Promoting IDPs' and Women's Voices in Post-Conflict Georgia

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organization, and highlighted that Synergy Network members have the right to demand to be heard. 381Despite this encouragement, she “never heard from them again.” Overall, international donors wantlocal NGOs to demonstrate a serious commitment by coming to multilateral meetings with concreteproposals for improvement, instead of taking an antagonistic approach to government officials.International DonorsDue to the low level of civil society involvement on the part of Georgians in general, advancements inthe area of political participation of IDPs and women have largely come about because of pressure frominternational organizations, and not from a grassroots movement. At same time, some donor practicesmay also act as barriers to inclusive participation.As detailed in previous sections, the international community’s influence and support has assisted theGeorgian government in addressing human rights concerns related to inclusive governance, such as IDPvoting rights and women’s underrepresentation in government. In addition to NGOs, IDP groups rely onthe international community to advocate to the government for IDPs and women’s concerns, and toinclude IDP organizations in both the national and local policy process. UN agencies are considered to beparticularly influential because “they work well with the government, and UN agenciescan…influence…the government, whereas NGOs can’t.” 382UN Women’s role in pushing the government to develop their National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325 andtheir monitoring of the government’s implementation of the Gender Equality Law serve as keyexamples. At the grassroots level, UN Women provides legal support to IDP women and men throughlegal clinics and finances a number of local NGOs’ women’s empowerment programs.International donors’ lobbying the Georgian government to make the update of the IDP Action Plan amore participatory policymaking process serves as another key example of their support for inclusivegovernance. For instance, during the development of the National Action Plan on IDPs, internationaldonors and NGOs lobbied for IDP groups to be consulted, and some even conducted their ownparticipatory assessments with IDPs to later inform the MRA.383According to Ombudsmanrepresentatives, it is unlikely that the MRA would have approached IDPs on their own, because thelatter would argue that they “consult IDPs every day when they come to the Ministry so they know whatthey (IDPs want), so there is no extra need for another special mechanism for consultations.”Nevertheless, the Georgian government welcomes these donors because of the extensive support thatthey provide, in addition to the connection they offer to international organizations, thereby increasingGeorgia’s presence on the international stage. A range of stakeholders acknowledges that Georgia’s civil381 Caroline Stampfer, Personal Interview and Tina Gewis, Personal Interview.382 Gvalia, Eka. CHCA. Personal Interview. March. 2012.383 Georgian Ombudsman Representative. Personal Interview. March. 2012.73
society would be much weaker without international support. 384 It is also interesting to note that donorshave much more say over where the funds are used than in the past.Some NGO leaders express concern over this increased control over the disbursement of internationalfunds, arguing that it prevents IDPs from being able to choose among the durable solutions or influencepolicy priorities regarding them. Rather, the “choice comes from the money and donorconditionality.” 385 Moreover, they argue that the MRA wants to include IDPs and implement betterprograms, but cannot secure the funding. The money received from donors is earmarked for certainpurposes, precluding it from being used for initiatives not aligned with donor interests.Gender Focus of International ProgramsInternational donors and NGOs also promote the increased participation of women IDPs in politics, andgender equality more generally, through the programs they fund and implement. Their particularsupport for projects on women’s issues influences the high level of IDP women’s involvement in theNGO sector compared to their male counterparts. According to a former government official and NGOrepresentative, in principle this is a positive trend, but the “level of general information andunderstanding of women’s issues is really still low, even at level of the NGOs.” 386 NGOs primarily haveexperience with psychosocial rehabilitation, and women’s issues in displacement settings oraccommodation, and not with women’s rights more generally in the country. In many cases, womenface similar barriers whether they are displaced or not, and understanding the ‘big picture’ can help incoordinating efforts and building a strong movement for IDPs’ and women’s representation.Furthermore, this lack of understanding of women’s issues more generally reflects an important barrierfor increased women’s political participation. That is, despite recent legislative gains in the area ofwomen’s rights, efforts to expand gender equality are often viewed as unnecessary, believed to beimposed by international donors and weaken traditional ways of life. 387In contrast to pushing a gender equality agenda, some donors may fund programs that lack any genderfocus at all, which has negative implications for supporting this broad goal. According to an NGO leader,“there are some problematic assumptions within the international development sphere – developmentfails to realize that there are equal numbers of men and women and children (within internationaldevelopment) - practitioners can be more successful if they realize this point.” 388 This exemplifies ageneral trend in development programming that tends to incorporate the needs of men, assuming theyare the same for women.384 Lincoln Mitchell (Associate Professor, Harriman Institute, Columbia University), Personal Interview, 9 December 2011 andRusudan Kervalishvili, Personal Interview.385 IDP Woman Leader. Personal Interview. March. 2012.386 Tamar Tchelidze, Personal Interview.387 Asatoorian et al. “Gender Mainstreaming in Education in Georgia: Analysis and Recommendations,” Columbia University.2010, 5.388 Kharavashvili, Julia. Personal Interview. January. 2012.74
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Promoting IDPs’ and Women’s Voi
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CONTENTSAcronyms and Abbreviations
Page 6 and 7:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARYInternally displac
Page 8 and 9:
THE WOMEN’S POLITICAL RESOURCE CE
Page 10 and 11:
fair reporting on politically sensi
Page 12 and 13:
people-to-people diplomacy efforts
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and the Guiding Principles, in Febr
Page 16 and 17:
an effort to address these stereoty
Page 18 and 19:
The identities, perceptions, and re
Page 20 and 21:
even IDPs themselves. The HRBA seek
Page 22 and 23:
Karaleti settlement, and Potskho-Et
Page 24 and 25: displacement differently, with men
Page 26 and 27: on an equal footing with men in for
Page 28 and 29: The Ministry for Internally Displac
Page 30 and 31: Defender’s Office) and leave no r
Page 32 and 33: prominent national level IDP NGO wo
Page 34 and 35: in the past but none have yet to be
Page 36 and 37: Grassroots Peacebuilding EffortsCiv
Page 38 and 39: esettlement and local integration h
Page 40 and 41: ability to contribute to the new Ac
Page 42 and 43: Women convened a working group to a
Page 44 and 45: were involved, in addition to “wo
Page 46 and 47: towards addressing this population
Page 48 and 49: waves. 224 A Conciliation Resources
Page 50 and 51: governing shelter requirements. 238
Page 52 and 53: esults of eviction on those who did
Page 54 and 55: FINDINGSSIPA team member Drilon Gas
Page 56 and 57: unique opportunities exist for them
Page 58 and 59: an important opportunity for women
Page 60 and 61: early morning…when I was going to
Page 62 and 63: our office to investigate these iss
Page 64 and 65: on this? It’s impossible.” 322
Page 66 and 67: high levels of unemployment and pov
Page 68 and 69: groups do not differentiate between
Page 70 and 71: funding and influence to implement
Page 72 and 73: een in operation for two years or l
Page 76 and 77: The Education System’s Influence
Page 78 and 79: system has an important role to pla
Page 80 and 81: Political FactorsMany elements of t
Page 82 and 83: international organizations working
Page 84 and 85: uling party. 433 There were some si
Page 86 and 87: especially highly-influential broad
Page 88 and 89: ationale behind the government’s
Page 90 and 91: international working for a major d
Page 92 and 93: Also, according to a World Bank rep
Page 94 and 95: willing to challenge authorities th
Page 96 and 97: The lack of narrative connecting po
Page 98 and 99: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE GEORGIAN GO
Page 100 and 101: the government also needs to commit
Page 102 and 103: ‣ Continue to support and expand
Page 104 and 105: ‣ Address male IDP needs (Immedia
Page 106 and 107: The campaign should have a face, su
Page 108 and 109: APPENDIX BList of IntervieweesLocal
Page 110 and 111: Kristy KellyLincoln MitchellLawrenc
Page 112 and 113: Article 10 - Non-discrimination in
Page 114 and 115: Principle 18.1 - Adequate standard
Page 116 and 117: Esaiashvili, Mariam (Official, Mini
Page 118 and 119: Lanskoy, Miriam and Giorgi Areshidz
Page 120: Transparency International Georgia.
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