From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

Georgia From Solidarity to Solutions: The Government Response to Internal Displacement in Georgia
Moreover, renewed confidence in the MRA has encouraged
other actors, namely the European Union (EU),
Danish Refugee Council (DRC), and the World Bank,
to invest in and assist the MRA to address the wider
range of capacity gaps that still exist. For example, at the
recommendation of USAID-FORECAST and with the
support of the EU through DRC, a reception center and
case management system for receiving and addressing
the individual concerns of IDPs was established at MRA
in April 2010, helping to rectify a major gap in the national
response. 117 Complementing the reception center
is a telephone “hotline” at the ministry. First established
with the support of UNHCR in 2008, it was significantly
enhanced through the capacity-strengthening efforts of
UNHCR, USAID-FORECAST and DRC in 2009–10.
Operating from 09:00 to 23:00 hours daily, the hotline
receives up to 1,000 calls a day. MRA reports that IDPs’
inquiries usually concern living spaces, communal
problems in collective centers, and compensation and
cash assistance as well as IDP status applications and
registration at a new address. In addition, IDPs call the
hotline to seek information about the programs of other
offices and organizations, including those of the government
social welfare agency and of UN agencies and
NGOs. 118 Following up on the USAID-FORECAST assessment
and recommendations, a restructuring of the
117 Earlier it had been reported that to have certain individual
IDP cases resolved effectively was difficult or impossible,
as the distribution of responsibilities among the various
levels and branches of government addressing internal
displacement were unclear and cooperation between them
inefficient. UN Commission on Human Rights, Report of
the Representative of the Secretary-General on the Human
Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, Walter Kälin—
Addendum: Mission to Georgia (21 to 24 December 2005),
2006, para. 44. This changed with the establishment
of the MRA reception center in 2010. In the first six
months of operation, it responded with more than 5,000
consultations on issues such as IDP housing programs
and IDP registration. For a summary of the impact of
the reception center on the responsiveness of MRA to
IDPs’ queries and other benefits for the MRA’s overall
productivity, see the “Reception Center” tab on MRA’s
Web site (http://mra.gov.ge/main/ENG#section/65).
118 See “Hotline” tab on the ministry’s website (http://mra.
gov.ge/main/ENG#section/5).
205
entire ministry currently is under way with the support
of the DRC and the EU.
There is recognition that local authorities as well as
state institutitions have a key role to play in the national
response to displacement. The State Strategy on IDPs
asserts that its implementation will rely on the engagement
of relevant government ministries and agencies
at both the state and local levels. 119 Specific roles and
responsibilities are elaborated in the action plan for
implementation of the strategy and in particular in
the government’s 2010 IDP Housing Strategy, 120 which
is based on the action plan. Under the IDP Housing
Strategy, the Ministry of Regional Development and
Infrastructure (MoRDI) and relevant municipalities are
responsible for selecting, together with MRA, the buildings
to use and the beneficiaries for the different forms
of housing assistance. Moreover, MoRDI is responsible
for coordinating implementation of regional development
plans with implementation of the State Strategy
on IDPs. The Municipal Development Fund (MDF),
a state-level fund and agency to support strengthening
of the institutional and financial capacity of local
government units, plays an especially important role. It
has been assigned responsibility under the action plan
and Durable Housing Strategy for assessing the buildings
selected for housing, contracting the construction
companies, and monitoring the quality of work, including
ensuring that the rehabilitation and construction
standards adopted by the steering committee are applied.
Recall (from Benchmark 6) that the Municipal
Development Fund is a full member of the steering
committee on IDPs, while MoRDI is a standing invitee.
A lingering problem, however, is that when it comes to
the national response to IDP issues, the MRA largely
is “left to implement plans without much engagement
from other ministries.” 121
119 State Strategy on IDPs, Preamble.
120 Government of Georgia, Ministry of Refugees and
Accommodation, IDP Housing Strategy and Working Plan
(2010), pp. 16–17.
121 IDMC, Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends
and Developments in 2010, 2011, p. 64 (www.internaldisplacement.org).