Assisting the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure (MRDI) of Georgia to Analyze Services Identified in the Fields of Environmental Protection and Agriculture to be Delegated to Local Governments

The main objective of the project is to support the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure (MRDI) of Georgia to identify services/functions in the fields of agriculture and environmental protection with potential to decentralize, and to recommend how to transfer these services/functions to local government authorities including actions needed and corresponding timeframes.

PMCG, as part of a consortium led by Tetra Tech ARD, under the USAID-funded Good Governance Initiative (GGI), is undertaking the following activities:

• Conducting a desk review of public services/functions in the fields of agriculture and environmental protection in light of their potential for decentralization (delegation or transfer) to local governments. To this end, a thorough review of the legislation on agriculture, relevant sectoral strategies and implementation reports as well as the report entitled “Strategic Review of Key Public Services in Georgia” is being carried out. Moreover, the best international practices regarding service delivery functions and relevant financing mechanisms at local level (with a focus on agricultural services) will be studied;
• Presenting key findings of the desk research to the Ministry and working group members;
• Identifying a list of interviewees and focus group discussion participants;
• Conducting interviews/focus group discussions, as well as organizing and participating in meetings with all relevant stakeholders to learn how legislative provisions work in practice;
• Developing guidelines, incorporating the following components: – A list of services/functions in the fields of agriculture and environmental protection reviewed in light of their potential for decentralization;
  – Revision of legal, functional (business processes and institutional arrangements) and financial provisions of the selected agricultural and environmental services/functions;
  – Recommendations on how to delegate identified public services to municipalities including actions needed and corresponding timeframes, as well as specific recommendations on options for transferring/delegating identified public services (i.e. in cases of delegation, determining which form of delegation should be used by analyzing the advantages of full or asymmetric delegation, as needed).
• Presenting the developed guidelines to the Ministry and incorporating its subsequent comments into the final document.