Georgia Country Profile

Georgia’s Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for the period FY2006-2009 is designed to assist Georgia in implementing its second phase of reforms initiated after the Rose Revolution in 2003.  The CPS builds on the Government’s economic development and poverty reduction program, as well as its emerging  strategic thinking on the development framework.  The Strategy targets three main goals: (a) generating growth and job creation by removing the country’s traditional barriers to private sector development and improving infrastructure, finance, and markets; (b) enhancing human development and social protection through improved education, health, social protection, and community services; and (c) strengthening public sector management and budgetary processes to enable Georgia to better plan and meet its own development goals.  Consistent with these goals, ECSSD activities in Georgia have focused on the country’s agricultural reform agenda as well as improving land markets and productivity and improving the management of natural resources.  Since 1993, ECSSD has managed investments in Georgia totaling US$98 million

Agriculture and Rural Development

Agriculture and agro-processing have good growth potential in Georgia, both for domestic and export markets.  Maximizing this potential will require:  (a) removing obstacles to market integration, by strengthening rural transport and market infrastructure, promoting rural/farmer organizations, and reining in petty corruption along market routes; (b) improving the productivity of rural farmers, by facilitating the propagation and sale of raising improved seeds and other planting materials and strengthening advisory services through collaborative public and private sector initiatives; and (c) supporting initiatives to enhance the competitiveness of selected industrial sub-sectors with evident growth potential and scope for considerable employment-generation.   ECSSD’s work addresses the need for support for the agro-processing enterprise sector while continuing its focus on eliminating constraints on land market transactions, advancing land privatization, and working with other donors to completing land titling.  Given agriculture's strong linkage to rural poverty, the FY04 Constraints and Opportunities in Rural Growth Study and the FY05 Rural Development Project will seek to increase exports and rural incomes, including through investments in agribusiness and export promotion, development o f better market knowledge and infrastructure, and improvement of small-scale rural infrastructure (e.g., roads) and off-farm employment opportunities.     

 

Rural Development Project.  The objective of the project is to develop the private agriculture sector by facilitating the access of Georgia's mainly small and medium-scale farmers to supply chains, improving the competitiveness of the supply chains and strengthening the capacity of selected public and private agricultural and financial institutions serving private-sector agricultural market activity. This would increase incomes and employment and reduce poverty in rural areas.  The proposed project has three main components:  (a)  agricultural supply chain development, which supports the development of marketing/supply chains for commodities that have a demonstrated market potential, with the view to expand profitable domestic and export market opportunities; (b) rural finance services, which aims to increase the capacity of participating financial institutions (commercial banks, non bank financial institutions and credit unions) to lend to the farmers, processors, traders and agri-business enterprises involved in the marketing/supply chains of selected agricultural commodities by (a) providing them with additional capital for lending to agriculture, particularly medium- and long-term loans for investment and (ii) strengthening their capacity for sustainable rural lending; and (c) institutional modernization which focuses on specific key legal and institutional reforms that impact directly on the competitiveness of Georgian agriculture and the marketability of its products and enable Georgia to meet its international sanitary and phytosanitary obligations. Project interventions would be strategically focused on (a) modernizing the legal framework, (b) developing strategies and action plans for institutional change,(c) supporting selected programs that fit specific needs of the selected commodity chains and (d) continuing to support the land cadastre and registration.

 

Irrigation and Drainage Community Development Project.  The objective of this project is to increase agricultural production and farm incomes by arresting further deterioration of irrigation and drainage infrastructure and keeping the operable infrastructure functional.   The project has two main components. The first component focuses on rehabilitation and maintenance of large-scale irrigation infrastructure and drainage infrastructure as well as targeted support for the rehabilitation of on-farm infrastructure for the National Amelioration and Assistance Program (AA). The second component develops and strengthens irrigation and drainage management in AA service territories and finances operation and maintenance costs to AAs.

 

Agricultural Research, Extension, and Training Project.  This project aims to initiate the development of an efficient and cost-effective agricultural knowledge system to demonstrate, disseminate, and promote the adoption of appropriate technologies that increase sustainable agricultural production and reduce pollution of natural resources. There are three project components. The first funds adaptive research and technology dissemination, and supports agricultural practices to reduce environmental pollution.  The second component supports the reform of the agricultural research system.  The third component finances a pilot pollution control program designed to promote efficient manure management practices; adaptive research; on-farm testing and demonstration of the use of bio-gas digesters; and the setting up a watershed-scale water quality monitoring program.

 

Environment and Natural Resources

 

ECSSD has assisted Georgia in developing a National Environmental Action Plan, a National Black Sea Action Plan, and a National Oil Spill Contingency Plan to deal with the risks of existing and future oil pollution in the Black Sea coast.  However, institutional and financial constraints compounded by limited political will have resulted in slow implementation of these plans.  Assistance has been provided for the establishment of operational protected areas:  46,000 ha for protecting and managing threatened forest and wetlands habitats along the Black Sea, and 184,000 ha for protecting and managing three areas in the Caucasus Mountains.  ECSSD also has supported raising public awareness and interest on the protection o f critical wetlands along the Black Sea, with some visible results.  Efforts to establish a sustainable and effective integrated coastal zone management system have produced only modest results to date.

 

Forests Development Project.  The project’s principal objectives are to:  (a) restore degraded State-owned forest and pasture areas and promote their sustainable use; (b) promote the conservation of natural forest ecosystems; and (c) initiate the transition of the forestry/pasture sector to a market economy, separating commercial from regulatory functions and establishing mechanisms for self-financing of the commercial activities.  The project would support institutional and policy reforms of Albania's forest and pasture sector and provide resources for investments in institutional development, improvements in state forest management, rehabilitation and maintenance of forest roads, and management of communal forests and pasture areas.

 

Integrated Coastal Management Project.  The objective of the project is to strengthen institutions for better management of the coastal resources of the Black Sea.  In order to achieve an economic development along the coastal areas, the project aims at effectively integrating environmental planning and management, through the development, testing, and evaluation of different methods.  To this end, the project includes five components.  The first component establishes an institutional and legal framework, thus facilitating intersectoral planning and participation.  With the creation of agencies and other groups, in addition to legislation drafting, this component will support the drafting of legislation and coastal management through training and public awareness raising.  The second component is designed to support conservation of the unique biodiversity of Kolkheti wetlands by providing assistance to the Kolkehti National Park and Kobuleti Nature Reserve.  The third component involves the establishment of a coastal environment quality monitoring and information system, setting standards along major point sources of pollution. The fourth component addresses the evaluation of coastal erosion, towards an integrated water management.  The final component supports the development of a national oil spill contingency plan, marine oil pollution control plan, and Regional Black Sea Strategy Action Plan

 

Protected Areas Development Project.  The objective of the project is to conserve biodiversity in Georgia by strengthening the national system of protected area management as well as providing assistance for establishing and building capacity for three ecologically and socially sustainable protected areas in forest ecosystems, and to build capacity for mainstreaming biodiversity conservation into production landscapes.   The projects main components are designed to:  (a) support the development of a detailed plan for biodiversity and forest conservation in the Central Caucasus region, and support corridor conservation planning in Eastern Georgia; (b) establish protected areas management, and build public awareness of biodiversity conservation; and (c) reorganize and strengthen the Department of Protected Areas through training and technical assistance.

 

Water Resources and Risk Management Technical Assistance.  The objective of this proposed activity is to improve management of water/flood risks in Georgia.  To that end, a Bank team has proposed that the Georgian Hydromet design a community-managed flood monitoring network in Georgia's mountains to complement Bank initiatives already underway that aim at large-scale phenomena such as regional drought and the general deterioration of irrigation and drainage infrastructure.   While the monitoring network undertaken in this activity would cover only a limited area, it is envisaged that the process used in establishing the network would establish a replicable design that could be maintained in large part by local communities, thus reducing cost of operations and maintenance.  The process also is expected to produce lessons learned concerning future deployments of such systems which will be of interest to the Georgian Hydromet and to other regional hydromets.  It is envisaged that this activity will facilitate expansion of flood monitoring in Georgia by testing means for reducing operations and maintenance costs through community in-kind contributions.