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

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willing to challenge authorities that provide them with essential income and services, thereforesupporting the current government through votes but otherwise exercising minimal efforts to promotetheir own needs and interests. 479Displacement also has enduring effects on IDPs’ ability to join networks that could help them accessemployment and gain greater economic stability. As an IDP from Abkhazia, noted, “In this country, a clanmentality remains and nobody gets hired from the street; it has to be some kind of connection…” 480IDPs’ living situations may also affect their access to networks. While IDPs living in collective centers maybe less integrated with the non-displaced community, they are often more closely connected to oneanother than are IDPs living in private accommodation simply because of proximity. Those living incollective centers may therefore be able to form new networks among themselves that may help themaccess resources. For example, IDPs in one center “might have a family connection with a community inanother collective center not far away. 481 These networks often remain insular, however, limiting IDPs’access to opportunities to participate in society among the broader population.At the same time, these stronger ties among IDPs in collective centers enable community engagement.A senior fellow from the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, states, “theytogether could really mobilize better themselves. For example, they could stop the traffic on the street iftheir electricity was not supplied or if their pensions were not raised.” He expresses concern at thegovernment’s effort to resettle IDPs in that it may adversely affect their opportunities to organizecollectively: “Now they are dispersed physically, this also weakens their potential to influence decisionmaking.”482 The resettlement policies may in fact work against any effort that IDPs had developed tomobilize their communities, serving as an additional factor influencing participation.On the other hand, IDPs living in private accommodations are more linked with the general populationand have the possibility to build networks that go beyond the displaced communities. Medea Turashvili,from the International Crisis Group observed that “once [IDPs] are settled in private accommodations,they are more active, more outspoken. I don't know why, maybe because integration is higher, they arenot stuck in this one building. 483Interviews with a number of displaced persons of a higher socioeconomic status supported this point ofview. Many of them had overcome significant barriers, living in collective centers and states of povertyfollowing their displacement. They have since taken advantage of economic and employmentopportunities to integrate into mainstream society, and some of them have also purchased their ownhomes. IDP identity plays a different role for these IDPs – some of them actively identify with this statusand have taken on this cause politically, while others find that it has become less relevant in their lives479 Nana Sumbadze, Personal Interview.480 IDP woman. Personal interview. 15 March 2012.481 Tina Gewis, Personal interview.482 Senior Fellow, Personal Interview.483 Turashvili, Medea (International Crisis Group). Personal interview. 13 March 2012.93
and prefer to identify in other ways. These latter cases suggest that poverty is not the onlysocioeconomic variable influencing IDPs’ participation, at least around issues concerning their specificneeds and interests. Some more well-off IDPs also actively choose not to engage in advocacy to promotethese efforts, perhaps because they prefer not to highlight their experiences as IDPs. Also, there is a lackof philanthropy efforts from those IDPs who have been able to attain a higher socio-economic status.While these people generally try to help their relatives and close friends, we have not come across anyexamples of high socio-economic status IDPs who have established foundations or projects to help thelarger IDP community.At the same time, poverty also does not preclude IDPs’ involvement. Despite the economic obstaclesfaced by many IDPs ––in the form of poverty, unemployment or underemployment, disruption of socialand economic networks, poor housing conditions, etc.––, a significant number of them are still veryactive in their communities and in civil society organizations. In particular, those who were active beforedisplacement tend to be more active afterwards. Moreover, in certain cases poverty can fuel action, asIDPs may rally around a certain issue facing their community, such as lack of electricity or heat.However, this action is often focused on solving specific, immediate problems in the local setting ratherthan national-level policy approaches to address IDPs’ interests.Overall, poverty and unemployment among IDPs ––due to their more vulnerable situation–– isaggravated by the lack of a national development plan in the country that mainstreams the needs of thedisplaced communities. An INGO representative argues that the government, internationalorganizations, and NGOs all struggle with proposing “a coherent model not of integration, but I think ofmainstreaming IDP concerns within the overall development efforts.” 484 Factors specific to IDPs thatcontribute to their protracted poverty must be taken into account in programs aimed at IDP livelihoodsas well as initiatives seeking to raise the living standards of Georgians as a whole. In this way, theGeorgian government can address some of the underlying issues limiting many IDPs’ in their efforts toengage both individually and collectively as active members of society.Opportunities to Encourage Political ParticipationThere is a cyclical nature to the relationship between poverty and political participation. Socioeconomicdisadvantages hinder participation, but at the same time the lack of participation among IDPs is one ofthe factors that makes IDP issues absent from the public discourse, thus allowing the perpetuation oftheir underprivileged status. The fact that IDP voices are not heard in the public arena allows for theirneeds to be forgotten in the policymaking process and is one of the main factors that explain why thesocioeconomic situation of IDPs has not significantly improved in the last two decades.484 INGO Representative, Personal interview.94
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Promoting IDPs’ and Women’s Voi
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CONTENTSAcronyms and Abbreviations
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARYInternally displac
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THE WOMEN’S POLITICAL RESOURCE CE
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fair reporting on politically sensi
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people-to-people diplomacy efforts
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and the Guiding Principles, in Febr
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an effort to address these stereoty
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The identities, perceptions, and re
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even IDPs themselves. The HRBA seek
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Karaleti settlement, and Potskho-Et
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displacement differently, with men
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on an equal footing with men in for
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The Ministry for Internally Displac
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Defender’s Office) and leave no r
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prominent national level IDP NGO wo
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in the past but none have yet to be
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Grassroots Peacebuilding EffortsCiv
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esettlement and local integration h
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ability to contribute to the new Ac
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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 74 and 75: organization, and highlighted that
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 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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Promoting IDPs' and Women's Voices in Post-Conflict Georgia

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