From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

CHAPTER 2 Case Studies: Georgia, Kenya, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka
funds from donors rather than being integrated, at least
in some part, in the annual regular budget of the Public
Defender’s Office.
9. Facilitate IDPs’ Participation
in Decisionmaking
(a) Do the national authorities encourage
and facilitate the ongoing participation of
IDPs in the planning and implementation
of policies and programs for addressing
internal displacement?
Generally, as UNHCR has observed, “Georgia has a vibrant
and active NGO community devoted to work for
IDPs” and “key IDP NGOs have easy access to political
leaders.” 136 Even so, as the government pointed out in
the State Strategy, historically “[i]n planning and implementing
solutions for IDP problems, IDPs’ interests and
needs often have been not adequately taken into consideration;
dialogue has not been conducted with them.” 137
The process for preparing the State Strategy worked
to rectify this gap. Representatives of IDP associations
were integrated and actively involved in the strategy
development process for each of the four sectoral working
groups (legal issues; housing; economic activities;
and social protection), and two of the eight member
seats of the committee were designated for civil society
groups (two other seats were designated for international
representatives, and the remaining four were
designated for relevant government ministries). The
civil society representatives in the working groups were
drawn mostly from IDP associations, including the IDP
Women’s Association, and NGOs providing legal aid to
IDPs; other representatives from civil society were organizations
with an established reputation for advocacy
on IDP rights, such as the Georgian Young Lawyers
Association.
136 UNHCR, Submission to the UPR: Georgia, para. 12.
137 State Strategy on IDPs, Chapter I.
208
The State Strategy that resulted from this process states,
as the second of ten guiding principles, that its implementation
will be based on “dialogue with IDPs and
their participation in decisionmaking: IDPs participate
in the planning and implementing of activities envisaged
in the strategy.” 138 According to the strategy, a comprehensive
information campaign should be implemented
through which IDPs regularly receive updated information
on all aspects and components of the action plan. 139
Further, according to the state strategy, “[i]n monitoring
implementation of the strategy, much importance
is given to the participation of IDPs themselves and
of civil society, as well as to the transparency of the
process.” 140 In this connection, two representatives of
nongovernmental organizations (one from local civil
society, one a representative of international NGOs)
count among the members of the steering committee
for implementation of the State Strategy and its revised
action plan, which was established in 2009 (see
Benchmark 7). To date, Transparency International, a
local NGO, has participated in the Steering Committee
(see Benchmark 6). Some, albeit few, civil society and
IDP associations also have participated in certain of the
technical expert groups established by the steering committee—for
instance, the TEG on livelihoods—or with
the Georgian Young Lawyers Association in the TEG on
drafting standard operating procedures regulating eviction
and relocation of IDPs. Even so, it is noteworthy
that the perception among associations of IDPs is that
only international NGOs, not local NGOs, participate
in the TEGs. 141
Regarding IDPs’ representation in the management
of their daily living conditions, UNHCR reports that
there are “well-functioning IDP committees in collective
centers.” 142 However, UNHCR has also pointed out
that “community mobilization among IDPs living in
138 Ibid., Chapter VI, para. 1.2.
139 Ibid., Chapter VI, para. 1.5.
140 Ibid., Chapter VII, para. 3.
141 E-mail correspondence with IDP association representative,
April 2011.
142 UNHCR, Submission to UPR: Georgia, July 2010, para. 12.