Oxfam working on Democracy

Georgia: Following the money

To fight poverty in Georgia, it’s necessary to tackle corruption, to make sure that state funding reaches the people who need it most. With support from Oxfam, local groups are keeping a watchful eye on state spending – and already they are feeling the benefits in their villages.

At a kindergarten in western Georgia, 20 children are sitting at blue plastic tables in a newly-refurbished room, warmed by a wood stove in the corner. The recent opening of the kindergarten is one of the achievements of the local budget-monitoring group in Inguri village.

“Parents in this part of the village have been demanding a kindergarten for years,” says economics teacher, Isolda Khalichava, one of the seven members of the group. “We discussed it with the local governor, who agreed to ask for some extra funds in the village budget to renovate the building.” The kindergarten, sited on a disused tea estate, has only one room, but parents were delighted when it finally opened, in October 2005.

In eight villages in Zugdidi district, Oxfam’s partner organisations, the Association of Disabled Women and the Association of Young Economists, are supporting local people to increase the transparency of government budget processes. We are enabling people to claim and use the funding and resources that exist and to which they have a right.

In Inguri village, the group found out that their village budget wasn’t receiving its proper share of taxes paid into the district budget by local businesses. The village budget should receive a percentage, totalling 500 Lari (£150) per month, which could be invested in village amenities. The group has alerted local business and is now monitoring the tax payments.

“Before the group began, we were always asking ourselves: ‘Where do the taxes go?’”, says group member, Rubin Karchava. “Teachers would say: ‘I’m sure there is funding available, but where is it?’. Now, people know how much money is available and what it is spent on.”

The group examines the local budget, and if figures don’t match up, they query them with the village governor. “We also hold village meetings to hear about people’s problems. We act as an information source for the village governor,” explains Isolda.

It hasn’t always been this simple though. “Before, we tried to look at the budget, but the door was closed to us,” says Isolda. ”Now we are a strong force. We did radio shows and produced leaflets about people’s rights to examine the budget, and then our relationship with the local governor began to improve.”

In the beginning, getting communities involved was also a challenge. Nona Kobalia, from the Association of Disabled Women, explains: “We faced sceptics who didn’t believe they could improve things; and others who criticised people for all their problems, but lacked knowledge and concrete evidence about the causes.”

“But in the end, people love their communities and they wanted to see change,” says Nona. “There was a lot of hard work and training, but people began to see small changes – such as getting an amendment in the local budget so that the library could afford newspapers. It doesn’t sound that special, but most people can’t afford to buy papers themselves.

“Many people here are well educated, so they were glad to have a role to play in society. This has built up their self-confidence – and that’s what is really needed at the moment.” The Inguri group has received training in economics and budget processes, how to interact with local government officials, and how to conduct questionnaires in the community. “We feel like we have graduated with second degrees,” smiles Isolda.
The Association of Disabled Women has recently set up a resource centre in the District Hall in Zugdidi, where members of the public can use a computer and the Internet to look up information about budgetary processes. But it’s not just the public who need educating.

“Some of our community groups know more about the budget process than local government officials do!”, says Madonna Kharebava, Head of the Association of Disabled Women. “So we also work with local governors and offer them training. The result of this is that when they are asked to approve the district budget – they are more likely to speak up on behalf of their village.”

Oxfam continues to encourage partnership between communities and the local government. Madonna recalls: “On a live radio debate, one local governor told us, ‘It’s not pleasant when someone is watching in your kitchen.’ I replied: ‘It’s not only your kitchen!’ It is only by changing attitudes like this that we will see a decrease in corruption and poor management in Georgia.”

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Democracy and human rights