When the world turns upside down
The people of Georgia, a beautiful but conflict-ravaged country in the Caucasus region of eastern Europe, are continuing to suffer as new strands of tension are twisted into the countrys complex history. Georgia has been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to find a destiny of her own after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the uncomfortable relationship with Russia that has existed ever since, a situation that is bound up with the suspected presence of Chechen rebels launching anti Russian attacks from within her borders.
For a small country that has seen neither peace nor prosperity since independence in 1992, tension is nothing new. At the "border" town between Georgia and the breakaway republic of Abkhazia, the streets are full of people with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Some are local, but as many again are refugees or, more accurately, internally displaced people forced by ethnic violence to move. Neither group has work. The refugees have been housed in the paper, silk or cigarette factories that once provided employment for the towns residents. These large, grey buildings have been partitioned with rough wooden planking to make hundreds of small cubicles, each housing a family and their few belongings. Brightly coloured rugs and tatty cornered photographs hang on the splintering wooden walls but this is as far as cheerfulness can stretch. The atmosphere inside is claustrophobic and threatening. The feeling on the streets is little different and the faces of those standing around in tight little groups on street corners are solemn, taut and intense. Violence, crime, resentment and despair flourish, if despair can be said to flourish. The scene is much the same in other parts of the country.
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credit: Angelika Brustinow, DFID |
We think of poverty as being most acute when prosperity has never been experienced but is this necessarily the case? As one of the Soviet Republics, Georgian citizens enjoyed free education and healthcare, full employment, heavily subsidized housing, public transport and even holidays. The architecture, especially for utilitarian public buildings, may have been unmistakably Soviet in its heavy, concrete style but the densely flowering creepers of the soft Mediterranean climate, the blue skies and the Black Sea softened Soviet ugliness. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the world known by these people changed overnight. Old, pre-Soviet resentments quickly surfaced and, unprotected by the centralized economy, suffocating poverty descended like a blanket over Georgia. Collective agriculture disintegrated. Subsidized agricultural inputs were no longer available. Production dropped, markets disappeared and unemployment soared.
The Georgian State is poor and seems paralysed by lack of budget and initiative. The people are poor but they are well educated and many are resourceful too. With imagination, and some help, those energies can be tempted away from crime and violence and into more socially acceptable, economically productive activities.
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credit: Angelika Brustinow, DFID |
On the edge of a small suburban town about an hour from the capital, Tbilisi, the local industry, typically, had closed and the workers left without employment nor any hope of any here or elsewhere. Although trained for industry, people realized that growing food would at least give them something to eat. All they needed was suitable land. With support from the UK Governments Department for International Development (DFID) and working through a local NGO, ELKANA, an area that had been used as a rubbish dump was cleared under a food for work scheme supported by the World Food Programme. More importantly, those who had met the selection criteria, and volunteered to do the work, each received one of the 100 garden allotments into which the cleared area was subsequently divided. Advice and training was provided by ELKANA and proved to be invaluable not only for helping people with practical cultivation techniques but also for creating an institution - the community association that could give voice and empowerment to the allotment holders. Fencing materials, electricity and irrigation equipment were also provided, and a guard was hired to keep the land secure.
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credit: Angelika Brustinow, DFID |
Within a year the difference was already remarkable. Three years further on and 400 families now have allotments on the expanded site and more are waiting. They have planted trees to reduce erosion, built a greenhouse to raise seedlings, provided a small meeting place to hold training courses and give advice on what to grow and how to grow it well. The allotment holders have formed a community association which is now lobbying a sympathetic local government for secure access to the land beyond the eight years of the current tenancy agreement. Initially expected to food for their own consumption only, cautious estimates suggest that allotment holders sell up to 30% of their produce to receive a cash income. The success has demonstrated that even in hopeless situations, where no resources seem to be available, opportunities still exist which, if allocated with the right incentives, give people a chance to change their lives. Crucial to the success was the local NGO which gave vital advice on procedures that would ensure transparency and fairness in allocating land and resources, rather than the undisciplined grabbing of land by the neighbourhood that might otherwise have taken place. The partnerships that have been developed will last well beyond donor involvement and the example should provide incentives to others faced with similar situations. Tea, wine, fruits and vegetables were once the mainstay of the Georgian economy. With good governance, peace and sensible development, perhaps they could be again?
