Gio Kobakhidze

Gio Kobakhidze is the deputy country director for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) in Ukraine and IFES’ global technical lead on civic education. Kobakhidze has over 15 years of experience in the field of democracy and governance. 

In Ukraine, through pandemic and war, Kobakhidze has designed and overseen programming that has led to unprecedented progress in ensuring free, fair, and inclusive elections, advancing political integrity, strengthening the nation’s digital transformation and cybersecurity resilience, championing the political and electoral rights of all Ukrainians, and fostering informed and engaged citizenship.

Parallel to this, Kobakhidze advises IFES worldwide on designing and implementing civic education programming that introduces young people to fundamental concepts of democratic citizenship, democratic governance, civic participation, and human rights through interactive teaching methodology. Kobakhidze established IFES’ flagship, country-tailored civic education methodology for universities and vocational schools: Strengthening Engagement through Education for Democracy (SEED). Through SEED, over 40,000 students have completed semester-long university and vocational school courses across over 165 universities and colleges in six countries and growing.

An American of Georgian descent, Kobakhidze has managed IFES country offices in Georgia and Ukraine and has provided on-the-ground support to IFES programming and operations across Eastern Europe, Africa, and IFES headquarters in the United States. Kobakhidze holds a dual degree in political science and international studies from Chicago’s Loyola University and has authored op-eds on critical issues impacting the fate of democracy worldwide in outlets such as the Atlantic Council. Kobakhidze is a native-level English speaker and has basic proficiency in Georgian, Ukrainian, and Russian languages.