Community Empowerment Facility Profile

BACKGROUND

The purpose of the project is to enhance social sphere/community assets and provide legal knowledge and skills to the community based organizations in five villages of the Imereti region. The primary target group consists of small rural producers and households in West Georgia - Imereti region.      

The project aims at meeting the following specific objectives in all villages:

• Learning from other similar CEF experiences.

• Assisting the rural population in forming community based organizations (CBOs) working jointly on other important issues.

• Managing CBOs by applying democratic, transparent and  public principles.

• Assisting CBOs in decision-making.

• Producing manual for CBOs.

• Training CBOs  in project-related issues so that they become viable and sustainable upon project termination.

• Preparing territory of selected villages and transferring orthophoto plans to local self-governance and community- based organizations.

• Assisting in the transfer of common-use pastures to local self-governance and community-based organizations and in effective management of pasture lands. 

• Assisting affected rural population in resolving land issues through the establishment of mediation/arbitration system.

• Implementing micro-projects (water, irrigation, construction of gabions on the rivers) in affected villages through CBOs.

There are a number of crosscutting principles underlying the intervention strategy of the Endowment for Community Mobilization Initiatives in Western Georgia (ECMI).  At the core of these is the effect of the political, economic and social legacy of the Soviet period on the nation's citizens.

Community Development

Development at the community level benefits both the 'community as a whole' and also contributes to the creation of an 'enabling environment' for individuals and groups to pursue viable self-survival strategies.  Enabling local communities to become more effective agents of their own development nearly always requires changes in attitude.  Relevant issues in Imereti region include understanding of:

• New ways of developing partnership with local authorities.
• Potential for action-based on co-operation within and between communities.
• Communal rights and responsibilities vis-à-vis local authorities and other external actors.
• Integration with minorities and diversity (including ethnicity, gender and youth).
• There will be three major components of this aspect of the project.
• Strategic Planning.
• Implementation of Specific Projects.
• Group Formation and Strengthening.

The APLR will provide an opportunity for selection of beneficiaries for this intervention, which will be based on three main principles:

Self-Selection: Essentially, people who wish to expand an existing business or practice, or those identifying new opportunities as a result of the basic knowledge and skill-building, can request additional assistance from the project. This is different from focusing only on those already relatively successful.

Viability: The project will respond to those beneficiaries who request assistance based on the viability of the business or agricultural proposition as well as the ability/capacity of the project to provide the necessary support.

Vulnerability: The APLR will aim to ensure that the project responds to the needs of vulnerable and marginalized groups. In order to ensure their engagement in activities, monitoring systems will be developed to profile participants and analyze reasons for participation.  This will include focus group discussions by project personnel in affected villages.  Project strategies will be modified accordingly. In particular, this will include developing mechanisms for females and young people to participate. This might mean developing supplementary basic skills training to address specific needs and/or investing additional resources into activities aimed at the participation of vulnerable groups.

The purpose of the Endowment for Community Mobilization Initiatives in Western Georgia (ECMI) is to catalyze and empower local communities to be directly involved in decision-making for problem analysis, planning and implementation of projects addressed to meet priority issues affecting their quality of life. In order to achieve this, communities will be asked to elect core community leadership in the form of a Community Based Organization (CBO) to be trained in participatory and management skills. 

Building upon the confidence gained as a result of success in meeting their needs, the Endowment for Community Mobilization Initiatives in Western Georgia (ECMI) will strengthen the enabling environment for communities to sustain self-reliant civic action in the longer term by incorporating both horizontal and vertical linkages to CBOs and communities. The member of CBOs will include elected representatives at district level.  A management secretariat for the CBO will evolve from APLR's direct implementation structure for the ECMI and will later be registered as a local non-governmental organization.  The CBO will be the mechanizm for establishing vertical support linkages for sustaining community rural population action, with the arbitration and other advocacy entities that act as brokerage agents between development resources and local programmatic opportunity.  It will act as a training resource for community action methodologies, a mechanism for aggregating regional and district community needs and issues and an informational resource for other CBOs working in West Georgia.

Activities:

• Transfer knowledge and experience from Albania to Georgia.
• Identify beneficiary groups.
• Train staff in community mobilization.
• Achieve agreements with micro-project funding partners.  
• Survey social sphere assets and prepare land passports for targeted community.
• Support community partners in identification, planning accessing resources and implementation of priority projects.
• Monitor ongoing community initiatives to sustain participatory process.
• Review legal situation with respect to land property rights and assess need for legal advice and arbitration/dispute resolution mechanism.
• Prepare of a digital orthophoto plan for each selected village.
• Transfer of pasture land to local communities in high-mountainous villages.
• Prepare and collection of information for the CBO manual.
• Active networking with other community mobilization projects, in order to facilitate.
• Participate in lesson-sharing.

  Outcome and indicators for measuring results are:

• Increased participation of local people in the management of "common goods" pasture.
• Enhanced access to community organizations and services.
• Development of a private arbitration system for alternative dispute resolution.
• Increased civic initiative and participation to identify member for CBOs
• Increased human capital through training, skills development and experience in community leadership roles.
• Increased participation of women in development and resource allocation decision.
• Increased sustainability of self-reliant behavior and civic initiative
•  Increased confidence of communities through successful self-help problems resolution.
• Increased expectation among community members of public leaders regarding accountability, transparency.
• Close relationship and external support from the CEF implementing organization in Albania (TWA) .
• Establishment of CBOs in selected villages.
• Information accessibility.
• Establishment of private arbitration system in villages.
• Increased awareness of the CBOs and the Project affected stakeholders in land legislation issues.
• Delivery of pasture land among CBOs on selected villages.
• Preparation of digital orthophotos for selected villages.
• Implementation of micro-projects by CBOs for communities.

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ASSUMPTIONS 

The level of rural development and especially the level of awareness of the population is extremely low.  Through close relations with rural population and providing information to them, community organizations will be created on the spot.  They will be supplied with information on: (a) what is a community organization; (b) what are its functions; (c) who can become members; (d) what are its rights and responsibilities; (e) how will this organization assist the village population; (f) what results can be expect; (g) how it should be managed; (h) how should micro-projects be implemented; and, (i) how to establish contacts with organizations and projects funded by international organizations.             

The APLR project team will work closely with the communities to identify and assess their needs and find ways to resolve specific issues.  The Association has a vast working experience in the Imereti region which will be useful in the implementation of the project objectives.            

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IMPLEMENTATION 

In supporting of the Endowment for Community Mobilization Initiatives in Western Georgia (ECMI), the APLR will hire qualified staff responsible for completing the project. The Task Coordinators, under the direct supervision of the project manager and within the project frames, will ensure efficient and successful implementation of the Project objectives.  In collaboration with the project manager, they will also be resonsible for daily management of the activities.

• Overseeing implementation planning.
• Monitoring.
• Consolidating reports from the field.
• Administrative oversight.
• Contacts with other organizations.

The APLR's presence and capacity in the area will facilitate the project team's task of setting up a fully functional office immediately upon provision of co-funding from CEF.

The APLR Imereti office will also draw upon the expertise of APLR's existing program, support structure and key finance/administrative personnel.  Tbilisi-based Human Resources and Recruitment Officer will provide assistance to the APLR Imereti Office in the drawing up of APLR standard employment contracts to conform with legal requirements.  The APLR Imereti Office will be responsible for all personnel records and local staff appraisal.

APLR has selected the lowland villages Dimi and Persati, the mountainous village Sakra ula of Bagdati rayon, the lowland village Gumbra and mountainous village Mekvena of Tsakltubo rayon. The project will support capacity building activities in two local communities in the establishment of CBOs as well as three already established community organizations.

During the period of project implementation, the Association will cooperate with CARE International and Mercy Corps International.

Transfer of knowledge and experience from Albania to Georgia.

There is a broad range of topics on which APLR would like to share information and learn from the experiences of other CEF partners, such as: i) Determining CBO (Community-Based Organization) management structure and principles; Division of responsibilities between CBO members; Transparency and democracy in CBOs; CBO capacity building activities; CBO commitments; CBO risk assessment; CBO management experience sharing; CBO activity examples; CBO success stories. (ii) CBO relation to land issues; how effective are CBOs in resolving land related issues. (iii) CBO and self-governance experience in management of common use pastures; how are pastures managed; how are limitations on the use of pastures determined; what is the role of CBOs in pasture management; what knowledge and resources are available for CBOs; Taxation on Pastures; (iv) Legislation related to CBO establishment and management; what are the advantages and disadvantages of legislation regulating CBO activities; how CBOs participate in legislation amendment. (v) Dispute resolution (arbitration) by CBOs; experience and rationale used by CBOs during dispute resolutions; specific cases of dispute resolution. 

There will be joint action with TWA, the CEF Albanian partner of the coalition. The contents and the methodology of the transfer activity will be established as first step of the implementation phase.          

A CBO Manual will be produced, which will become a working document for future actions, and describe the issues likely to be of interest, specifically: how can a community organization be formed?, what should be its structure?, management, member rights and responsibilities, issues concerning the preparation of business plans and selecting foundations, financial accounting, etc.  It will also include those Georgian Laws, knowledge necessary for community development. This manual, which will be printed in 1,000 copies and disseminated free of charge to rural residents in the affected villages, will be interesting not just for community organizations, but also for bodies of local self-governance.                  

Training CBOs in Land Legislation Issue: Knowledge of land legislation is vital in order for the community organizations to take decisions on land-related issues.  At a later date, the expertise gained by the community representatives will be important in resolving land-related issues.

The Association has already prepared high-quality visual aids regarding land legislation which can be used for training purposes.  The Association will supply these training materials to representatives of community organizations and local self-governance.   

There will be three training sessions for all five CBOs and self-governance representatives.  These will be held in the APLR Imereti Office where training will be provided not only on the land-related issues, but also on any other issues in which the partici pants express interest. 

Specifically, this will be:

• Land privatization.
• Land ownership.
• Registration of the right on land ownership and use.
• Land sales, leases.
• Credit obtainment.
• Land taxes.
• Ownership and management of common use pastures.

Members of community organizations, knowledgeable on land legislation, will become the future force to assist the village residents - such CBOs will be given consultant status.  The knowledge will be a tool for the CBOs to protect their legally-transferred land, or geographic/territorial.  Apart from the above, support will be provided on the structural strengthening of local self-governance.     

Transfer of Orthophoto Plans and Cadastre Information to CBOs. The Association is implementing a number of projects financed by different donor organizations aimed at facilitation of land cadastre and registration process.  The Association has high quality digital photos.  Using orthophoto plans,The Association can produce plans of individual villages and Sakrebulos including different types of cadastre information, particularly:

• Village borders.
• Sakrebulo borders.
• Private land parcel borders.
• Borders of land parcels issued in use.
• Pastures.
• Forest and other information.

Lists will be prepared of owners and users of lands which have been allocated for leasing or private ownership.  Both local self-governances and community based organizations will be informed on these issues, in order to ensure participation and transparency.

The Association has all the necessary software and means for printing as well as the necessary equipment for preparing and processing digital orthophotos.

There will be three training sessions held in the APLR Imereti office, on orthophoto plans and cadastre issues provided for all five CBOs and self-governance representatives. 

Transfer of Pasture Lands to CBOs. According to Georgian legislation, only pastures located in high mountainous villages can be allocated into private ownership.  However, because this has not yet taken place, APLR will assist two CBOs in the registration of these pastures into community ownership.

The first step towards the above objective will be the identification of pasture land for specific affected villages, after which the establishment of a methodology for pasture land management will be developed by the CBOs with the assistance of APLR. 

Land passports will be prepared for high mountainous villages and pastures will be transferred into ownership of community based organizations.

The process will be controlled and managed by community organizations who will become owners, regulate the area and supervise representatives of self-governance bodies, in order to prevent illegal tax collection and land distribution.

The following outcomes will create a sustainable environment for village development:

The village will be able to equally manage pastures in private ownership for every village household;

• Pasture land will be protected from illegal transactions.
• Accuracy of transferred lands will be controlled using digital photos.
• Allow the village to determine the tax fees according to households.
• Management of natural resources, soil, water and forest, will be achieved through appropriate training.
• Water, irrigation systems and dams will be refurbished.

Establishment of Private Arbitration for CBOs. Within the framework of the ECMI project, private dispute resolution (arbitration) will be take place in order that the village population can resolve disputes on the spot saving owners both time and expense of expensive court cases and the related problems.  With the assistance of experienced specialists working in the Association, the training of representatives of village communities will incorporate several model processes. 

There will be three training courses held in the APLR Imereti office, on arbitration issues provided for all five CBOs. 

1. Training will be conducted on the following issues.
2. Preparing the documents for arbitration.
3. Preparing parties for the process.
4. Conducting the process.
5. Studying the methods of decision-making for dispute resolution.

There will be two dispute resolution cases per project affected village arbitrated by the participation of the APLR.  In addition, three more will be conducted by the village CBOs and monitored by APLR.  Thus, a total of ten cases will be dealt with directly with APLR participation, and fifteen other cases will be conducted by the CBOs with the indirect involvement of the APLR.

Implementation of Micro-Projects. In relatively simple micro-projects, APLR will provide technical support, resources and monitoring, with communities undertaking the organization and supervision of work.  For rural residents of Georgia it is important to resolve such issues, as: drinking water supply, electricity supply, roads, construction/restoration of irrigation and drainage systems, protecting privately owned land parcels from natural or artificial erosion, river and rain water flooding, protection of landslide territories, wind protection lines and many other problems. APLR will assist the CBOs in identification of issues for implementation of micro-projects prioritized by the participating communities themselves.

There will be three types of surveys conducted by the project team:

• identification of problems and issues to be addressed in the micro-projects;
• monitoring the implementation of micro-projects;
• evaluating results and outcomes of micro-projects.       

Public Relations. The APLR publishes a monthly newspaper "Landowner" covering agricultural and land issues.  The "Landowner" will serve as a source of information for CBOs and the project affected communities to inform on the activities and results of the project implementation.    

The Association will also produce a one-time television programme, financed by the USAID Land Market Development project, focusing on the following issues: (1) micro projects implemented through the ECMI Projects; (2) dispute resolution in villages, and (3) transfer of pastures in ownership of communities.  

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FACTORS ENSURING SUSTAINABILITY

The first level of sustainability is in the benefits achieved from community-level projects completed under the ECMI Project. In order to ensure that benefits will be maintained, it will be necessary to include a maintenance plan that outlines responsibilities and resources required to sustain benefits for delivery of pasture lands among the community members and prepare.

A key ingredient for the sustainability of the ECMI objective is the ability of CBOs to continue successful problem solving activities and have input into larger social policy issues that affect the maintenance and growth of local social services and development. This implies a growing and strengthened capability to attract a range of financial and technical resources at both the individual CBO level as well as a higher level of scale involving multiple CBOs up to the district level. At the regional level, a network of CBO representatives can have significant impact on social policy directions and reform initiatives.

The ECMI Project will ensure that gender equity is a focus of all community mobilization and implementation efforts.  The ECMI will require that 50% of CBO members be women since women comprise approximately 50% of the population.  This brings women into the decision making process.  In order to ensure that participation is real, PRA activities will include opportunities for women CBO members to work together in focus groups in order to stimulate problem analyses and solutions in gender specific areas of concern.

FOLLOW-UP: APLR will continue to provide support to the CBOs after the completion of the project through consultations and capacity-building training.  One of the main goals of the project is to create sustainable community-based organizations to function independently long after the completion of the project activities.  Nonetheless, APLR are committed to monitor CBOs and their activities through developing the sustainability plan after the project.  There are a number of international organizations working on community empowerment and mobilization programs throughout Georgia .  APLR will serve as a channel of information to the CBOs to obtain small-scale grants through the above programs.  APLR Western Georgia office in Kutaisi (Imereti region) will ensure monitoring and update of CBOs on regular basis.  APLR will carry out monthly meetings at Kutaisi office premises with CBO management members to discuss the problems arisen during the month as well as to seek the solutions at village and regional level. 

Field trips to project affected villages will be made by APLR Kutaisi office representatives to assess the environment created after the project closure and support CBOs in elaboration of action plan for future activities.  APLR will also commit to provide regular editions and newsletters, published by different local and international organizations and projects in the region, to CBOs to ensure increased awareness regarding the ongoing programs/projects as well as existing possibilities for potential and professional growth of CBOs.

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MONITORING, EVALUATION, LESSONS LEARNED AND GENERATION OF KNOWLEDGE

APLR places a high emphasis on Monitoring and Evaluation.  During this exercise, precise mechanisms for measuring the indicators in the logical framework will be devised and documented so that the same methodology can be utilized for the final evaluation.  Indicators will be revised, as necessary.  Local Community Based Organizations will be involved in the process of self-monitoring and evaluation.

All information on monitoring and evaluation will be desegregated by significant groupings (e.g., gender, ethnicity groups if it's exist in selected villages).

APLR has a strong performance record in monitoring and evaluation, with proven ca pa city to integrate lessons learned from their own project experiences as well as from similar projects in Samtskhe-Javakheti region.  Among the most important lessons learned and reflected in this proposal is that APLR's monitoring system will emphasis community participation in all phases of monitoring (e.g. design, data collection, analysis) with formal mechanisms built in to incorporate monitoring results and findings into project design and implementation.

The objectives of the monitoring system put in place by APLR will be to:

• Evaluate the impact of the project interventions against the logical framework.
• Build the capacity of communities and partners to use information for planning, developing and managing their interventions.
• Make decisions on whether to add, delete or modify activities based on performance, changing opportunities and constraints.
• Provide information that can be used to inform common land policy work at local, regional and national scale.

The advantages of involving communities in developing the indicators and systems are numerous, including:

• Reduced bias.
• Developed up through a participatory approach, this process instills local ownership of the data and the need for honest and accurate data collection.  It is also a key step in building capacity of communities to plan and implement projects.
• Allows for peer review of data to authenticate accuracy of data.
• Increases the sustainability of the communities by developing the skills to examine cause-effect relationship.

The project personnel will conduct an annual review aimed at appraising the appropriateness of interventions and strategies.  This will involve compilation and formal review of data, collection of additional data as required, and a review/planning workshop.  All financial and programmatic reporting obligations will be fully met in accordance with the receipt of the grant from CEF.  A final evaluation will be undertaken at the end of the Project. 

One of the criteria of the Association's monitoring will be activeness by villagers and community organizations, number of attendees at meetings and trainings.  Association's rightful activities should cause increase of activeness among the villagers.

After transferring pastures in community ownership, each and every villager will participate in pasture management.  Moreover, using pastures as model, villagers will learn how to manage other natural resources such as forests, waters and how to protect their natural resources to misappropriation.

Assessment criteria for arbitration activities will be the number and quality of resolved disputes.

Information on micro-projects will be publicly displayed in public areas of the villages in order to allow the villagers to participate in decision-making.  Village residents will be given possibility to monitor and assess the whole process. 

Through implementation of the ECMI Project, the model of local natural resources management by community organizations in compliance with current Georgian legislation will be achieved. 

The APLR maintains a weekly updated web site, which can serve as a source of information for sharing the knowledge generated by the Project with the ILC, its partners, as well as other local and international organizations interested in community mobilization and empowerment activities. 

At the end of the Project, APLR will draft a progress report outlining outcomes and lessons learned as result of the Project implementation.  This report will be distributed to Land Coalition and its partners worldwide

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