Sharing V4 experience with Georgian self-governments: regional development and green innovations
The project focuses on local administrations in conflict-affected areas of Georgia adjacent to the break-away regions of Tskhinvali and Abkhazia with the aim to improve the living conditions in these communities. The project aims to build on V4 experience with regional development, social entrepreneurship, social agriculture and applied green innovations in the context of local administration. Building on the expertise, the project aims to create feasibility study reports for the international donor and investor community to address the challenges in a ready-to-implement way, based on terrain knowledge.
These municipalities, through which pass the “administrative borderline” (ABL) face a number of challenges, among many of those of economic nature. To improve the living conditions in these communities, the project aims to build on V4 experience with regional development, social entrepreneurship, social agriculture, local visibility and applied green innovations in the context of local administration. The project builds on MESA10 and Kartlosi`s project supported by SlovakAid, during which the needs and challenges of these communities are mapped and recommendations are formulated.
The project is ongoing, among these recommendations preliminary known, the socioeconomic and environmental aspect of these communities are representing the biggest issue. Building on the expertise, the project aims to create feasibility studies for the international donor and investor community to address the challenges in a ready-to-act way. The implementing consortium of the project is designed in a way that combines expertise and practice within the fields of regional development, social agriculture and green innovations in the context of local administration and self-government, thus utilizing the knowledge accumulated in the V4 countries throughout the years. The aim of the project is to share this knowledge with Georgian ABL communities.
Challenges hindering the development of communities on the ABL often differ from those in other parts of target regions. Yet, there is a long-standing lack of analysis and studies focused specifically on these communities, which hinders both effective decision-making of local and central governments as well as effective design and implementation of projects in these regions. The above-mentioned SlovakAid fills the gap in this sense. The proposed project wants to utilize the experience and expertise of the V4 partners with the topics that were identified that could help the socio-economic development of these communities while not only building on theoretical knowledge but based on on-the-ground experience.
The project proposes:
1) presentation of the recommendations for the ABL communities in Gori and Tbilisi with inputs from V4 representatives;
2) creation of the feasibility studies in the field of a)regional development b) social agriculture c) social entrepreneurship d) green innovations;
3) present the studies to the international donor communities, with special attention to the V4 developmental agencies to support the activities.
Communities along the ABL are neglected in Georgia. ABL communities receive little support not only domestically from their central government, but also from the international community. The ABL communities are not often targeted by the donor organisations and their needs are not mapped yet systematically. Thus, there are no policy recommendations or feasibility studies targeting specifically these communities. The aim of the project is to create tangible, tailor-made recommendations based on field research. Moreover, there is currently no exchange platform between V4 and Georgian local administrations to share experience, best practices, know-how, methodology and policies. The international community is active in these communities. There are numerous organisations providing transfer of know-how to these communities. In this sense, knowledge sharing is somewhat saturated.
One of the building pillars of the above-mentioned SlovakAid project is also capacity building in the field of regional development, social agriculture and green innovations for local administration representatives. However, what is lacking is a feasible approach toward the known challenges, that would be prepared in a ready-to-implement manner. In this sense, the proposed project is a unique combination of V4 expertise, terrain knowledge and bringing feasible solutions to the table.
The project is supported by:
The project is implemented in the consortium:
Asociace sociálního zemědělství, z.s.