Georgia is a low-income, food-deficit country with 39 percent of its 4.4 million people living below the official poverty line. Approximately one third of the population does not consume an adequate dietary energy intake.
Conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia have remained unresolved for over a decade. During mid-2006 and early 2007 the situation became more complex affecting the ability of many people to restore their livelihood. In addition, about 1,300 refugees from Chechnya still seek shelter in the Pankisi Valley, in eastern Georgia.
The conflict that erupted in South Ossetia in early August 2008 further aggravated the country's social situation. Approximately 128,000 people were forced to leave their homes. An estimated 55,000 people still remain displaced. While residents of the town of Gori and surrounding villages have returned, their livelihoods are seriously affected.
The food security situation remains alarming in the buffer zone villages across the Gori-Tskhinvali corridor, where access remains limited even for humanitarian cargos.
Since WFP started to operate in Georgia in 1993 it has brought nearly 200,000 metric tons of food to the country helping to assist the most vulnerable groups as well as rehabilitate livelihoods for small-scale farming households, while the government expands social assistance programmes.
WFP activities also supported government efforts to promote education and fight tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. In 2007, WFP launched a new phase of its operation to assist over 200,000 people with 26,500 metric tons of food during 2007-2008 at a cost of US$15 million.
WFP’s current activities include:
The 2008 conflict has created a new pool of vulnerable people in the conflict zone and surrounding areas in need of immediate and medium-term social protection. Displaced people and local populations in war-affected areas are in need of continuous assistance over a significant period of time.
WFP will open a new program in Georgia in July 2009. This program will ensure social protection of the most vulnerable beneficiaries, and rehabilitation of livelihoods among conflict-affected and other food insecure rural populations.
An innovative combination of food and cash assistance is envisaged through the project. Food supplements, planned for the early stage of the project (using general food distributions, provision of daily meals through soup kitchens and labour-intensive community works), will be merged with various forms of cash assistance programmes. This will include cash supplements for vulnerable population groups and agricultural cash-for-work projects in rural areas.
