The Newsletter of the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF in Georgia, is published in English and Georgian. Our publication aims to provide information on UNICEF activities in Georgia. This is the fifteenth issue of the Newsletter.
The Government of Georgia is in the process of submitting its fourth periodic report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, report-ing on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This provides a good opportunity to reflect and review prog-ress towards fulfilling the rights of all Georgian children. The evidence from independent qual-ity studies and surveys is clear: a child born in Georgia today is significantly better off than a child born in Georgia 10 years ago, particularly if that child was born into a poor family, a fam-ily from an ethnic minority, or a family living in a rural village. A decade ago, a child born in Georgia had lower chances of surviving, being registered at birth and accessing basic services. The government has made impressive strides in addressing inequities with the expansion of multi-lingual and easy-to-access civil registry systems, better parenting materials, and guid-ance on how the poor and ethnic minorities can access essential childhood services. Young chil-dren have a better start in life and are receiving more opportunities that were previously only available to well-off families.
The government has allocated more financial resources to education, health and social pro-tection, mainly at the cost of reduced defence expenditure. As a result, the share of social ex-penditure within overall public spending has in-creased, as has the share of social expenditure in relation to gross domestic product. However, Georgia is still one of the lowest social spend-ers in the Central and Eastern Europe/Common-wealth of Independent States region. Conse-quently, major challenges remain – challenges that we must tackle in the next five years if we are to adhere to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, meet the Millennium Development Goals and attain the vision outlined in the Mil-lennium Declaration by the year 2015.
The fact that more than one quarter of Georgian children live in poverty makes ongoing reforms in the social protection system critical. For ex-ample, additional equity-based investments in pre-school education are required to address the problem that children in the poorest families are significantly less likely to attend pre-school than their peers in the richest families. Promotion of healthy life styles among teenagers – through sport, good nutrition and the values of team-work - is an urgent priority to combat smoking and drug use. Rural sanitation requires addition-al attention. Social exclusion needs to be ad-dressed, especially for children with disabilities, who tend to be excluded and isolated. Timely identification and response to violence against women and children is also a priority.
The commitment to equity that has born re-sults in recent years must be maintained. We
will continue to update you on the progress of the Gov-ernment of Georgia/UNICEF programme in future issues of the newsletter.
Barriers to Access to Social Services – study reveals why not all poor families get social benefits and services
According to the 2009 Welfare Monitoring Sur-vey, nearly one quarter of households in Georgia at the time were living in poverty. Children were disproportionally represented among the poor-est households (28 per cent). The study also revealed that pensions and targeted social as-sistance (TSA) play an important role in reduc-ing poverty. However, at the time of the study, over one third of officially poor households were not receiving social assistance of any kind. The Barriers to Access to Social Services Survey (BASS) was developed to gain a better under-standing of why a significant proportion of poor households in Georgia were not accessing their entitlements. For this purpose, the respondents in the bottom consumption quintile from the 2009 survey were revisited and interviewed.
A report of the study has been launched by UNICEF and key findings were presented to the government and civil society stakeholders. The study revealed that 96 per cent of respondents had heard about the united database of socially unprotected families (the mechanism used by the government’s Social Service Agency, SSA, to distribute cash assistance and health insur-ance) and 76 per cent had actually applied to it. However, there are some remaining challenges. Among the 24 per cent of poor families that had not yet applied to the database, many did not know how to apply, or were misinformed about the procedures. For a much smaller population, the distance to the Social Service Agency office and documentation were problematic.
The application and review function of the unit-ed database of socially unprotected families is
implemented efficiently by the SSA. Very few respondents (4 per cent) who applied to the database experienced any delay. Nearly all ap-plicants (96 per cent) were visited by an SSA agent in order to complete a declaration form, and nearly all of them within three months of submitting an application. Seventy-seven per cent of the respondents rated the social agent’s work as ‘normal’, ‘good’ or ‘very good’.
However, the socio-economic situation of the majority of families that applied to the database – about 66 per cent – was rated above the ‘cut-off’ score to receive cash assistance and one third did not qualify for health insurance. An el-evation of the ‘cut-off’ score should be consid-ered to increase the reach and impact of these social benefits and services.
The study found that the free health insurance programme for the poor is effective, and should be expanded. The main barrier to accessing health services for those without insurance is related to cost. The second challenge, while much less significant than cost, relates to the physical distance to a health facility. The burden of health-related costs is very heavy on people who are uninsured.
Another recommendation of the survey report is that poor families with children should be more likely to be covered by the social benefit system, as they are less likely to benefit from the universal pension system. This would also have a positive impact on the broader child care reform process, as poor families with children who receive social benefits will be less likely to place their children in residential institutions. An information awareness campaign to ensure that every family in Georgia knows where and how to apply, with outreach to areas that are par-ticularly difficult to reach, is also recommended.
In response to the study, the SSA has already translated the database application forms into minority languages to facilitate application by ethnic Azeri and Armenians.
Since late 2010, maternity facilities have been registering newborn children directly in the central database of the Civil Registry Agency (CRA). The CRA database includes the mobile phone number of the mother and/or other prin-cipal caregiver of the child. And since March 2011, automated computer systems have been used to disseminate vital information relating to child care, early childhood issues, and appro-priate practices for parents and caregivers via SMS. The box box in the next column contains examples of messages sent to parents or care-givers depending on the age of the child.
During the first ten months of 2011, over 1,470,000 SMS messages were sent to nearly 63,000 new mothers via the three major telecoms providers (MAGTI, GeoCell and Beeline).
• Congratulations on the birth of your baby! During the first six months, exclusively breastfeed your baby; always lay your baby on his or her back; always keep your baby away from cigarette smoke.
• Let your baby listen to folk and classic music as soon as possible after birth.
• Contact your doctor if your baby has rapid or difficult breathing; temperature above 38°c or below 36°c; redness or yellowness of the skin; vomiting; diarrhoea or constipation.
• It is time to carry out routine vaccination! Take your child to the doctor for routine vaccination.
• If your baby cannot keep his or her head up at the age of three months, contact your doctor immediately.
• Start to read books with your baby. It is desirable that the books are attractive to look at and to touch. Put your baby on a rug to play with toys. Do not leave him or her alone.
• Congratulations! Your baby is eight months old. He or she should be able to sit independently and lie down with help; clap when asked to do so. Upper front teeth should appear. Your baby may begin to be shy. Do not leave your baby alone.
Vaccine management assessment before new vaccines are being introduced in Georgia In the coming years, Georgia will be introducing rotavirus and pneumococcal vaccines in the Na-tional Child Immunisation Schedule, using GAVI co-financing mechanisms. In order to prepare for the introduction of the new antigens, UNICEF and WHO experts carried out an assessment of vaccine management in July 2011. The main goal of this exercise was to assess and improve the management, monitoring and supervision of the country’s immunisation supply chain. According to the assessment, vaccines are ex-posed to a relatively low risk of damage during handling and storage, and the quantity and qual-
ity of cold store equipment is satisfactory at all levels. However, there are some challenges. The main problem is that irregular and unpredictable vaccine supply can result in stock outs of vac-cine, and deficiencies in stock management and distribution. Recommendations on how to im-prove vaccine management and ensure regular vaccine supply were shared with the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs.
Pre-school education for all children Pre-school services are a critical investment in the long-term development of Georgia. Unleash-ing the cognitive development potential of chil-dren early on in the life cycle is key to maxi-mizing the development opportunities for every child. There has been a significant increase in pre-school attendance in recent years. In 2005, pre-school attendance was 47 per cent for five year olds. In 2010, nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of five year olds were attending pre-school. However, children in the poorest families are significantly less likely to attend pre-school than their peers in the richest families. Equity of opportunity begins in early childhood – and the Government of Georgia has the responsibility to ensure that every Georgian child receives the essential building blocks to make a meaningful contribution to economic, social and political de-velopment.
The Government is continuing the reform of the pre-school education sector in collaboration with UNICEF and civil society partners. The reform is aimed at strengthening access to inclusive pre-school education, as well as its quality, and promoting improved school readiness, academic performance and learning outcomes in schools.
In 2011, UNICEF supported the National Cur-riculum and Assessment Centre (NCAC) of the Ministry of Education and Science in the devel-opment of a pre-school education curriculum; a national manual for pre-school caregivers; guidelines for administrators of pre-school insti-tutions; and forms for assessing pre-school age
children. The guidance materials were distribut-ed to all municipalities and kindergartens coun-trywide. Furthermore, an innovative methodol-ogy for teaching Georgian as a second language at pre-school level has been developed. A spe-cial textbook is now being piloted in eight pre-school centres in Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe Javakheti. About 120 Armenian and Azeri chil-dren have started learning Georgian using the new methodo logy.
A two-year project on providing access to qual-ity early education for disadvantaged children in Georgia started in September 2011, with finan-cial support from IKEA and the participation of two local NGOs, Civitas Georgia and the Centre for Educational Initiative. The project envisages the establishment of 40 alternative pre-school centres in remote rural areas of Samtskhe-Ja-vakheti, Kvemo Kartli and Shida Kartli, where presently there are no pre-schools. The cen-tres will be established in existing municipal or school buildings, then refurbished and equipped, and staff recruited and trained. Local municipali-ties will take over the centres once the project is completed.
Additionally, 24 model kindergartens in Tbilisi, Gori, Lanchkhuti, Batumi and Lagodekhi munici-palities now have trained caregivers to support the enrolment of children with disabilities and improve their early stimulation, play and recre-ation. It is expected that a total of 4,500 chil-dren and 440 pre-school teachers will benefit from the project.
New services for children with disabilities launched in GeorgiaChildren with disabilities are frequently placed in institutions because families do not have appro-priate support to care for them. Day centres are critical for ensuring that children remain in safe, supported family care.
A new early intervention centre and a new day care centre, both for children with disabilities and their families, were opened on 11 October in Tbilisi. The centres are managed by the NGO, First Step Georgia, and are part of the ongo-ing ‘Strengthening Child Care Services and Sys-tems’ partnership initiative between UNICEF, USAID and several NGOs - EveryChild, Save the Children, First Step and Children of Geor-gia. This initiative is in support of the Georgian government’s Child Care System Reform Plan of Action, 2011-2012. This Action Plan stipu-lates the closure of all remaining large scale in-stitutions in the country; strengthening of social work; expanding the quantity and quality of fos-ter care; scaling up the number of small group homes, each catering for no more than 8-10 children; and strengthening of services for the prevention of child abandonment.
The new centres were inaugurated by the founder of First Step Georgia, Nino Zhvania; the Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, Mr Andrew Urushadze; Deputy Chief of Mis-sion of the US Embassy in Georgia, Ms Bridget Brink; Head of the Social Service Agency, Mr Irakli Nadareishvili; and UNICEF Representative in Georgia, Mr Roeland Monasch.
The early intervention centre will serve up to 100 children aged 0-6, providing them and their families with psychosocial, medical and educa-tional support. Through the centre, parents can
have consultations with various specialists such as psychologists, social workers, paediatricians, occupational therapists, and speech therapists. The centre aims to prevent infant and early childhood abandonment, identify developmental delays early, and provide quality services.
The new day centre will cater for 35 children and adolescents with disabilities, aged 3-18. A special programme for children with autism and spectrum disorders will also be implemented.
A second day centre for children with disabili-ties will be established in Kutaisi by the end of 2011. Currently, 25 government-supported day centres for children with disabilities are func-tioning in Georgia.
A comprehensive National Youth Policy is cur-rently being developed by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs of Georgia with the support of UNICEF and UNFPA. The National Youth Policy aims to provide a long-term vision and identify appropriate mechanisms to address the situation and needs of young people and to optimise their potential.
The policy seeks to institutionalise mechanisms for dialogue between youth and the government on the realities of young people in Georgia, and on the government’s responsibilities vis-à-vis young people. It will also assist the government in meeting relevant European and international standards and in optimising existing youth re-sources.
In order to ensure the broad participation of young people in the policy development pro-cess, a series of youth consultations were held in August - October 2011. About 35 trained facilitators met with young people across the country, using a specially designed “World Café” methodology which encourages free and open discussion in an informal and conducive
environment. Each workshop had up to 20 par-ticipants. In this way, facilitators collected infor-mation about young people’s needs, challenges, desires and the priorities they would like to see addressed by the government. In total up to 70 such workshops took place in the different re-gions of Georgia, involving around 1400 young people.
A special web page (www.youth.gov.ge) was created to extend the outreach of the consulta-tion process. Anyone wishing to participate in the discussion and debate on the process of the National Youth Policy can go to the website to join the discussion forum and access useful in-formation.
The first draft policy paper was presented dur-ing a national youth conference on 15-16 No-vember 2011. The National Youth Policy paper is expected to be finalised and adopted in early 2012.
Disaster Risk Reduction: Moving towards a culture of safety and resilienceGeorgia is in a highly natural hazard-prone re-gion, with annual floods, landslides and mud-flows. It is often the poorest and remotest com-munities that suffer the most, as they tend to live in greater density in badly-built houses on land at risk. They possess limited resources and capacity to deal with the risks they face.
Children, women and youth living in natural haz-ard-prone areas are particularly vulnerable, as they often lack the knowledge and life skills that would enable them to be better prepared and to respond adequately to disasters.
Children in Georgia are now better prepared for natural hazards thanks to a partnership initiative
between the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, the National Curriculum Centre, the Emer-gency Management Department, Caucasus Envi-ronmental NGO Network (CENN) and UNICEF.
From September 2011, every child in grades 5-9 throughout Georgia will learn about the issues of environmental protection, climate change and disaster risk reduction within the framework of the Head of Class Hour programme and acquire basic life-skills on how to behave before, during and after a disaster.
This initiative has been a part of a bigger project, ‘Supporting Disaster Risk Reduction amongst Vulnerable Communities and Institutions in South Caucasus,’ funded by the European Com-mission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection.
Some of the key project achievements include: piloting of the new disaster risk reduction pro-gramme in 25 schools throughout Georgia; de-velopment of the teacher training methodology and interactive learning materials for teachers and games for schoolchildren; implementing community awareness-raising campaigns on
disaster risk reduction and mine risk education that reach 7,000 children and 35,000 com-munity members throughout the country; and strengthening disaster preparedness capacities of schools in areas highly prone to natural haz-ards.
In addition, UNICEF has supported the Nation-al Curriculum Centre in developing a first ever national educational web portal on disaster risk reduction (www.sicherheit.ge/Disasters). The web portal contains useful information for all target groups (schoolchildren, teachers, school administration and general public) on natural hazards and safe behaviour practices before, during and after a disaster.
The project has also supported the establish-ment of a network of most active children from schools throughout Georgia, promoting the ex-change of ideas and good practices in disaster risk reduction.
The Newsletter of the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF in Georgia, is published in English and Georgian. Our publication aims to provide information on UNICEF activities in Georgia. This is the fifteenth issue of the Newsletter. Your remarks and recommendations concerning the publication will be appreciated. Please let us know if you wish to obtain any additional information on UNICEF and its work. We welcome any feedback, suggestions or contributions.
If you wish to obtain a copy of the Newsletter or any other information, please contact Maya Kurtsikidze, Communication Officer, at the UNICEF Office in Georgia.
Media monitoring for more ethical reporting on childrenAn initiative to monitor how Georgian media re-ports on children was launched in early 2011, aimed at ensuring that children’s issues are covered in a more responsible and ethical way.
Since March, trained experts and lawyers have monitored Georgian media in relation to their cov-erage of children’s issues. Where a violation of national and/or international standards occurs, a special appeal is sent to the existing media self-regulatory bodies, such as the Charter of Ethical Journalists and the National Communication Coun-cil. In total, 79 media outlets (65 national and 14 regional) are being monitored on a regular basis un-til the end of the year.
Media monitoring is one activity of a partnership project implemented by the Civic Development
Institute with the support of UNICEF. Another outcome of this project is the production and dissemination of ‘Standards for Journalists on Reporting of Children’ to all the major media outlets. This publication compiles all the exist-ing ethical and legislative norms, both interna-tional and national, on reporting on children. Furthermore, interesting and lively discussions were held with well-known media experts and journalists in 10 cities countrywide. These high-lighted practical examples of good or bad report-ing on children, and demonstrated the consider-able interest of regional media in achieving more ethical reporting on this issue.
GEORGIA and the Convention of the Rights of the Child
An update on the situation of children in Georgia
2011
In support of the reporting process to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF has prepared an independent report providing an overview of key issues on children related to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Following the outline of ‘Issue’, ‘Action’, ‘Impact’, and ‘Next Steps’, it provides an update on progress for children, using evidence from a series of recent national household surveys and other studies. The report contains disaggregated data on a range of issues to capture both the successes and the remaining challenges in ensuring that all Georgian children, regardless of ethnicity, family income, or any other factor, are provided with equal opportunities to grow and contribute meaningfully to the development of the country.
Copies of the report can be requested from: [email protected]; Tel: +995 99 574750
