Economic Prosperity Initiative: Georgia

General

USAID’s Economic Prosperity Initiative (EPI) supported a working group to develop the Land Registration Strategy and Action Plan. The draft strategy addresses the need to establish policies that deal effectively with all types of owners who received land as part of the original land privatization process. The action plan defines the program governance structure, sets the implementation timeline and phases, identifies necessary human and technical resources and outlines the overall budget (about $34 million) to complete the land reform/registration. The leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture has already reviewed the drafts. As a next step, the Minister of Agriculture plans to make a presentation of the action plan to the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development and Minister of Justice in late September, and then to the Prime Minister for final approval. During the upcoming quarter, EPI will conduct additional outreach with the donor community, where EPI already identified preliminary resources by the World Bank and the EU to contribute toward the land reform initiative. EPI will also support the Ministry of Agriculture to conduct outreach with NGOs.