Strengthen Social Protection in Georgia

Minimizing the social impact of the pandemic on the people affected, through increasing the capacity of the relevant state actors

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Georgian economy has contracted by 4.9% in 2020 and the most vulnerable have been hit the hardest due to a dramatic decrease in household income. After a steady decline in poverty and extreme poverty over the past decade, the Covid pandemic has pushed the poverty rate up from 19.7 to 21.3 percent in 2020 according to National Statistics Office of Georgia (GeoStat) figures.

The situation is lingering and is challenging the different socio-economic successes of the past decade:

• introduction of targeted social assistance (TSA) and subsequent decrease in poverty,
• development of family and childcare services,
• creation of the universal healthcare programme,
• introduction of a mandatory contributory pension scheme for formal workers,
• increase of pensions and benefits for mountain residents,
• increase in the universal old-age pension and disability pensions and social services,
• creation of the Employment Agency and the Internally Displaced Persons and Eco-Migrant Agency.

In 2021, poverty rate is expected to rise to 2013-figures and the incidence of extreme poverty in the population could more than double to 7.4%.

The biggest part of the 3.5 billion GEL of the 2020 Anti-crisis Plan (30%) was allocated to direct assistance to citizens: people who have lost their jobs and have not earned a salary, socially vulnerable families, and people living with disability and their household, assistance for children, and subsidiaries for utilities during winter months. It is expected that 1.1 billion GEL will be allocated for the anti-crisis plan in 2021, with social support amounting to 545 million GEL.

Social protection in Georgia

The Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labor, Health and Social Affairs (MoILHSA) of Georgia sets the strategy for social assistance and poverty alleviation.

Its agencies implement its policies:

• the Social Services Agency (SSA) provides financial support through Targeted Social Assistance (TSA) and pensions
• the State Care Agency through its social services
• the Employment Agency through various employment promotion programs

The main anti-poverty tool, the Targeted Social Assistance (TSA), is a means-tested financial assistance based on vulnerability scores calculated from applicants' declarations and verified by SSA social workers.

Efforts are being made centrally to make information about benefits and entitlements available from MoIHLSA. For example, the MoIHLSA and SSA websites provide links and detailed information on benefit levels, eligibility requirements, and administrative procedures for accessing benefits. Despite these efforts, awareness may be lower where Internet access is limited, such as in remote or mountainous areas.

The Social Services Agency has benefited from improvements in data and information management in recent years, including better linkages between program databases and between state and local offices. According to agency officials, this has led to an overall decrease in complaints related to purely administrative issues, such as late payments, which were typical under the old paper-based system. The Georgian government fully understands the crucial importance of digital development and is in the process of creating a new IT and analytics agency under its supervision.

Strengthening social protection

With the project to strengthen social protection, Expertise France and the Czech Development Agency will support the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from Occupied Territories, Labor, Health and Social Affairs (MoILHSA) and stakeholders in the social protection sector in Georgia on three crucial issues: improving the quality of social services, developing information systems and reforming the country's social protection system.

Improving the quality of social services

This component focuses primarily on improving Targeted Social Assistance (TSA) through better targeting of vulnerable populations and improved service delivery. To this end, the experts mobilized will conduct surveys and design training for social workers. Municipalities are also included in the process of identifying the most vulnerable populations and improving the service offer.

Developing information systems dedicated to social protection

Through this component, Expertise France and its partner want to improve the accessibility of social services on the Internet by supporting the rationalization of the website of the Social Services Agency or by improving the knowledge of available social services by the populations through communication campaigns. Information and data management within the different institutions of the system is also at the heart of this component's concerns.

Supporting a reform of the social protection system

In Georgia, different ministries and agencies are involved in social protection, resulting in a fragmentation of services, benefits and legislation. This fragmentation of legislation makes it difficult for social protection practitioners, stakeholders and legal entities to monitor and update legal procedures. There is no single legislative document that holistically brings together the different rights, processes, and financing mechanisms of social protection.

The MoIHLSA recently announced the launch of the Social Code development process to respond to recommendations made by various donors and observers. The creation of the Social Code based on European social models will provide experience and practice and build a stronger social protection system for the Georgian population. It is an opportunity to reform and extend the current system to new rights and a new population.

This is a very ambitious plan in three phases:

i) the start-up phase (supported by Expertise France through AFD funding) will establish a work plan, coordination mechanisms and the appointment of focal points in the ministries, as well as a communication and consultation strategy for the entire reform

ii) the consultation period will bring together different stakeholders in different thematic working groups (policy makers, CSOs, social partners, .... ) in order to find a common understanding and objectives of the social code and its content; after the thematic working groups have progressed, the drafting of the legislation can be launched and centralized

iii) the drafting and adjustment of the code after its presentation to the members of Parliament will be followed by the development of its implementation action plan.

Find out more about the technical assistance to develop the Social Code in Georgia