From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

Georgia From Solidarity to Solutions: The Government Response to Internal Displacement in Georgia
A large component of the financial resources devoted to
IDPs goes to the monthly stipend for all those recognized,
under national legislation, as “forcibly displaced persons–
persecuted persons.” As noted earlier, the amount of the
monthly stipend is minimal (see Benchmark 1 The same
amount is given to every IDP regardless of differences in
needs and vulnerabilities. Shifting from a status-based to
a needs-based system, whereby vulnerable IDPs would
have their needs addressed through the general social
assistance system, has long been advocated and indeed
is recognized in the State Strategy as a necessary goal.
However, little progress has been made at a policy level.
Moreover, there is little incentive for IDPs to make the
transition. While legally there is no barrier to IDPs registering
for general social assistance, if they do so they are
no longer entitled to receive the monthly IDP allowance
and other IDP-specific entitlements. 230 At the same time,
the social protection system does not yet provide a reliable
or enhanced level of support.
Significantly, the president at times has chosen to allocate
discretionary funds to addressing IDP issues.
Most notably, in 2006 President Saakashvili allocated
significant resources from the discretionary funds of his
office to the project “My House,” administered by MRA,
to allow IDPs who had lost property in Abkhazia to
register their lost property and substantiate their claims
using satellite imagery (see Benchmarks 2 and 10). 231
State budgetary resources continue to be devoted to this
project: 300,000 GEL ($180,230), according to the 2011
budget of MRA.
In addition, the government actively seeks financial
resources from the international community to supplement
its own efforts to address internal displacement.
Indeed, the government of Georgia openly admits that
“it was the donor community which took the major
responsibility for allocating financial and material
230 Government of Georgia, Decree No. 145 of 28 July 2006,
on Social Assistance to the Georgian Population.
231 Government of Georgia, President of Georgia, “IDP
Property Satellite Imagery Presented to President
Saakashvili,” 7 April 2006 (www.president.gov.ge/index.
php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=226&info_id=4516).
225
aid and ensuring . . . appropriate planning and implementation
of humanitarian programs for IDPs.” 232 For
years, however, the government had resisted large-scale
international support for undertaking activities to improve
the living conditions of IDPs and reduce their
dependency. 233
Yet, after the adoption of the State Strategy, in which the
government envisages “close cooperation” with donor
organizations to implement the strategy, 234 in particular
after the August 2008 conflict, the government adopted a
more welcoming approach to international assistance in
support of securing durable solutions to displacement.
Of the $4.5 billion in aid that was pledged by donors at a
conference in October 2008 to help rebuild the country,
$102.7 million was earmarked to secure durable housing
for IDPs from the August conflict. 235 Donors then
pledged significant additional funds to support government
efforts to implement the broader State Strategy
and its revised action plan of 2009, in particular to support
durable housing solutions and livelihoods for the
“old” IDP cases. Indeed, adoption by the government of
a comprehensive action plan for implementing the State
Strategy for IDPs was a condition for provision by the
European Union of sizable financial support for its implementation:
a total of 115 million Euros, allocated in
three tranches. 236 EU support was made conditional on
232 Government of Georgia, MRA, IDP Housing Strategy and
Working Plan, p. 17.
233 UN Commission on Human Rights, Report of the
Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally
Displaced Persons, Mr. Francis Deng—Addendum: Profiles
in Displacement: Georgia, 2001, paras 34, 111–114,
128–129.
234 Government of Georgia, State Strategy for IDPs, Chapter
VI, para. 1.3 and Chapter VII, paras. 1 and 3. See also
Revised Action Plan, adopted in May 2010, Chapter 4,
para. 4.3.
235 According to an opinion poll conducted in the fall of
2008, only 27 percent of Georgians thought that the influx
of aid money would be properly spent, citing concerns
about ineffective spending and corruption. Transparency
International Georgia, Annual Report 2009 (2009), p. 27
(http://transparency.ge).
236 European Commission, Commission Decision of