UN agency helps create $2 million fund to bolster Georgia's reforms

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Open Society Institute (OSI) today announced the creation of a new fund with $2 million in seed money to support key legal and administrative reforms in Georgia.

"This fund will help Georgia harness the enormous political enthusiasm there now and, using appropriate expertise and effective programmes, transform that energy into sound and lasting reforms," UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown told a news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"We welcome this new fund and the support from UNDP and OSI, which should help sustain Georgia in this critical period of structural reforms," said President-elect Mikhail Saakashvili, who was elected earlier this month following the resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze in November.

The Capacity Building Fund for Georgia created by UNDP and OSI will finance the design of a thorough reform package, focusing on public administration. It will also support the fight against corruption. The fund will allow the Government to call on the services of local, international and expatriate experts who can assist in the planning and implementation of key reforms.

"Georgia seeks to build an open society - and for that, its civil servants need the skills to implement reforms and respond to public demands," OSI founder and philanthropist George Soros told the news conference.

Working in collaboration, OSI and UNDP have been supporting similar programmes in Serbia and Montenegro. As in the case of South-East Europe, the new Georgian fund will also seek to tap the expertise of the diaspora by giving incentives to those who choose to return home to work in public service.

The fund is open to contributions from other donors and efforts are currently underway to bolster international support for Georgia's ambitious reform programme.