Georgia
Problem statement
With Georgia being part of the Soviet Union before 1991, there are still significant landmine contaminated areas around former Soviet military bases, along its international borders and along the breakaway region of South Ossetia. There are 2 million square meters of known landmine contaminated areas in Georgia, although the precise extent of landmine contamination was never publicly reported. More than 4 square kilometers of land are still contaminated by mines ad ERW (territories controlled by Georgian central government) where over 344,000 people live. Until today, over 710 mine and ERW victims have been identified by the nation-wide survey.
What we do
Victim Assistance
ITF supported a three-year long project »Socio-Economic Reintegration Program for Mine Victims in Geogria« from 2012 to 2015. The program purpose was to contribute to socio-economic integration and empowerment of people with disabilities (PWDs), specifically mine victims and their families. In 2017, ITF signed an agreement on the Handover of the Revolving fund and continuation of three years’ micro-credit program in the framework of the previous mentioned programe with »FinAgro«. In 2017, 14 loans were provided to the mine victims in 4 regions of Georgia. The project will finish on 31 December 2019.
Capacity Building
Since 2004, ITF focused on capacity building through training aimed at educating the Georgian representatives in: disability and mine victim assistance; mine action evaluation; mine action assessment; middle management training; and quality assurance and quality control. By educating Georgian representatives, ITF is trying to boost the creation of nationally owned capacities.
Physical security and stockpile management (PSSM)
In July 2021, ITF started with the project “Physical Security and Stockpile Management and Conventional Weapons Destruction in Georgia”. The project goal is to improve capacity to safely handle, manage, store and dispose of conventional weapons and ammunition. This aims to establish national capacities that will in the future allow sustainable and comprehensive disposal of outdated and dangerous for storage weapons and ammunition.
Destruction of Surplus Weapons and Ammunition
In July 2021, ITF started with the project “Physical Security and Stockpile Management and Conventional Weapons Destruction in Georgia”. The project goal is to reduce obsolete and /or hazardous conventional weapons and ammunition stockpiles (aircraft bombs and earmarked ammunition), as 272 tons of various types of ammunition are planned to be disposed through industrial demilitarization processes.
For more information on ITF’s past activities in Georgia, we welcome you to consult our Annual Reports, while for the plans in the forthcoming year please consider our Portfolio of Projects.