties to develop clearer and more consistent platforms. Other activities were aimed at stimulating inter-party dialogue at the highest level. With a number of party leaders participating in the 2007 Human Dimension Seminar in Warsaw in May, for example, ODIHR used the opportunity to organize an event on constitutional reform in Georgia. Leading international experts contributed to the discussions. Several party leaders also took part in a networking exercise at the Partnership Days of the NIMD in October. As a result of these exercises, the parties identified 1 VoteMatch was created by the Amsterdam-based Institute for Politics and Public Participation more than a decade ago and has since been successfully introduced in Germany, Switzerland, and Bulgaria. priorities for common action. One direct outcome of these exercises was the parties’ shared will in developing the Georgian version of VoteMatch. Through a consistent multi-party approach, opposing parties have become aware of their common cause in building an effective political party framework together, which could form a valuable foundation in times of political upheavals. Throughout 2007, ODIHR carried out assessment visits to several other participating States to evaluate whether the conditions exist for expanding its political party programme. Providing parliamentary assistance In a move to support domestic efforts to reform and strengthen parliamentary practices in Georgia, ODIHR entered into a partnership with the Georgian Parliament, as well as with the OSCE Mission to Georgia, to create the Centre for Parliamentary Reform. Based within the parliament and staffed by Georgian experts, the Centre’s main task is to formulate parliamentary reform strategies and to keep the parliamentary leadership abreast of reform initiatives. Sponsored by ODIHR, the Centre is fully run by the Parliament in order to ensure that the reform process is genuinely locally owned. From March through May 2007, under the direction of the OSCE Mission to Georgia and ODIHR, the capacity of the Centre was further strengthened by in-house coaching and training to improve the efficiency of its own management and its communications within Parliament and with other institutions and organizations. ODIHR co-ordinated a 10-day internship for the Centre’s staff in Kosovo jointly with the OSCE Mission in Kosovo’s Assembly Support Initiative. The experience greatly enhanced the staff ’s expertise in donor co-ordination and underscored the valuable experiences the OSCE can share between its field operations. With the backing of ODIHR and the OSCE Mission to Georgia, the Centre also carried Annual Report 2007 A booklet about effective participation and representation in democratic societies. 27