30 Years of Usaid Assistance to Georgia

Interview with Peter Wiebler, USAID Mission Director

With its 30 years of involvement in Georgia, USAID has played a crucial role in its development. What changes have you observed in the state or society in the past 30 years?

First, I would like to congratulate the Georgian people on the extraordinary progress the country has made since independence and its journey to Euro-Atlantic integration. There are too many successes to mention, including the expanding role of the private sector (more of which below), but I would like to highlight two areas with particularly impressive changes.

Trade and exports: Georgia has historically struggled to expand trade partnerships beyond its northern neighbor, but now we see increasing numbers of Georgian businesses diversifying their exports to high-value markets in the EU, the Gulf, and beyond. By partnering with local stakeholders, from business owners to agricultural cooperatives to women entrepreneurs, USAID has doubled down on improving the quality of goods Georgia creates, ultimately making the country more competitive and profitable. For example, USAID helped Georgian agribusinesses adopt international quality standards, gaining them access to trade fairs and international markets.

Tolerance and Integration: USAID has seen Georgia intentionally transform itself into a more tolerant, inclusive country, improving the integration of ethnic and religious minorities through new institutions and new legal protections. The State Ministry of Reconciliation has done really impressive work in this area, and we continue to support the Government of Georgia to draft and adopt its rolling five-year Action Plans for Tolerance and Civic Integration. USAID also supported the emergence of the one-year Georgian language preparatory program for ethnic minority students, also known as the 1 + 4 Program, which increases access to higher education for ethnic minorities. However, there remains much more work to be done, and USAID will continue to support both the Government of Georgia and the Georgian people to promote tolerance and inclusion throughout its programming.

There are many directions in which USAID implements projects in Georgia, do you have a favorite direction and which one would you highlight as the most successful program?

USAID supports prosperity in Georgia in many ways. Many of our programs have played a pivotal role in helping Georgia emerge as a thriving, independent country that we see today, with faults and challenges like any other democracy. We are incredibly proud of our programs, but our main concern is progress - how have we moved the needle?

So I would like to focus not on one specific program, but on an approach which has become central to USAID’s strategy in Georgia, and is key to Georgia’s future development: private sector engagement.

The private sector has a critical role to play in Georgia’s development - not only as the driver of inclusive economic growth, but as a true partner in building a more responsive democracy, accountable governance, and more resilient communities. That’s why our strategy focuses increasingly on working hand-in-hand with the private sector to co-create solutions that will continue to yield results long after USAID’s support has ended. But what does that mean?

We have worked with Adjara Group, Partnership Fund, Crystal MFO, TBC Bank and many others to resolve key supply chain problems, mobilize financing and technical assistance to youth and women, open new state-of-the-art processing plants along the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL), develop a regional center of excellence for physical therapy and much more: all of which also create new jobs for Georgians in every corner of the country.

Just last month, USAID, through one of our programs, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mastercard to support the digitization of Georgia’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The new partnership will strengthen the use of data analytics in tourism promotion, build SME capacities in e-commerce, and develop the Georgian fintech ecosystem. And our newest program, the USAID Civic Education Program, will partner with Georgia’s private sector to find and fund local solutions to local problems, identified and solved by Georgian youth.

In 2021 alone, our private sector partnerships leveraged more than $25 million from the private sector partners, creating 1,465 jobs and generating $92 million in new sales. These kinds of partnerships, and results, will ensure Georgia’s continued development driven by the people who actually live here: Georgia’s private sector enterprises, and those who work in them.

Which are the most pressing development and improvement challenges facing the country? What are USAID’s efforts to help Georgia meet these challenges?

Over the decades, USAID’s partnership with Georgia has evolved to meet the needs of the country. Today’s challenges look very different from the 1990s and 2008, and so does US- AID’s response.

Our programming now counters external malign influence, consolidates Georgia’s democratic gains, and creates high-value employment. These three USAID priorities align with three key challenges currently facing the country.

Countering external malign influence: The Russian invasion of Ukraine has further exposed Georgia’s vulnerabilities to malign forces across all sectors. USAID continues to support Georgia to counter disinformation and propaganda, diversify its trade partners and export markets away from dependence on malign countries, cyber-harden its critical infrastructure, engage with the occupied territories, and improve Georgia’s energy security.

Consolidating Georgia’s democratic gains: Continued progress in democracy and Rule of Law is crucial if Georgia wants to advance its Euro-Atlantic aspirations. USAID has invested and continues to invest significant resources in advancing the Rule of Law in Georgia. We also work to strengthen Georgia’s basic education and civic education systems, stimulate a more active civil society, and support Georgia’s democratic institutions, to enable Georgia’s citizens better advocate for themselves and hold their elected officials to account.

Enabling high value employment: Even prior to the global pandemic, Georgia’s economic growth had not translated into economic dynamism or opportunities for Georgian citizens, and the lack of quality jobs and economic opportunities remained a critical issue. USAID’s robust economic growth portfolio has multiple programs that focus on the creation of high-value jobs in key economic sectors, including agriculture, light manufacturing, tourism, ICT, creative industries, shared intellectual services, and waste management.

In which direction did you meet the bulk of your expectations, and in which direction did you encounter the most frustration?

During my time here, I witnessed the maturation of Georgia’s public health care system, standing up one of the best initial responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the world. Over more than a decade of U.S. government-wide partnership with the Ministry of Health and the National Center for Disease Control, we have helped ensured that Georgians benefit from worldclass infections disease leadership, detections systems, and expertise to design and implement effective health programs and policies.

I did not come to Georgia expecting a global pandemic, but the COVID-19 emergency response work we did together with the Government of Georgia and our local implementing partners far exceeded my expectations.

In contrast, as I leave, the global context has shifted once again and we see not only a war in Ukraine, but increased tensions throughout the entire region as a result of Russian aggression. Now more than ever, Georgia needs greater unity across all aspects of society to ensure Georgia’s security and continued progress through these troubled times.

As you served in Georgia during a period full of challenges, how would you sum up these four years of your service?

It has been a tremendous honor to lead USAID Georgia for the past four years. I have been truly fortunate to serve under the leadership of Ambassador Degnan and alongside a deeply committed US Embassy team. Of course, the past four years have been absolutely challenging: the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, and intensifying political polarization in Georgia have inflicted real costs on the country’s economic and democratic progress.

The picture for Georgia is far from dark, though. Thanks to the support of the American people, we have made significant progress with our Georgian partners in so many real ways. For example, we elevated our relationships and partnerships with key Georgian ministries of agriculture, economic development, and education to strengthen the foundations for sustainable, inclusive, and broad-based economic growth. We ramped up our direct support to local Georgian organizations, including civil society organizations and governmental bodies like the National Food Agency and, soon, the Public Defender’s Office. USAID calls this approach ‘localization’ — putting local actors and local initiatives in the driver’s seat for the country’s development. We have doubled down on our support for Georgia’s democratic development, including pioneering new initiatives to blunt misinformation, improve local governance, and better integrate minority communities into broader civic and economic life.

Finally, we have aggressively expanded our engagement with Georgia’s private sector, since business is the engine of economic progress and job creation as well as the key to the development of a strong, democratically-oriented middle class. Just in the past months alone we have formalized partnerships with the Adjara Group, TBC Bank, Bank of Georgia, and Mastercard — prioritizing mutual priorities like growing micro- and small businesses and creating opportunities for women entrepreneurs. We have more innovation in the works, in areas like digitalization, cybersecurity, and financial innovation. Viewed as a whole, the work we’re doing is truly exciting, and I can’t wait to visit in a few years and see the results our many partnerships will produce.

You will be leaving soon, and USAID will have a new Mission Director in Georgia, what advice can you give him?

My replacement is also a very experienced Senior Foreign Service officer who also knows the former Soviet Union well, and I would never presume to give him advice! Though, I would offer a few things I have learned that I wish I had fully understood from the start. One is that relationships — with government officials, civil society leaders, businesspeople, community leaders, whoever — really matter here in Georgia. Of course, they matter everywhere, but Georgia is special in this regard. USAID Georgia has such a rich reservoir of relationships, built over our decades of local partnerships. Understanding and capitalizing on those relationships to power progress on shared values and objectives creates a kind of momentum — the more you invest and partner, the more possibilities emerge. When others see those partnerships forming, they get inspiration and ideas and want to form their own new partnerships with us. It’s almost a kind of fusion energy concept.

The second observation is that there is so much need, and opportunity, for development progress outside of Tbilisi. This country is so diverse and so fascinating — and its needs and opportunities vary dramatically by region. So it is absolutely fundamental to get out, represent the United States across the entire territory of Georgia (including occupied Abkhazia), and generate new relationships and opportunities.

Last, speaking of opportunity: there is so much of it here in Georgia. Whether creating new space for women in technology or youth entrepreneurship; catalyzing civic innovation and informal activism; taking risks in a new start-up business; or tackling major issues that matter for sustainability, such as renewable energy development or boosting climate-friendly modern agriculture — Georgia has more than its share of willing partners. Our job is to seek them out and help them succeed.