PHILSSA - Journey to Georgia

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Journey to Georgia

Who would ever think of Philssa going to Georgia? I am not talking about Georgia, one of the states of the US. I am referring to that part of the world that became an independent state more than a decade ago when the people decided to separate from the Soviet Union along with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and other neighboring countries. Life has been hard for them these past years as they build their economy and political life as a new nation, but things have been slowly picking up.

The Role of NGOs in Georgia

The NGOs in Georgia are considered the third sector with the Government as the first and Business as the second. Most NGOs are actively involved in psycho-social and medical care for those who have been badly affected by the armed conflict.

But how did Philssa get into the picture of the Georgian people? Well, all this started early in May when Cordaid through Mr. Bert van Ruitenbeek, the Eastern Europe Desk Officer, approached Philssa saying he was looking for potential resource person who could provide input and eventually facilitate the interactive exchanges of opinions during the plenary meeting of Cordaid partners on the theme, "Good NGO Governance" on June 18-19, 2002 at Tbilisi, Georgia.

Cordaid has been working in Georgia since mid-1990’s with initial interventions focusing mostly on support to local organizations that addressed emergency needs of the vulnerable groups who found themselves in extremely stressful situations given the then prevailing social chaos. Gradually Cordaid has expanded its involvement, and present Cordaid has signed contracts with over 20 NGOs working on two broad issues: promotion of human rights and building of civil society and psycho-social and social-medical care. The Georgian NGOs are rather young; Cordaid partners have organized themselves recently with the most senior of whom not older than 10 years in development work. Given the Soviet background, most, if not all organizations, have very little idea on the notion of checks and balance between the governing board and the management.

Philssa considers Cordaid as partner in the development work of the network for more than a decade now. Cordaid has been instrumental in strengthening the internal capacities of Philssa network members toward forging partnerships with the local government. The invitation was taken as an opportunity to help other Cordaid partners especially in the eastern part of Europe. Thus Philssa sent two secretariat representatives, Haley Atienza, the newly appointed National Coordinator and this writer as the Senior Program Officer. When the invitation was approved by the Board of Directors, it became an institutional decision making Philssa accept the said invitation.

The trip to Georgia

Our trip was an opportunity for better staff bonding and a great learning and productive adventure as well. It started with a denied entry to Moscow because we failed to present a Russian transit visa. We were informed that we couldn’t be issued a transit visa in Manila because our Georgian visa was to be obtained only upon arrival at the airport in Tbilisi, Georgia. All we had were our Philippine passports and the invitation letter. Lufthansa airline had to re-book our flight direct to Tbilisi from Frankfurt, Germany instead of going to Georgia via Moscow.

The approved direct flight from Germany to Tbilisi was a blessing indeed, but we later discovered that we had to wait for 10 hours at Frankfurt airport. That gave Haley and me the opportunity to know each other better. We watched the departing and arriving airplanes every five minutes in this super-busy airport, went to all duty-free shops, and talked about various topics related to the job and even family life. That long wait strengthened our bonding as team in the secretariat.

Finally, we took our flight to Tbilisi via Air Zena, a state-owned Georgian Airline. There were only few passengers with us, and because of that, we were instructed to disperse to balance the weight on both sides of the plane. The flight was smooth at the start but an hour later the plane was shaken hard due to air pockets. Haley and I were scared but that seemed to be normal to all the other passengers because most of them appeared unperturbed as they laughed and enjoyed viewing a TV program during the flight.

Arriving at the airport, we had no problem securing our Georgian visa except that Haley’s attention was called by the immigration officer. He was being asked about the purpose of his visit to Tbilisi and some inquiries about NGOs in Georgia that lasted for 30 minutes. And finally, on our way out of the airport, we were checked and asked to declare our pocket money.

We had ample time to relax and adjust to their climate and culture before the session started. We experienced Georgian hospitality through the NGOs we met and which treated us to "fine dining" the Georgian way.

The Session

We started the session with the following objectives a) to explore the role of the board and the relationship between the board and the executive director; b) to assess the current strengths and weaknesses of participant’s boards and review the processes and procedures for strengthening board performance; c) to enhance the knowledge and leadership skills of the executive director with respect to the board and then to identify plan of action.

This was followed by a theoretical review on the relative roles and relationships between the governing board and the executive management. We led in the discussions on leadership development among board members and executive directors. Role plays and individual diagnostic exercises and case study approaches were maximized to simulate situations that the NGOs had encountered in their day-to-day operations.

The venue was in one of the best hotels in town. The conference room was just enough to accommodate the oblong table and chairs that were equipped with individual microphones and earphones for simultaneous interpretation. More than 50 participants came from 20 Georgian NGOs and one from Armenia who served as Chair of the Board or Board Member or Executive Director. One person taking so many leadership roles was rather new to us. The formal appearance and behavior of the participants made us a little insecure at the start but we managed to regain our composure. Our prepared methodology required active participation and movement from the participants but the set up was not conducive to active involvement because the participants could hardly move from their chairs and their earphones. Besides, they were used to being told what to do rather than get involved actively in a participatory way. However, a good number of participants gradually, appreciated the way the workshop was handled. In spite of cultural barriers, they found the inputs and tools very useful in developing their respective board. It was difficult to elicit their thoughts; interactive processes happened gradually through our informal interactions with the participants. That helped us understand the various situations their NGOs had to face.

Georgians were basically warm and hospitable by nature although they appeared rather formal at first sight. Individual consultations and informal talks proved to be very effective for in-depth discussions of issues and concerns. Their sincerity and voluntarism were edifying, but they also realized their need for systematic, effective ways in running an NGO. When asked how they felt about the way the workshop was conducted, some expressed limitations due to the big number of participants. However, we were able to maximize our time with them and afterwards visited five NGOs in their respective areas.

The visit to Georgia taught us lots of things about running an NGO and how NGOs could be strong partners in the building of a nation like Georgia.

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