Executive Director

Giorgi Kldiashvili is a founding member and Executive Director of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI). He has more than 10 years experience of working on openness and anti-corruption policies in Georgia and internationally. Giorgi has been carrying out projects, studies, assessments and providing trainings for different international and civil society organizations and government entities. Giorgi Kldiashvili is an author of a number of publications related to access to information, anticorruption policy and good governance, accountability and transparency, e-Governance and e-Democracy, open data, civil service and public administration, media and internet. In addition to his work in applied policy research with IDFI, as a historian by specialty, he has academic credentials as a researcher, undertaking studies in American and Soviet Studies. He is professional archive researcher, and has been working in the historical archives of Georgia and abroad for more than a 20 year. Giorgi holds graduate degrees in Contemporary History and worked as a professor of American Studies at the Institute of American Studies at Tbilisi State University. Giorgi Kldiashvili was a CSO Steering Committee Member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in 2017-2020.

Programs Director

Levan Avalishvili is the Programs Director and Co-founder of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI). He has 13+ years of proven experience in organization leadership, program management, donor relations and advocacy with government structures. Levan has extensive experience of working in public administration in Georgia. He has conducted a large number of training sessions in Freedom of Information and Access to Public Information, E-Government, Good Governance, Open Data, Formulation of E-Government Strategies, etc. Levan has outstanding experience in training and building the capacity of Public Servants, Human Resource Managers working with national and/or public authorities, EU bodies (EC, EPO) and USAID funded institutions. Levan has academic credentials as a researcher of Soviet Studies and is the author of several research papers on soviet history. He is a member of the Georgian Association of American Studies and the Georgian Association of History Educators; Board Member of theInstitute for American Studies (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University), and Center for Strategic Researches and Development of Georgia. Levan is the author of numerous publications and lectures on Public Administration, Good Governance and Freedom of Information.

Memory and Disinformation Studies Direction Head

Anton Vatcharadze heads the Memory and Disinformation Studies Direction at IDFI, which he joined in 2017. Also he coordinates the project titled Enhancing Openness of State Archives in Former Soviet Republics and Eastern Bloc Countries. Anton is a historian by training and has earned his Bachelor and Master's Degrees from Tbilisi State University. Since 2009, Anton has worked at the National Archive of Georgia. In 2012-2017, he was the director of the Central Historical Archive. During this period, Anton took part in projects implemented by the National Archive and various non-governmental organizations: including many projects concerning the study of the history and sources of Georgia’s first democratic republic, as well as popularization of this period in schools and among students. Three of these projects involved the study of archival documents related to Abkhazia and Samachablo and ensuring their public accessibility. Anton Vatcharadze is the author of several articles on a history and memory. He has edited number of scientific-popular books.

Researcher

Eka Kalandadze joined IDFI's memory and disinformation research team in 2021 and the first project in which she was engaged was "Interreligious understanding through graphic arts". Eka obtained a Bachelor's degree in History from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. She is currently studying at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University's MA program in Cultural and Social Anthropology. She has working experience in the Archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Archives of Georgia. Also, the experience of Interacting with the representatives of the archives located in different countries across Europe, in relation to the topic of the victims of the Second World War. She has completed a training course in the direction of management at the European Academic Center. She was a participant in the project called "School of Young Environmentalist Leaders" implemented by the Green Movement of Georgia. Eka was actively involved in many training and volunteer activities.