Oxfam GB

This paper describes how the process of community participation in local budgeting in the Republic of Georgia was established to help communities build the confidence to work directly with local government officials for the purpose of building a new kind of civil society. Beginning in 2002, Oxfam Great Britain (GB) worked with the Association of Disabled Women and Mothers of Disabled Children (DEA), with initial support from the Association of Young Economists of Georgia (AYEG), to implement budget-monitoring projects in Zugdidi District.

The context of governance in the Republic of Georgia prior to the initiation of Oxfam's involvement included a number of factors enumerated here. The Soviet era left the civil society without participatory experience in local government and included a history of corruption and centralised control. Following the transition to self-rule, there was a successful peaceful protest for change - the Rose Revolution of 2003 - and unrest that caused internal population displacement.

In 1998, the government attempted a decentralisation process through local government reforms, which gave more power to elected representatives of the local self-governance body, the Sakrebulo. The role of these bodies is to listen to what people have to say at local level, monitor what is happening, and make proposals for change. These proposals are then taken to the Gamgeoba, the executive branch of local self-governance, and if necessary to central government. Resources can then flow back to the villages and municipalities. However, political turmoil interrupted the implementation of the system. Oxfam first began to mobilise local communities in 2002 with a pilot project partnering with the DEA, a civil society organisation (CSO), that was originally established to focus on local budgeting for people with disabilities and later expanded to other areas of government spending.

The Local Budget Monitoring project, run by these organisations in 30 villages from 2006 - 2008, had the following objectives:

• Improve the skills and raise the awareness of local government representatives
• Introduce participatory attitudes and principles into budgetary processes
• Conduct budget monitoring of the budget of Zugdidi municipality in 2007 and part of 2008
• Raise public awareness about budgetary processes and budget monitoring. DEA worked closely with both the Sakrebulo and the Gamgeoba.

With the elected representatives, DEA focused mainly on capacity-building, training, and making the representatives more aware of the laws and functions they can work with. With the Gamgeoba, the focus was more on lobbying for the correct use of the budget and trying to ensure that they prioritise local demands. The process was to establish local interest groups which formed community committees and used AYEG's expertise to provide capacity-building training and training in grassroots advocacy and lobbying, as well as to assist DEA in analysing collected budget data.

A 2006 change in the law of municipality government obliged municipalities to ensure the active participation of society, seek ways of co-operation with them, and ensure transparency, accountability, socio-economic development, civil participation, and improvement of living standards, especially for vulnerable people. As a result, the budget monitoring project shifted from village committees to a municipality committee, which monitors through the following sub-committees:

1. The rule of law
2. Education, culture, and sports
3. The social sphere
4. Property and privatisation
5. Infrastructure
6. Gender budget monitoring.

This group submits priorities to the Gamgeoba and the Sakrebulo. Information flows to civil society members through quarterly bulletins, twice-monthly radio programmes, and a DEA newspaper. Concerns about agricultural land use have created the opportunity for information and capacity-building resources to enable local engagement in monitoring the transparency of the land privatisation process. Community engagement is also occurring through in micro social projects such as fixing village roads, restoring green areas or forests, or removing waste and cleaning up villages. A process of problem mapping for the 30 villages of the region helps to prioritise solutions. Resources are then requested from local authorities. The committee doing the mapping serves as a link between marginalised groups' needs and local authorities' implementation.

The document concludes that the budget monitoring project helped with attitudinal change, moving people from passive expectation to active participation in decisions that affect their lives. It included capacity building for new approaches and increasing local expertise, particularly on municipal budgeting.

Oxfam GB website accessed on May 7 2009.