Foreign Aid Transparency Foreign Aid Transparency Foreign Aid Transparency Foreign Aid Transparency in Georgiain Georgiain Georgiain Georgia

European Regional Consultation for the Open Forum for CSO Development Effectiveness in Brussels, Belgium April 14-15, 2011

Donor Pledge to Georgia

International donors and financial institutions pledged $4.55 billion at an international donors’ conference on October 22, 2008.

Priority areas:

� Development of transport infrastructure;� Implementation of energy projects;� Construction of houses for IDPs.

A large amount of funding was also provided to support the state budget.

Why to Conduct Monitoring?

� Unprecedented support to Georgia

� Lack of control/monitoring mechanisms to ensure appropriate oversight/management of the donor funds by the Government.

Seeing the need for involvement, seven Georgian NGOs formed a coalition to monitor transparent and efficient spending of the funds.

Coalition: Transparent Aid to Georgia

Coalition Transparent Aid to Georgia was founded in November 2008 right after the Brussels' conference.

Mission:

Promote transparency of the foreign financial aid pledged to Georgia by donor countries and international organizations to assist Georgia in overcoming the crisis following the August 2008 armed conflict, increase government accountability and encourage the participation of civil society in the aid management.

Members:

� Open Society Georgia Foundation � Georgian Young Lawyer’s Association � Transparency International Georgia� Economic Policy Research Centre� Eurasia Partnership Foundation � Green Alternative Georgia� Georgian Regional Media Association � Independent Experts

Scope of Work:

� Monitor the appropriateness of aid allocations;

� Promote the transparency of aid expenditures;

� Analyze the macroeconomic effectiveness of aid allocations;

� Advocate for alternative expenditure priorities (when necessary) and effective mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability;

� Raise civil society participation in decision making processes;

� Cooperate closely with representatives of the Georgian Government, donors, political parties, local and international organizations, and the mass media, etc.

Awareness Raising

� Launching the Coalition Transparent Foreign Aid to Georgia;

� Weekly newspaper articles in all major regional newspapers on aid transparency to make aid topic popular in the regions;

� Regular press conferences on aid transparency issues;

� Training CSO and media representatives on aid transparency;

� 10 events presenting different policy papers and reports on aid monitoring;

� Event: Year after the Brussels' Conference - unveiling findings of 1 year monitoring.

Key Communication Messages:

� Transparency of foreign aid - How is the money spent?

� The foreign aid pledged will work on the benefit of the society if spent efficiently

� Not only transparency but effectiveness and efficient spending of these funds is essential

� The misuse of foreign aid may lead to detriment of many sectors

Conditionality: Donors should pay more attention to government’s performance and set conditions for granting

Media Coverage

Functioning of the coalition was widely covered by the following communication channels:

� Regional and national press

� Digital media

� Electronic media - TV/Radio

(over several hundred articles and approximately 100 TV plots)

Monitoring Efforts

� Monitoring of the state budget that encompassed all direct budget support grants (USA, World Bank, Asian Development Bank – how has the aid been reflected in the state budget)

� Monitoring road rehabilitation programs (violation of procurement procedures/CoI cases)

� Donor monitoring and their ranking (most and least transparent donors)

� Monitoring IDP housing (quality and financial monitoring)

Successful Advocacy Cases:

� Advocating for improvement of domestic monitoring mechanisms (MoF published detailed donor aid matrix)

� Advocating for donor transparency based on the Paris Declaration (Georgia joined Paris Declaration in December 2010)

Successful Advocacy Case (1):

Environment protection in donor funded energy projects

Campaign:

Response to the Problem of Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park caused by the construction of 500 kilovolt power transmission line across the National Park

Achievement:

Government selected the version that would inflict no damage on the park. The European Commission provided additional 3 million EUR grant to cover the difference between the funds provided earlier and the actual amount needed.

Successful Advocacy Case (2):

Cottage Settlement for Georgia's New IDPs: Accountability in Aid and Construction

Campaign:

Study of IDPs' settlements elicited the practice of inadequate increase of the agreement values due to the frequent changes made in the ones (therefore, initial value of 85 agreements was increased by 26,6% in total, amounted to circa 10 mln. USD)

Achievement:

1,5 month after presentation of the study report there was made an amendment to the regulation on Public Procurements banning increase of public procurement agreement value more than by 10%.

Unsuccessful case:

Appealing the donors to envisage aid conditionality in aid pledges to support sustainable democratization processes in Georgia

Lessons Learned

� Identification of key stakeholders from the government and

maintenance of mechanisms for regular information sharing

� Joint efforts bring better results

� Issue oriented advocacy campaigns and involvement of

qualified experts

� Involvement of international community

� Thoroughly planned awareness raising campaign

Policy papers/monitoring reports elaborated:

� Reflection of donors' financial aid within the framework of Brussels Conference decisions in the 2008 and 2009 State Budgets of Georgia - OSGF

� Economic Challenges of Georgia and Governmental Strategy against Global Economic Crisis - OSGF

� Implementation of 18-month Economic Program under the IMF-supported Stand-by Arrangement - OSGF

� Evaluation of the Loan Component of the Post-War Aid Pledge - OSGF

� Review of the legislation regulating the process of reception, allocation and monitoring of international aid in Georgia - GYLA

� Donor Ranking - TI Georgia

Policy papers/monitoring reports elaborated:

� Environmental Impact of the Projects, Implemented with Financial Aid - Association Green Alternative

� The analysis of Grant Agreements between the donors and the Government of Georgia -GYLA

� Accountability to Beneficiaries - TI Georgia

� Cottage Settlement for Georgia's New IDPs: Accountability in Aid and Construction - TI Georgia, GYLA

� Aid to Georgia: Empowering Georgians via the World Wide Web - TI Georgia

� Accounting, Disposal and Control of the International Aid in Georgia - GYLA

� Monitoring the Millennium Challenge Program, 4th and 5th Stages - EPRC

Thanks for your attention!

Contact Information:

Ani AkhalkatsiCivil Society Support Program Coordinator

Open Society Georgia Foundation

E-mail: ani@osgf.ge