Georgia

To accompany the Government of Georgia in its poverty reduction response with the aim of decreasing dependency on state social allowances for the ultra-poor and most vulnerable population groups, in a collective effort to increase their resilience and encourage their active participation in socio-economic life. 

1. To contribute to strengthening the capacities of duty-bearers to effectively engage in the management of poverty alleviation schemes at central and municipal levels;
2. To pilot one effective poverty reduction response mechanism through which the ultra-poor, including vulnerable families with children, refugees, asylum-seekers and IDPs throughout Georgia are empowered and resilient;
3. To contribute to social cohesion of vulnerable communities within Georgia.

 Georgia is a middle-income country with an emerging free market economy still in a transition phase since it gained independence in 1991 right after the collapse of Soviet Union. An estimated 21.3 percent of Georgia's population is under the absolute poverty line, shows the latest data of 2020 poverty indicators published by the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).

 According to the latest poverty projection by the World Bank in December 2020, the economic shock from the pandemic could have impoverished 350,000 people in Georgia and forced over 800,000 people to suffer from downward mobility, transitioning to a lower-income group. 

Georgia has been struggling with frozen conflicts and protracted displacement since the 1990s which has had great impact on its general development. Within vulnerability groups, internally displaced persons (IDPs), which according to official Georgian sources constitute 7% of Georgian population (about 286 811 (90 614 families) persons), as a result of the conflicts in the 1990s and in 2008, are particularly affected. 

Beside IDPs, the pandemic has affected the wider population in urban and rural communities countrywide including disadvantaged families with small children who struggle to cope with the outcome from the loss of jobs, livelihoods, incomes and mobility. According to Geostat, approximately up to 30% of Georgian population receives pension and other social benefits/allowances from the Government due to their vulnerability status. 

Georgia is also a country of asylum for individuals coming from various countries of origin including Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Eritrea, Russia and Turkey. As COVID-19 heavily impacted the economy in a whole, it has also affected the well-being of refugees, asylum-seekers, and stateless persons. In these circumstances, self-reliance presents even more of a major challenge for these vulnerable groups.

As of October 2021, the number of refugees, humanitarian status holders and asylum seekers in Georgia is 2,461. Georgia is also hosting some 538 stateless persons and an unknown number of persons at risk of statelessness/lacking IDs mainly within the ethnic minorities’ communities.