The EU launches My Village information campaign on community-based rural development in Georgia

By Natalia Kochiashvili

Friday, October 2

LAGs identify rural development priorities and draft local development strategies based on the municipality’s needs and capabilities analysis, and then provide EU-funded grants to support local development initiatives.

Ambassador Hartzell: 'Over 3 steps of the program since 2013, ENPARD has already spent more than half-billion gel in Georgia.'

The European Embassy in Georgia has launched a new information campaign ‘My Village’ on Local Action Groups (LAGs). EU ambassador Carl Hartzel says in his interview that agricultural, tourism, and economic potential, rural development is vitally important for Georgia’s sustainable and inclusive economic growth, and though this is part of the bigger project, the ‘bottom-up’ approach helps support local ownership and entrepreneurship.

The EU has been assisting Georgia since 2013 with the ENPARD program in developing this potential. This includes support to the Government to promote better policy and help modernize the sector and working with partners to support and raise skills in the regions. “However, effective local development also requires local engagement,” reads the press release.

That is why for the last years, the EU has been working with partners and supporting bottom-up, community-based approaches to rural development in Georgia. Based on EU best practices, these approaches bring local citizens, civil society organizations, and municipalities together to develop solutions for their regions in the form of Local Action Groups (LAGs). To date, LAGs have been established in 12 municipalities throughout Georgia, including Lagodekhi, Borjomi, Kazbegi, Tetritskaro, Akhalkalaki, Dedoplistskaro, Keda, Khulo, Tsalka, Akhmeta, Tskaltubo, and Mestia.

LAG is a non-profit group, made up of representatives of the local community (public, private, and civil society sectors) that decides the directions and content of local development strategy and pursues diverse socio-economic activities to the benefit of the local community.

Through the LAGs, the EU has funded over 500 local initiatives that have helped diversify local economies, provided better employment to more than 1 000 rural households, and improved living conditions of over 10 000 rural population.

The goal is to help Georgia’s rural communities to make the best of the local economy, stay and prosper in their villages without having to think about migrating somewhere for a better livelihood.

“The greatest achievement of our work is to see the motivation, interest, and enthusiasm of people who take local development into their own hands. We will continue to build on this. Our goal is to help Georgia’s rural communities to make the best of the local economy, stay and prosper in their villages without having to think about migrating somewhere for better livelihood,” stated EU Ambassador to Georgia.

This week, the EU is launching an information campaign to raise awareness about these local community initiatives. Over the next two weeks, we will bring you the success stories of LAGs established with EU support in different parts of Georgia, as well as rural people who benefited from LAG actions. We will show you how local communities are taking a wider perspective, where they are seeking economic upturn not only in agriculture but also through entrepreneurship, tourism, services, and other locally-driven initiatives.