Land Title Reform in Akhalgori, Georgia
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| U.S. Ambassador Richard Miles and USAID
Europe and Eurasia Assistant Administrator Kent Hill present two millionth
land title to Rusudan Pavliashvili in Akhalgori, Georgia on July 26,
2002. |
For Rusudan Pavliashvili, it was going to be a big day. She stood with
scores of her neighbors in the shade of the tall poplar trees sheltering
from the hot July sun. They waited quietly, almost reverently in front
of the run-down municipal building for what promised to be a truly memorable
event. Today, the land that Stalin and the Bolsheviks had taken away decades
earlier, was about to be given back to her by the Government of Georgia.
Rusudan and her neighbors assembled in Akhalgori in the former Soviet
Republic of Georgia not far from the birthplace of Stalin. Akhalgori is
a remote farming community several hours’ drive from main highways
along poorly maintained roads adjacent to the disputed area of South Ossetia
near the Russian Border. For Mrs. Pavliashvili and her neighbors assembled
to celebrate land ownership, it was a day they would not soon forget.
They not only would remember seeing one of their neighbors awarded title
to the two millionth parcel of newly privatized agricultural land later
that morning, but they would also recall that it was the Soviets who took
their land and the Americans who returned their land – surveyed,
titled and registered, thanks to the land reform efforts of USAID.
USAID’s Europe & Eurasia Bureau Assistant Administrator Kent
Hill, US Ambassador to Georgia, Richard Miles, and USAID/Caucasus Mission
Director Michael Farbman participated in the presentation of land title
registration certificates to some 150 villagers living in Akhalgori district,
a mountainous region of Georgia. Representing the Georgian side for the
ceremony marking the two millionth title award were Association for the
Protection of Landowner Rights (APLR) Director Jaba Ebanoidze, First Deputy
Governor of Mtsketa-Mtianeti region Tamaz Manjgaladze, State Department
of Land Management Chief Registrar Qishvard Kvitsiani, local government
officials, and Georgian parliamentarians.
The ceremony served as a poignant reminder that a painful period of Georgian
history – in which the collectivization of lands deprived people
of land that their families had farmed for centuries – had truly
passed. Since gaining independence in 1991, Georgia has been a leader
among the former Soviet states in privatizing land. The 2.4 million parcels
that will be registered by this USAID project are owned by an estimated
750,000 households, directly benefiting half of the nation’s population.
At the opening of the ceremony, Ambassador Miles said, “I offer
my very warm congratulations to the farmers and landowners of Akhalgori
– those who have received registration certificates in the past and those who are receiving their registration certificates
today. May your families and your farms prosper, as you participate in
this revolutionary
restructuring of land ownership in Georgia.”
In his address at the ceremony, Dr. Kent Hill remarked, “A key
to Georgia’s future economic growth is the development of agriculture,
and … privatization of land is an important first step. I look forward
to the successful completion of this step, and to the continuation of
our partnership in helping you – the farmers of Georgia –
to restore the vitality, productivity, and economic security of the Georgian
countryside.”
USAID assistance for land titling is being carried out by the Land Market
Development Project. The first phase of this project (1997-2000) was carried
out by Booz-Allen & Hamilton. The current phase (2001-2003) is being
implemented by Terra Institute, a Wisconsin-based NGO with extensive experience
in land tenure issues. The Association for Protection of Landowners’
Rights, Georgia’s leading NGO in the field of land administration
and land use policy reform, has worked on implementation through both
phases of the project.
In 1998, under the USAID Land Market Development Project, APLR and Booz-Allen
& Hamilton began their collaborative work to develop a more rational
and efficient land privatization system in Georgia that would benefit
both private landholders and the government.
Now working with Terra Institute, APLR has been assisting in surveying,
registration and titling of agricultural land parcels in 51 regions of
Georgia. Current project efforts also support improved legislation, public
education and – in an important follow-on objective – development
of a secondary land transactions market. Once farmers or other landowners
have obtained the right to their land, they may decide how to utilize
this property in their own best interest. While most continue to farm
the land themselves, some decide to sell their land, or buy more land,
or mortgage the land in order to obtain credit for land improvement.
Since 1999, the number of land sales and purchases has tripled, and the
number of landowners obtaining mortgages on their land has increased five-fold.
The total number of these ‘secondary’ transactions reached
over thirteen thousand in 2001, and is expected to continue growing as
more landowners are given the chance – for the first time in Georgia’s
history – to make choices as to how to use their privately-owned
land.
During Georgia’s first decade of economic transition, these privatized
agricultural land parcels were instrumental in maintaining a basic food
supply for Georgia’s citizens, thereby softening the impact of the
general economic decline. In future years, the agricultural and food processing
sectors are expected to play an increasingly important role in revitalizing
the nation’s economy, and in increasing its export earnings.
USAID/Caucasus’ Economic Growth office is implementing programs
to increase access to credit, help develop private enterprises, and to
improve business and employment opportunities in the rural areas and small
cities of Georgia. USAID is supporting the development of a rural credit
system through U.S. NGO ACDI/VOCA’s Credit Cooperatives. This program
provides loans to small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises in several
regions of Georgia. Under the Support Added Value Enterprises (SAVE) project,
also managed by ACDI/VOCA, USAID seeks to identify and remove or reduce
constraints on the production of certain agricultural outputs that have
been identified as having export potential. The SAVE project will help
improve the competitiveness of these targeted products, and thereby open
up new export opportunities for Georgian farmers and food processors.
As USAID Mission Director Michael Farbman noted at the ceremony, "...The
Land Market Development project – as important and as fundamental
as it clearly is – is but one program in a multi-faceted portfolio
that is designed to improve the productivity and competitiveness of Georgia’s
farms, food processing, and other agri-business enterprises."
At the conclusion of the ceremony, Jaba Ebanoidze, the Director of APLR
said, "I would like to express gratitude to USAID, and offer congratulations
on its ten-year anniversary in Georgia. Thanks for the support in building
a democratic country, one of the most important attributes of which is
the recognized and guaranteed private ownership of land... This ceremony
is neither the beginning nor the end... We still have long way to go."
P.S. The Land Markets Development Project is implemented under the auspices
of USAID/Caucasus’ Economic Growth Office by the Georgian Association
for the Protection of Landowners' Rights and the Terra Institute, a Wisconsin-based
NGO. David Smith, Terra Resident Advisor, Irina Gabriadze, Project Management
Specialist, and Gerald R. Andersen, Director of the Mission's Economic
Growth Office, contributed to this article.
Foreigners in Georgia often are told a revised version
of Genesis, as follows: “When God created the world, He distributed
all the land of the world to the different peoples of the world. But He
forgot about the Georgians, who were last in line. ‘Wait, just a
minute,’ He said. ‘I have a little piece of land, not very
big, but it is my own garden, and I will give it to you’. So the
Georgians weren’t given a large territory, but it is very beautiful
and rich, and truly a heavenly garden.”
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