The FINANCIAL — “Small countries need to cooperate,” Thomas Reynolds, mission director of CARE International in the Caucasus said on the opening day of a conference on cooperation across the Georgian-Armenian border. “When you can cooperate on economic issues, you create a precedent and can go on to cooperate on a number of other issues. Development happens when there is solidarity and when everyone is working together.”
Economic cooperation emerged as one among a range of issues explored during a conference Civil Society and Government – from Communication to Cooperation held by CARE International in the Caucasus and its partner organization Civil Development Agency (CiDA) in which leaders from Georgia and Armenia shared results of a 30-month project titled “Poverty Reduction and Confidence-building in Bordering Areas of Georgia and Armenia by Strengthening Civil Societies in Sustainable Rural Development” (STAGE II). The conference was held October 20 and 21 in Tbilisi.
The conference included a full range of participants, including representatives from civil society organizations and local government in the target regions, along with national and international NGO and government leaders and experts on economic development and confidence building.
STAGE II included workshops linking different ethnic groups, support for agriculture development and the promotion of community participation in local government. This project targeted six municipalities in the border regions of Samtskhe–Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli in Georgia, and Lorri, Tavush and Shirak in Armenia.
STAGE II was financed by the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) implemented by CARE Austria and CARE International in the Caucasus, along with the partner organizations Civil Development Agency (CiDA) in Georgia and Center for Agribusiness and Rural Development (CARD) in Armenia.
Youth link to the future
Hermine Papikyan, from the Shirak Competitiveness Center in Armenia, told conference participants about a community information center established as part of the project to provide young people with access to civic education. The community is isolated by geography and lack of transportation, she said, so the information center provides a crucial link to the outside world.
“Maybe youth will start their own development project in the community,” Papikyan said. “I see the development in the new generation.”
Papikyan said that progress does not have to be on a grand scale to effect change. “These projects are small in size,” she said, “but they are the basis of something that will continue in future.”
Organizers hoped that the conference would provide a way for participants to carry forward the work of the Stage II project through gaining understanding and making plans for future cooperation and joint action.
Voices from across the border
Presenters at the conference included representatives from Georgian and Armenian governments and organizations who have participated in a variety of such cross-border initiatives. Others included a summer camp for youth from both countries, the rehabilitation of an irrigation system, and the creation of a guidebook to help farmers and vendors cross the Georgian-Armenian border.
Distinguished speakers included Thomas Reynolds, mission director of CARE International in the Caucasus; Van Baiburti, advisor to the President of Georgia; Philippe Bernhard, project manager and attaché to the EU Delegation to Georgia; and Konstantine Kobakhidze, deputy Minister of Agriculture of Georgia.
Zviad Devdariani, director of Civil Development Agency (CiDA), said that Stage II helped strengthen the cooperation between NGOs and local governments.
Benefits of this cooperation include improved services to local populations, strengthened democratic values and an overall better political environment, along with increased cultural understanding and economic development.
Van Baiburti said the Georgian government appreciates the importance of ongoing understanding and joint action. “Today we have seen how you moved from communication to cooperation. If we keep up the support for the communities,” he said, “we will move from cooperation to real development.”
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