Lasha Gogidze

Lasha Gogidze is an independent expert, consultant, and manager with 15 years of demonstrated experience in the non-profit sector working with state institutions, civil society organizations, international donors, consulting companies, media, and direct beneficiaries. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Open Governance Academy specializing in democracy and good governance issues with a particular focus on open governance and open data, local self-governance, public participation, freedom of information, civil society development, and anti-corruption policies. Lasha has specific expertise on Georgia, South Caucasus, and the wider Eastern Partnership region.

Specifically, since March 2020, Lasha has worked as a Senior Civil Society Development Expert for the EU project “Support to the Public Administration Reform in Georgia”. In 2014-2020, he worked at the National Democratic Institute (NDI) Georgia Office as the Lead of the Local Government Program. In 2013-2019, he was a National Researcher for Georgia for the Open Government Partnership (OGP), Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM), and in 2010-2014 he was a Senior Analyst at Transparency
International Georgia.

Lasha is a Doctor of Public Administration from the Georgian Technical University. He holds two international Master’s degrees in International Relations and EU Diplomacy Studies from the Central European University and the College of Europe, respectively, and a Bachelor’s degree in International Law from the Tbilisi State University.

Lasha has published numerous academic and policy papers on topics of his specialty.