From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National - Brookings

Georgia From Solidarity to Solutions: The Government Response to Internal Displacement in Georgia
living conditions for IDPs and supporting IDPs’ economic
self-reliance. Such efforts were resisted because
they were considered tantamount to supporting IDPs’
integration in their place of displacement and thus were
misinterpreted as running counter to the overriding goal
of eventually securing for IDPs their right to return. 242
Indeed, as the government finally acknowledged in the
State Strategy for IDPs of 2007, when it came to addressing
protracted internal displacement, “no joint vision
… existed for addressing problems related to IDPs” 243
until the shift starting in 1999, at the initiative of the
international community, toward a “new approach” to
assisting IDPs by transitioning from humanitarian assistance
to development and other programs focused
on self-reliance (see Benchmark 10). The State Strategy
for IDPs adopted by the government in 2007, including
the inclusive process by which the document and its
action plan were drafted (see Benchmark 6), mark the
culmination of these efforts and a strategic realignment
of national and international objectives in supporting
the internally displaced.
The MRA long has been the main government counterpart
of international agencies and donors engaged in coordination
on IDP issues. Its role in this regard has been
formally recognized and institutionalized on a number
of occasions, including when it was designated the chair
of various mechanisms for coordinating with the international
community, including the state commission
established in 2000 to cooperate with the international
community in developing and implementing initiatives
242 The UN Secretary-General, in a report to the UN Security
Council in 2000, noted that this approach left IDPs “in
a precarious position, in effect locking them out of the
benefits that could accrue to them from participation
in longer-term development activities.” United Nations,
Report of the Secretary-General Concerning the Situation
in Abkhazia, Georgia, S/2000/345, 24 April 2000, para.
24 (www.un.org/Docs/sc/reports/2000/sgrep00.htm).
See also 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. 34–36 and 111–12.
243 Government of Georgia, State Strategy for IDPs (2007),
Chapter I.
227
to improve the situation of IDPs and the state commission
established in 2006 to develop a state strategy for
IDPs (see Benchmark 7, above). The government, for its
part, participated in the various sectoral cluster working
groups set up by the international community in
implementing the “cluster approach” to interagency coordination
in response the humanitarian crisis resulting
from the conflict of August 2008. By early 2009, with the
phase-out of the cluster approach, international stakeholders
underscored the need for an effective coordination
mechanism with the government and new principles
of partnership for developing the revised action
plan for the State Strategy for IDPs. Through technical
assistance provided to MRA by USAID-FORECAST,
the Steering Committee for IDP Issues was established
in 2009 to bring together the key government and international
agencies and donors as well as civil society
representatives engaged in IDP issues in Georgia. The
establishment of the IDP Steering Committee is widely
regarded as having facilitated an enabling environment
within which coordination on strategic and funding
issues has been enhanced not only between the government
and the international community but also among
international agencies and donors. 244 The government
has been lauded specifically for having “engaged international
organizations and NGOs, who are often vocal
critics of the government, to help design policies and
procedures.” 245 Indeed, IDMC observes that “[i]nternational
organizations enjoy privileged, quick and meaningful
access to government officials on IDPs issues.” 246
UNHCR always has been a strong partner of MRA on
IDP issues. Over the years, MRA has demonstrated increased
openness to receiving technical assistance from
additional international partners to support its efforts
on IDP issues (see Benchmark 7). A specific focus of
the USAID-FORECAST project to provide technical
244 Guy Hovey and Erin Mooney, Technical Assistance to the
Ministry for Refugees and Accommodation, Final Report,
July 2010.
245 “Displaced and Disgruntled in Georgia,” Eastern
Approaches Blog, The Economist, 2 November 2010.
246 IDMC, “Georgia: Towards Durable Solutions for IDPs,”
2010, p. 4.