Coalition for IDPs Rights

Monitoring by “Transparency International – Georgia”

The “Transparency International – Georgia” that is a member of an Advisory Council of the Coalition “for IDPs rights”, has implemented monitoring in 14 places of the compact settlement of IDPs, who were forced to leave their homes during the war in August.

“Transparency International – Georgia” published its report on April 3.
The 8 page report reads that the organization “has implemented a thorough monitoring in three settlements – Berbukhi, Skrasa and Tsmindatskali”. 

According to “Transparency International – Georgia” most part from 130 000 IDPs, who left their homes in August 2008, returned back. However, according to actual information about 25 000 people are still refugees.

“Transparency International – Georgia” implements monitoring of financial aid allocated to Georgia since September 2008.

The research was prepared within the framework of the project “Monitoring of aid – in places of compact settlement of IDPs” funded by the OSCE Mission in Georgia. The project budget amounts to EUR 7,335.

Issues of Concern
(1) Housing

Within months, entire new villages appeared in the landscape as the government of Georgia rushed to build  thousands of individual family cottages. One explanation provided by the government for the speed of building  was the urgency of providing adequate winter shelter for IDPs. Many temporary collective centers were not  designed for living in. By building durable housing in the fall, the government also saved itself the cost of winterizing temporary collective centers that would only be used for one season.

However, the speed with which the cottages were built caused a number of problems. Visiting the new settlements in January 2009, TI Georgia’s team was alarmed by the conditions encountered in many locations: dripping ceilings, walls covered in moisture and mold, and warping floorboards. Nearly all of these problems are a result of the hasty building process. There were insufficient construction materials, such as concrete bricks and wood floorboards, available in Georgia on such short notice and in such large quantity. New bricks and woodenplanks were made and used immediately, without  giving them sufficient time to dry out. In addition, the concreteused  in the foundations of the cottages could not be left to dry due to time pressures.

Visually, the situation improved substantially between January and March. Most walls now feel dry to the touch. An engineer contracted by TI Georgia for three days thought it likely that the initial dampness problems were only temporary and will not recur next winter because the building materials will have dried out once and for all. According to the engineer, the quality of the houses is far from excellent, but considering the speed and season of  construction, and the reported budget of just under GEL 28,000 per house, the observed quality of housing is broadly in line with what could be expected under the circumstances.

It is advisable to conduct a thorough assessment of each and every house this spring to ensure that any
construction flaws in individual houses are fixed or modified, and that each house has sufficient insulation before the weather turns cold and wet again. One housing unit visited by the aid team (though not by the engineer), a refurbished former summer cottage attached to the renovated Sanatorium Poladi in Surami, sits on a slope and has a noticeably unlevel floor; it seems unlikely to survive long enough to qualify as “durable housing”.  In such exceptional cases, residents might have to be completely re-housed.

The IDPs should only be considered “durably housed” when it has been verified that each and every family is  living in houses that are structurally intact and can provide them with shelter in the long run.

(2) Utilities and Heating

Due to initial post-construction warping, there are openings to the ground between floor planks in many houses, which together with poor overall weatherization mean that residents will require a lot of energy for heating next winter.  If  insulation concerns are not addressed, and free gas and firewood supplies are discontinued, many families may not be able to afford to keep warm next winter, or may be forced to take firewood from surrounding areas, thus creating conflict with their neighbors.
The recent  installation of electricity meters in some of the new settlements has exacerbated these fears. The engineer contracted by TI Georgia suggested that installing solar panels might be a valuable investment, ensuring that IDPs can meet their future electricity needs without relying on state subsidies or having to pay expensive bills.

(3) Water and Sanitation

The debates over water and sanitation clearly highlight a split running through the aid community. Some argue that – especially in a country pledged 4.5 billion dollars in aid – the government and donors should only build the kind of durable housing that they would consider fit to live in themselves in the twenty-first century, i.e. with indoor running water and modern sanitation. Others argue that few IDPs had modern water and sanitation systems in their original homes, and that spending large sums on providing these services is unrealistic (and maybe even inappropriate) in a country where outhouses remain the norm for most of the population in rural areas.

In most settlements, outdoor taps are shared by multiple households, and may not deliver enough water for everybody in summer, while the need to run them constantly in winter (to prevent freezing) combined with a lack of drainage creates large pools of mud. While some argue that outdoor taps will limit water consumption to levels that can be managed by established supply systems, it should be noted that international experience shows that there is a clear correlation between ease of access to clean water and hygiene.

In Sanatorium Poladi in Surami, there is running indoor water, but it is not drinkable; as a result, residents have to carry their drinking water up a hill, which some old people are physically unable to do.

According to one expert, the outdoor latrines are too shallow and will have to be moved within months. An engineer working for an aid agency forcefully argued that the latrines will start smelling extremely unpleasantly with the onset of summer, and that all settlements should be provided with some form of flush toilets as soon as possible. Some however argue that considering the absence of a human waste management system in Georgia, it makes more sense to let the waste percolate into the ground through as many entry points as possible. While septic tanks may offer an alternative, the installation cost per family is relatively high, and the tanks would require regular servicing in future thus increasing their cost.

While residents have been provided with plastic bathing tubs and buckets, there is no dedicated room for washing in the new houses, and no tiling. Splashing water may lead to further warping of the wooden floorboards. While some agencies are reportedly considering building communal bathhouses, retrofitting houses to enable dignified bathing at home – especially for elderly and handicapped people – may be an option worth considering.

(4) Land and Food Security

Kitchen gardens are the small gardens located immediately next to people’s houses. According to one expert, there is a layer of clay 1-2 meters beneath the surface in some settlements, which may lead to human waste seeping into the surrounding kitchen garden soil, creating a health hazard.

There is an urgent need for donors to communicate possible intentions (if any) regarding sanitation work in the settlements not only to the Food Security cluster, but also to the IDPs themselves. If done without prior notice, digging up carefully planted gardens in mid-season to install improved sanitation may not only compromise food security, but will severely demoralize people who are just taking the first steps towards regaining control of their  own lives.
Additional  land.  TI Georgia has been unable to discover to what extent the allocation of additional farming land to IDPs in the new settlements has progressed. Where land has been allocated, the allocation process appears to have been fair, but the quantity and quality of land provided is an issue.

In Berbuki, residents reported that over 400 residents between them have been allocated only about one hectare of land, far less than required for self-sufficiency, in an area two kilometers distant from the
settlement. IDPs described the land quality as poor. (TI Georgia was not able to verify either of these
claims, which may or may not be true.)

In Tzmindatzqali, plots are small and located close to the settlement, but can only be reached by crossing an orchard, a stream, and a river. No bridges span the waterways. (TI Georgia was able to verify this.) IDPs stated that they cannot get their tools to the land on foot, only by using a roundabout route that involves taking public transport. Also, the land is said to be a near-swamp and may be unsuitable for cultivation. (TI Georgia could not verify these latter claims.)

In Skra, cottages were placed in pairs rather than in equally spaced rows, which left more arable land for
the kitchen gardens. Also, land plots are located around the circumference of the settlement and are
easily accessible. This arrangement has encouraged IDPs to become more active both in farming for the
coming season and in making long-term investments in agriculture and self-provision. IDPs have begun
to build small chicken coops and to plant grape vines and fruit trees. In addition to creating a more
enduring basis for IDPs' livelihoods, the possibility of restarting small-scale agriculture has allowed people to use their time productively, to strategize for their own futures, to reclaim their identities as farmers rather than victims, and to feel increasingly self-sufficient rather than dependent. This has had
incalculable social and mental health benefits for the people of Skra.

In  future, land issues – including access to pastureland – may emerge as a source of conflict between resettled

IDPs and locals in neighboring villages.
(5) Health

Confusion about how and where to get medical care, and which aspects of medical care are covered by statesponsored insurance, is a major issue for IDPs. Overlapping insurance programs, short-term policies,  erratic visits from mobile medical teams, and changes in the provision of aid to polyclinics and ambulatories from  NGOs make obtaining consultation, laboratory testing, and pharmaceuticals a difficult and complicated  process.

Many IDPs  have commented that while doctors do give free medical consultation, the medication they prescribe is not free and most people do not have enough money to cover the costs. In one settlement, IDPs reported that while doctors from Gori do make weekly visits, they are unable to attend to everyone's medical needs because  demand is so large.

The most urgent worry for IDPs with serious health concerns is maintaining their access to necessary
pharmaceuticals. Lack of information on future supplies often leads to the hoarding of medicines. Many people are reducing prescribed doses in order to extend the amount of time they will have medication, or taking doses erratically (for example, taking hypertension drugs only if their blood pressure rises) because they are unsure about future pharmaceutical supplies or financial support.

Gaining access to needed health care supplies not covered by insurance is also a concern: families with
diabetics report they cannot afford syringes or test strips for blood glucose monitors, or cannot afford a blood glucose monitor at all. Diabetics' problems are further exacerbated by the standardized package of food aid given to them: forced to rely on high glycemic index foods such as white bread, macaroni, sugar, and white flour, keeping blood sugar levels in check is an ongoing problem.

Tzmindatzqali is particularly problematic. Because many residents chose to move to this settlement precisely because it is closer to medical care, the population in Tzmindatzqali appears to be older, sicker, and less selfsufficient than the population in places such as Skra. Even a cursory and partial round of interviewing revealed two people with grand mal epilepsy, a paraplegic, a child with post-meningitis paralysis, three diabetics, two people with glaucoma-related blindness, and four people with diagnosed cardiac disease.

Donors and aid agencies should note that the demographic profile in Georgia is vastly different from that in most  post-emergency settings, with a much higher proportion of old people. IDPs with chronic health problems urgently  need predictable long-term support to cope with illness.

(6) Information
IDPs’ main sources of information are television and word of mouth. When problems occur – be they related to housing, food, benefits, health or any other issue – people do not know whom to seek support or advice from.

As a result, some people fall into the role of passive aid recipients, simply waiting for help as they feel powerless to take control of their own lives, perpetuating aid dependency. Other IDPs contact multiple structures for help with one problem – these may include mamasakhlisi, local government representatives from their villages of origin or  the area of resettlement, regional governors, the ombudsman’s offices, and ministries and agencies both in the regions and in Tbilisi, often demanding to speak to the top official in person. This creates considerable unnecessary stress, frustration and work, not only for IDPs but also for officials.5 Yet other people seek help with their problems through unofficial channels, thereby laying the ground for future clientelism and corruption.

Access to information was regularly identified by IDPs as a major concern. Lack of information not only reduces accountability – including that of nongovernmental aid providers6 – but also undermines people’s ability to plan for  the future and resume control of their own lives. Providing beneficiaries with information on aid is not an optional  luxury, but a major strategy for helping people to become self-reliant and reclaim their own lives.

Over the coming weeks and months, TI Georgia will develop detailed recommendations for aid providers and governmental bodies on information provision.

(7) Predictability

Different settlements receive different aid packages and at different times, primarily due to NGOs’ uncoordinated  activities,  schedules and logistics. Friends and relatives in various settlements compare the aid they receive with  the aid received by others. This often leads IDPs to believe that different groups of people are being treated  unequally, and that aid delivery is dependent on personal connections and other non-equitable means of dividing  the assistance available.

To IDPs in new settlements, the aid process appears to be extremely chaotic. One IDP said that "waiting on aid is  like predicting March weather." Some families say that someone needs to be home at all times in case aid  happens to show up; they cannot plan for its arrival in advance. This is partly because aid agencies tend to rely  on word of mouth to notify IDPs of aid delivery, for example by calling the mamasakhlisi (see below), sometimes  less than 24 hours before a delivery. The word of mouth notification process is uneven, and some residents are not notified until just before aid arrives, or not notified at all.

Such haphazard communication and distribution of aid limits the ability of IDPs to plan their time, for example  choosing when to work on their outlying farm plots or go look for paid employment, and to strategize for the future.

A possible way to overcome this problem might be for the UN cluster heads to designate several “working” days a week for each individual settlement. For example, all aid providers could be asked to stay out of Skra settlement  on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so that people can leave their homes to go looking for work or to visit  relatives without fear of being bypassed by deliveries of aid, assessments or visits from medical teams.

(8) Representation

As there are no clearly designated settlement representatives, aid providers such as NGOs tend to turn to the mamasakhlisi of a settlement as the first contact point, and seek their help with problem identification, planning  and distribution. Despite their pivotal position as intermediaries between displaced people and resource providers,  mamasakhlisebi appear to have neither a clearly defined role nor formal legitimacy. Rather, it appears  that they are simply active community members who somehow rose to their current position over time with  government approval. TI Georgia’s team has gained the impression that the capacity, probity and community  backing of individual mamasakhlisebi may vary greatly from one location to the next.

While there might be no alternative  to relying on such unelected and unaccountable “community
representatives” in the short run, perpetuation of this system entails the risk of skewed targeting, biased allocation  and unfair distribution.

(9) Inactivity

People often cited lack of employment, income and simply “things to do” as major problems. Throughout  the  settlements, IDPs said that they wanted to take back control of their lives, but some are growing  ever more  dependent on aid, partly for the reasons discussed above. Clearly, successful resettlement begins with housing, but does not end there