Letter from the People in Need Country Director

Published: Jan 10, 2017 Reading time: 8 minutes
Letter from the People in Need Country Director
© Foto: PIN Archive

This year, we celebrated the 10 years of People in Need’s work in Georgia. While we prepared for the celebration, we took some time to look back at how PIN’s programme in Georgia has developed over the past 10 years, from our first office in Tkibuli to our current work in six regions of Georgia. All of our initiatives for Internally Displaced Persons, poor farmers, young people, local Civil Society Organisations, and government representatives share one commonality: we demonstrate that the key to defeating poverty and inequalities is cooperation. Cooperation between poor farmers as well as cooperation between various government bodies, civil society organisations and young people. All our activities are designed to make the people in need the main actors in the efforts to improve their own lives and the state of the society they live in. For this purpose, we adapt to the Georgian context successful models from the European Union and the Czech transition experience.

In 2016, we have promoted cooperation more than ever, testing models in the field and influencing policies and practices at the national level:

  • We have introduced a model of advisory committee on social service delivery at the municipal level, bringing together the main social service providers;
  • We have piloted and promoted the Local Action Group model based on the EU’s LEADER approach for participatory rural development;
  • We have brought together representatives of the Ministries of Sports and Youth Affairs, Health, Labour and Social Affairs, and Education and Science to coordinate and improve the quality of their services to young people with disabilities, so they can have a better access to education and employment.
  • We have brought the vocational colleges closer to the private sector and piloted innovative ways to provide farmers with information they need to develop their business.
  • We have worked to consolidate the agriculture cooperative model, which we have piloted since 2013;
  • We enabled young people to influence decision-making at the municipal level through youth committees.
  • Thank you for working with us, and let us continue our cooperation in 2017 for the benefit of people in need

Lauriane Gauny, Country Director, People in Need Georgia

What we achieved in 2016

Agriculture and Rural Development

  • 32 cooperatives were set up and trained in Imereti and Racha regions.
  • 5 vocational education institutions supported to offer better quality agriculture education.
  • 27 rural development projects were funded in Kazbegi to support the revitalization of the rural areas and creating jobs.
  • An online platform https://traktor.co/ was established to provide tailor-made advice to farmers’.

Current projects: Enhancing Small Farmers’ Cooperation and Productivity in Imereti and Racha Regions (ENPARD); Local Action Group Kazbegi (ENPARD-Pilot Rural Development Measures); Improving Vocational Education for the Agribusiness in Georgia.

Social Support and Inclusion

  • 6 schools initiatives were financed to develop a more inclusive educational environment for PWD students in schools.
  • The Children and Youth National Center (CYNC) staff were provided with capacity building training to offer better non-formal educational services for young people.

Current project: Support of Social Inclusion of Youth with Disabilities in Georgia.

Civil Society and Local Governance

  • Municipal Strategies on Social Inclusion were elaborated in Tkibuli, Khoni, Zugdidi and Gori municipalities. The documents reflect the needs of the municipal population and will contribute to the improvement of the social service provision at the local level.

Current Project: Enhancing the Participation of Regional CSOs in Policy Dialogue on Social Inclusion in Georgia.

Budget 2016

Agriculture and Rural Development 1,831,063.00 EUR

Civil Society and Local Governance 198,998.00 EUR

Social Support and Inclusion 65,560.00 EUR

Information on PIN staff

Totally 30 employees, 16 women and 14 men

Beneficiary Story

"The Only Disability in Life is a Bad Attitude from Society," says Tea, the teacher of the Zestafoni school #7

Equal access to educational and employment opportunities is considered a fundamental right, according to the Georgian constitution. However, it is clear that when it comes to the delivery of basic educational and employment opportunities to people with disabilities, real opportunities are hard to come by.

Read more

Thanks to EU support today we produce twenty times more wine than before, says Gogita Makaridze, the leader of the Cooperative Terjola Wine

Gogita Makaridze and other winemakers in his village had a challenging time in the wine business before they decided to join forces and achieved a breakthrough they could not even dream of before. Thanks to the support from EU cooperative development programme, they established themselves as a modern cooperative. As a result, their annual production jumped from 500 liters to 8-9 tons of high-quality wine. Today, the Terjola Wine is a brand that is widely distributed in Georgia and has growing international success, as you can now find their products in USA, Japan, Russia, Denmark and Australia markets.

Read more

Sector Analytics

Inclusion of young persons with disabilities in Georgia - Nato Antia, Social Inclusion project manager

We believe that Inclusion means to understand the relationship between the way people function and how they participate in the society and making sure that everybody has the same opportunities to participate in every aspect of life to the best of their abilities and desire.

Read more

Social Service Provision System in Georgia - Nana Kurashvili, manager of the civil society project 

The majority of social programs administered by the Social Service Agency do not comply with the given definition of social assistance because basically they are built upon cash disbursements. It is also noteworthy that geographical access to social services is limited and it is a privilege of big cities. In order to effectively address current problems and challenges, it is vital to transform the social service sector into a service-oriented system.

Read more

Meet our colleagues

Buba Jafarli (58) is working for People in Need in Georgia and currently is managing the biggest development project of People in Need. He joined humanitarian and development sector in 1993 in Georgia. The first international assignment came in 1999 when he started to work for CARE in Kosovo. Then he worked for World Bank and CARE in Georgia and continued with CARE in Sudanese Darfur as a Head of Monitoring and Evaluation team. In Indonesia, he worked as Programme Quality Unit manager for Save the Children’s Aceh Program. After a while back in Georgia, he worked as Team Leader of Kyrgyzstan Emergency Program and after ten months returned back to Georgia.

When did you start with PIN?

I started with PIN on the 1st of January 2014, it was the launch date for a large scale farmer cooperation development project funded by the European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD). Some three years have passed since then but the feeling is that I am with PIN for ages.

Read more

Important Events

People in Need Celebrates 10th Anniversary in Georgia

On September 21, People in Need celebrated its 10th anniversary of successful work in Georgia. The event took place at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Georgia and featured prominent guests representing the Ministries, Diplomatic Corps, NGOs, the private sector and the media. The celebration incorporated a number of prominent speeches, among which was CEO and founder of the People in Need, Mr. Simon Panek, who underlined rapid progress of the Georgia and made the bold prediction that if the country continues progressing so fast, after 10 years the Czech Republic may seek assistance from the Georgia.

Speeches were followed by the video specially produced for the occasion highlighting PIN's 10 years in Georgia, and a party gathering all friends of PIN.

PIN in the News

People in Need Country Director to Georgia Lauriane Gauny opened the dairy cooperative Zestafonuri in village Rodinauli. The cooperative was set up under the ENPARD project and has received 144,500 Gel worth of milk processing modern equipment, which allowed cooperative to produce products fully compliant with the national food safety and EU standards.

People in Need signed Memorandum of understanding with Gamgeoba of Gori municipality. MoU will strengthen the cooperation between People in Need and Gori Gamgeoba in the field of social service provision. Besides Gori, MoUs were signed with Tkibuli, Khoni and Zugdidi Gamgeobas.

Video about the EU and Czech Development Agency funded Local Action Group Kazbegi project. The main goal of the project is to support rural development projects initiated at the local level in order to revitalize rural areas and create jobs.

Presentation of the Imereti labor market research. The document analyses current demands of Imereti agribusiness market and the nature of its connection with the VET.

Studies & Researches

Agricultural Labor market in Imereti

Assessment on Accessibility of social services

Engagement of the agricultural private sector in vocational education

Exploring Gudauri for development of the Kazbegi municipality

Kazbegi Development Strategy 2016-2020 

Agriculture Potential Assessment of Kazbegi Municipality

Tourism Sector in Kazbegi Municipality

The Overview of Kazbegi General Development Potential

Institutional Environment for Young PWDs Employment and Employability Support in Georgia

Inclusive Education Study

Assessment Study of the Information and Consulting Centres

Donors & Partners

The donors of our 2016 projects are:

The European CommissionThe World BankThe Government of the Czech Republic

Our partners are:

Georgian Association of Social WorkersGeoWel ResearchCenter for Training and consultancy (CTC)Tkibuli District Development Fund (TDDF)Biological Farming Association ElkanaNNLAG - Czech RepublicCenter for Strategic Research and Development of Georgia (CSRDG)Children and Youth Development Fund (CYDF)Children and Youth National Centre (CYNC)Charles University of Life Sciences (CULSP)Association of Young Economists of Georgia (AYEG)Elva (Mosavali)Akaki Tsereteli State University (ATSU)TanaziariCharity Humanitarian Centre Abkhazeti (CHCA)Fund Sukhumi

People in Need Georgia

PIN’s goal in Georgia is to reduce poverty and inequalities, particularly in rural areas. This goal is realized through a combined approach of:

  • Making the development process in Georgia more pro-poor and inclusive;
  • Building the capacity of people, organisations and networks to advocate and implement changes
  • Protecting the poorest and most vulnerable households which remain excluded from the development process.

In the event of a disaster, PIN also has a role to play to save lives and protect dignity of people affected by the disaster.

More information on PIN global and PIN Georgia at www.peopleinneed.cz and www.pin.ge

 

Autor: People in Need Georgia