Niels Scott Rounds Up his 5-year Tenure at the UNDP
Exclusive interview
Niels Scott, the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative and UNFPA Representative in Georgia of the past five years, has ended his tenure and this week headed off to his next position in Tripoli, Libya.
We caught up with him quickly prior to his departure to get his take on Georgia past and present, and his outlook for the future of the country.
“I was looking out the window as I was heading to work this morning at about 8:30 in the morning. What I saw looked like a really modern, bustling city, which unfortunately comes with a lot of traffic, but people were heading off to work and moving with a sense of purpose, thinking about the day ahead. That’s what symbolizes the biggest change for me of the past five years: Georgians have become more business-like in their approach to life but have still retained their poetic and romantic character.
It made me think of the Mediterranean combined with the Northern-European. There’s a real sense that development is happening, and changes can be seen.”
ON THE POLITICS
Territorial integrity is one issue that needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later- we can’t just keep throwing around the blame; people must assume some responsibility and then try to work together to solve the issues. We’re already at a point now where the political agreements being looked at are subsidiary to actual livelihoods, to the people who have been caught up in it for 25 years now. The time has come for change. It’s not the fault of the 250,000 people who were displaced or marginalized, and while not everyone is still aspiring to return, I’d say the good majority I’ve met do. But they need guarantees of security, decent living conditions, tolerance. Given those guarantees, they would go back and begin their lives anew. People in Abkhazia don’t wake up in the morning and think: “We want to make a political agreement today,” they think “we’ve got to get bread on the table to feed our families.” We need to make sure the gains can be safe-guarded- livelihoods, economy and trade- so that the people will one day be willing to take a more positive look at that political agreement. I’m looking at a 5-year span for this.
It’s been a pleasure to be a back-seat driver in advice-giving. The Georgian government is firmly in the driving seat, as it should be, and of course can take and use the advice we give as they will. It’s very difficult running a country and is something I’ve never done myself. You need to appreciate the multiple demands on those running the country, and when you give advice, you have to accept the fact that it isn’t necessarily as easy as you might think to implement it. With the current state of affairs, like the Geneva International Discussions, we need to ease off on the political side and look at new ideas moving forward. The old formulas don’t work. We’ve got to start thinking in terms of some sort of reconciliation process where people take responsibility and admit their mistakes but also start to engage in solutions, like trade. The government has come up with a very good packet of measures for encouraging trade across the boundary lines. It would be great to have that happen. My main concern is with the people. It’s simply not fair that they should be isolated or internally displaced or marginalized.
ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
I remember one head of state, when met at the plane by President Margvelashili, asked him: “Do you want to be rich or do you want to be happy?” The logical answer was, of course, “both.” But it’s not always that easy.
Poverty, be it in Georgia or any country, is a substantial barrier to sustainable development. There are differences in the standards of living between those established in Tbilisi and those who live in the countryside. If we see no changes, migration will continue, eating away at the point of life. Migrants live on the edges of society and don’t have the same opportunities. We need to develop the countryside to make it a place they would want to live in.
I’ll give the example of Ireland here. The GDP per capita before it joined the EU was the same as that of Georgia today- it had the same kind of population made up of the same agrarian society engaged in non-industrialized farming. There came a realization that a large amount of people was employed in agriculture, and that agriculture wasn’t hugely productive, being mainly made up of small-holdings. They realized that to turn it around, they would have to offer those in the countryside compensation. You only need one person and a tractor to work a hectare, not seven. So agricultural processing was encouraged, and tax incentives were given to companies to train and then benefit from a new labor market. The Irish government focused a lot on vocational education (VE), introducing a plan that everyone subscribed to. You can have the best plan in the world, but it will fail if no-one believes in it.
VE is one area that Georgia has yet to achieve in. In Switzerland and Germany, VE is common currency. One obstacle is that parents need to accept that their children might want non-academic jobs. Parents may not understand IT, for example, but they have to trust their children, and trust the educational system to prepare them adequately for employment that might not necessarily be in an academic direction. It’s a big ask right now, and such professionalism is not valued as highly as it should be. Employers also need to realize the value of VE, and to appreciate the gains that come from investing in employee training.
I see more and more small businesses seeing the value of VE, though. Lots of market research is being done, good business plans made, employers engaging in trying to develop their staff. I wouldn’t say there’s been a massive overhaul to date, but there is clear progress.
The UN has invested massively in VE. Study tours to Switzerland, for example, open the eyes of Georgian businesses of the need to train and develop employees. The EU is also contributing immensely to providing sound technical advice to Georgian institutions, based on its own experience.
ON THE ENVIRONMENT
To address environmental challenges, there comes a need to pool together in a sectoral way- not health, education, or economic growth, but a unity of all. Around one in four people in Tbilisi are under 20 – it’s a very young population. And upper respiratory tract infections are suffered more by the young here, likely as a result of unprocessed car emissions. Such infections mean the youth miss school, don’t get the qualifications they need, can’t get the jobs, and this affects the economy and the means to address the root cause of the environmental issues.
A lot is being done; there are a lot of new ideas in terms of creating green spaces, good initiatives to address the urban sprawl. Parking in the city center, the development of public transport- these are issues still needing to be addressed, and it is an expensive endeavor.
Change needs courage and you have to make tough decisions. You can’t please everybody all the time. To achieve the balance mentioned above- not just rich, not just happy, but both, you have to make changes that may be painful for people. But if you explain to them why you’re doing it, they will come to see that in the long run it makes sense. And a big argument for change is the next generation.
ON THE FUTURE
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals is a pledge we have made to the next generation. It’s a very compelling argument here in Georgia and I think people understand that. It applies to the little things as well as the large – the plastic bags, water management, sub-regional energy cooperation, and always education, education, education.
Georgia fought very hard for its freedom. Georgia has every incentive to maintain that freedom – not only territorial freedom but the freedom for people to aspire to have decent lives, balanced growth, to make sure nobody is left behind, that people in remote mountain areas aren’t forced to go to towns to work because they have no other choice, to make sure people, regardless of where they’re born or where the come from, have the same access to healthcare.
I leave optimistic that Georgia is heading in the right direction.
By Katie Ruth Davies
Source: rovingsnails.com