Georgia's NGO Movement Flourishes, But Continued Support is Needed

by Michael Clayton

In late February 1994, sitting in the darkness and cold of my room in Tbilisi, listening to the gunfire outside my window and watching my computer struggle to connect with a server in Moscow before its battery power ran out, I certainly wasn't thinking about the sustainability of the Georgian Third Sector. I wasn't even thinking about the daunting task of setting up a Georgian office for ISAR. Actually, I was trying to understand what was happening around me in what a few years ago had supposedly been a wealthy society. I was facing my first days and nights without electricity, living amidst a population paid salaries in a valueless currency. Around me I saw people selling their family heirlooms overseas in order to survive, people dying from cold, sickness and starvation, and a society reeling from the aftermath of a series of wars. Four years ago I would never have imagined that in December 1997 ISAR would close its on-the-ground representation in Georgia and pass its experience, success and idealism on to Horizonti, the first foundation to be registered under Georgia's new Civil Code. Practically, I believe the transition makes good sense, symbolically, I believe it is a defining moment for the NGO sector in Georgia.

When I first arrived, the idea of a non-partisan, independent NGO was largely foreign to most of Georgia. At that point, Georgia still needed to absorb and modify this traditionally Western form of decentralized decision-making and power. While in some cultures the idea of grassroots empowerment is so shockingly different that most of the population rejects it, in Georgia a core group of activists adopted the concept and made "NGO" a part of everyday Georgian language.

The earliest stories of the sector are already legendary to a new generation of NGO leaders. There are the young law students in Khashuri who were first introduced to NGOs over a series of toasts at a traditional Georgian table and who now lead the most active environmental law organization in the country. There are the women who began taking food to homeless children at the train station and who now head a shelter and educational center for hundreds of street children in Tbilisi. This history also includes stories of cooperative action in the face of great odds, such as the combined efforts that led to new, favorable NGO legislation. That process began with activists huddled in a dark, unheated room on the tenth floor of an office building and talking about strategies. Two years later, although those activists still wear winter parkas and ski hats in their offices and light candles when the electricity goes out, they have seen NGO legislation passed by the Georgian Parliament. It is this history that has provided Georgia with a secure base for further growth in the Third Sector.

Now that the roots of the Third Sector are firmly planted, Georgians and international donors must grapple with the issue of long-term NGO sustainability. Today, most NGOs in Georgia are better developed and more capable of addressing major societal problems than their counterparts in Georgia's state bodies. In nearly all cases, these NGOs have the desire to work cooperatively with their colleagues in the government sector. The issue is whether this tremendous grassroots potential will be unleashed, beginning with the fundamental question of whether the government and international donors will be supportive enough of NGOs to allow them to work to their capacity. Issues to watch include the willingness of entrenched and often corrupt state bureaucracies to cooperate with grassroots movements, the effectiveness of existing legislation regulating NGO activity, the capacity of Georgia's NGOs to affect the critical decisions made by international and local businesses, the potential of the population outside of Tbilisi to establish influential local community groups, and the level of community-based moral and financial support for NGOs.

There are many successful precedents of effective cooperation between the government and NGOs, which is particularly noteworthy considering the dramatic budgetary shortfalls faced by most state agencies. For example, the NGO Child and Environment was given a state building in which to build their children's shelter. The NGO Gaia worked with the Ministry of Education to develop model environment and civic education classes. Nevertheless, many groups continue to run into government resistance, as is demonstrated by the recent experience of Society Varketili.

Varketili, the first and most effective community-based organization in Georgia, represents a 70,000 resident Tbilisi suburb that has been cut off from regular water, electricity and all former systems of health care and community recreation. Over the past two years, Society Varketili has worked to earn the trust of its community. It rebuilt a park and recreation center with the assistance of thousands of volunteers and with seed money from ISAR-Georgia; it also developed a pilot community health care program with the assistance of the World Bank. Today everyone who lives in the suburb can easily point out the Society's offices. Varketili is operating as the de facto local administration of the suburb. Unfortunately, its popular backing hasn't cut through government resistance.

Earlier this year Varketili attempted to increase the community's access to electricity from the three to four hours to which it was limited. Since one of the prime reasons for the lack of electricity was uncollected fees, Society Varketili negotiated an agreement with the state electricity company to collect fees, pay the company and distribute the appropriate amount of electricity. Members of the Society went door-to-door to explain the arrangement to the community and began their collection efforts. Unfortunately, despite the successful collection and payment of fees, Varketili residents can only be certain of electricity when high-level members of the government drive by on the way to the airport. Society Varketili has recently organized meetings with other NGOs in order to create a coordinated strategy for communicating these problems to the media and the appropriate bodies of the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

In many ways, Society Varketili's experience mirrors that of other NGOs in Georgia over the past few years. Community leaders throughout Georgia have shown incredible perseverance and enthusiasm in establishing and managing grassroots organizations. Leading members of Georgia's Parliament have helped to provide a healthy legislative base for the development of the sector, and international organizations and donors have effectively targeted financial and technical assistance to support it. As a result, at the end of 1997 Georgia's NGO sector is much more sophisticated, diverse and capable than at the beginning of 1994. Georgia's NGOs, government and international institutions should be congratulated on these rapid developments. However, as the capacity of Georgia's NGOs increases, both the government of Georgia and international institutions must shift their strategies to accommodate Third Sector growth. However, unlike in the past when it was necessary for international organizations themselves to provide this type of assistance, today such support should be channeled directly to locally managed foundations and resource centers, which can more effectively identify and address the rapidly changing needs of the sector.

Today, tremendous social, economic and environmental problems threaten to undermine Georgia's stability and progress of the past few years. The population's patience with limited economic opportunities, collapsed educational and health care structures, a starving elderly population, unheated living and working environments and increasingly polluted air, ground and water can only last so long. International institutions and government officials interested in solidifying public support for political leaders who are committed to establishing long-term stability through democratic and economic reform must find immediate solutions to the serious day-to-day problems facing Georgia. The most effective mechanism for responding quickly to these problems is partnerships with local NGOs. A sophisticated NGO community does exist in Georgia and international institutions should actively seek to learn from and cooperate with it. This would not only help ensure the long-term sustainability of the Third Sector, but also benefit international donors, reform-minded governmental leaders and, most importantly, the communities being served.

In 1994 one Georgian woman said to me, "In the cities and the country, in the family and the individual, honesty and sensibility must be awakened. Once the process starts, people will relearn how to take care of the forests and the rivers. We have learned that an individual cannot wait for others to do good, whether kings, presidents or prime ministers. Nobody can do anything for Georgia but we ourselves. Others may sympathize, render some assistance, but Georgians are the ones who must act. I am an optimist. I believe it is within our powers."

From 1994-1997, international donors rendered much-needed assistance to Georgia by providing relief and stimulating the growth of democratic institutions. However, much of the success of their programs can be attributed to Georgians who saw the need to help their communities. In 1997, many problems remain for Georgia's Third Sector, but I too am an optimist, and I know that Georgia's NGOs and Horizonti, the Georgian Foundation for the Third Sector, will have a very bright future.

Michael Clayton is the program manager for ISAR in the Caucasus.