Georgia’s Citizens Take the Lead in Planning Their Communities’ Future
Like other Georgian cities, Poti suffers from high unemployment and poor access to basic utilities, such as electricity and water. In 2003, USAID’s local governance program, implemented by the Urban Institute, began community-based strategic planning in Poti, a city of 50,000 located on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. To ensure that the process was representative, a general invitation soliciting volunteer members for the planning team was widely publicized through TV and newspapers.
One person who saw the ad was Nona Khukhia, 38. Nona had moved to Poti in 1993 to escape ethnic conflict in the breakaway region of Abkhazia. As a professor of economics and founder of an NGO promoting economic rights for women and displaced persons, she has a professional interest in development. But she also has strong personal feelings about the importance of civic engagement.
“As an active member of the community and mother of three small children, I have the same rights and responsibilities as any other member of society.”
Nona responded to the call for volunteers and has quickly become one of the team’s most active members. In fact, over 60 representatives from local government, the business community, NGOs, academia and the community at large have signed on. By 2004, the team had analyzed Poti’s economic situation, set goals, and identified the actions—and funding—needed to more forward. This draft plan was presented at open meetings at which Nona answered questions from the general public, including local youth and gender group representatives.
The final version of the plan has been submitted to the Poti city council for formal approval and adoption. In the meantime, it has been instrumental in furthering the city’s negotiations with the World Bank and private sector gas companies for the financing of an $80-million local power plant.
The community-based economic development model introduced in Poti not only created a forum for participatory strategic planning, but also provided a way for the community to benefit from the energy, commitment, and expertise of residents such as Nona, who might otherwise have found themselves shut out.
And Nona intends to keep working on the development issues that she learned about through the project—small business development, decentralization and other legislative reforms, community engagement, and cooperation among government, business, and NGO sectors.
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