More than 200 IDP families have received small grants under the EU-funded and supported project Equal Economic Opportunities for IDPs. Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili believes that the project will improve socio-economic conditions of Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs).

“We are not only assisting IDPs with housing but also making sure they have a source of income to launch their own small businesses, go through professional training and find jobs,” the Prime Minister said at a government meeting.

Six more IDP families were given with roto-cultivators recently. Grigol Giorgadze, the First Deputy Minister of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia, congratulated the beneficiaries and stressed the importance of providing economic support to the IDPs.

With the support of the European Union (EU), 810,000 USD have been allocated to assist the most vulnerable IDPs to co-fund their agricultural activities and to develop micro entrepreneurship initiatives. The recipients of the cultivators were the IDPs from Mtskheta-Mtianeti and Kvemo Kartli regions. Under the direction of the Application Review Commission of the EU-funded FAO project, implemented by the IDP Livelihood Agency, a total of 249 grant applicants have been financed up to now.

Following the Georgian-Russian conflict in 2008, the project has provided livelihoods support and socio-economic empowerment of IDPs through the co-funding of economic opportunities. The final phase of the EU/FAO programme was launched in 2016. The Equal Access of IDPs to Economic Opportunities project targets the most vulnerable groups of IDPs: single parents with minors, households with the members with disabilities, and youth and elderly led households. 

The targeted internally displaced persons from the Russian-occupied regions of Georgia -- Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) -- can receive up to 5,000 GEL in cost shared grants to invest in their agricultural and rural income generating activities. The project is being implemented nationwide and will continue until December 31, 2017. Applications are being accepted until end of September 2017.