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

The lack of narrative connecting poverty and political exclusion may be partly to blame for thecorrelation between poverty and inaction. It is worth noting that IDPs do not necessarily relate politicaland economic marginalization. This fact points to an overall lack of confidence that political structures asan effective way for IDPs to improve their wellbeing.A comprehensive development plan to address poverty reduction in Georgia in general —but withprovisions to target IDP-specific issues— could be helpful to end the “dependency syndrome” that manyIDPs experience, in addition to increasing their autonomy, removing obstacles related to theirsocioeconomic status, and ultimately increase IDP agency and ability to influence policy. However,taking into account the actual influence of the IDP community nowadays in Georgia, it seems unlikelythat IDPs alone —without strong support and advocacy from the NGO sector and international actors—would have the clout to make their issues part of such a development strategy.95