Interview with Ghassan Khalil
UNICEF Representative in Georgia
- Available in:
- English
- ქართული
The interview was published on the website of the International Chamber of Commerce - http://icc.ge
1. Mr. Ghassan, first of all, we would like to thank your for this interview opportunity. As we know, you have been UNICEF Representative in Georgia since 2018. Please, briefly tell us about your experience here. What kind of responsibilities does your role and position at UNICEF entails?
My four years in Georgia have been very rich. With the great team of UNICEF Georgia we have been delivering tangible results for children, young people and their families. This could not be possible without the excellent partnerships with the Government, civil society, academia, religious and community leaders and the recently developed partnership with the Private Sector of Georgia. One of the key achievements that I can highlight at the beginning of this interview is the solid and perseverant support of UNICEF to the development, adoption and implementation of the Code on the Rights of the Child of Georgia which is one of the most powerful child rights codes worldwide and we believe it will bring numerous positive tangible results in the coming years for children and the whole society.
2. What are the main projects implemented by UNICEF in 2022 that made a significant contribution to Georgia’s socio-economic progress? Is there any ongoing project that you would like to talk about?
UNICEF has been supporting the Government of Georgia for up to 30 years in realizing children’s rights and meeting its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Our goal is to protect and foster greater social inclusion of the most vulnerable children and reducing disparities and inequities affecting children and their families.
We work in partnership with the Government to influence systemic changes to improve the lives of children. UNICEF also works with various partners including civil society, Public Defender’s office, religious leaders, academia, private sector, media, parents and children.
We advocate for:
• improving the health, nutrition, and wellbeing of mothers and children,
• addressing all forms of violence against children,
• strengthening social protection programmes for children and families
• increasing access to inclusive and quality preschool and general education with a focus on 21st century skills and competencies,
• ensuring a family environment for every child,
• strengthening social inclusion of children with disabilities,
• addressing environmental hazards to children’s health through evidence-generation and establishment of a cutting-edge environmental laboratory, and
• supporting child-friendly justice reform and changing negative social norms and stereotypes.
• Improving water, sanitation and hygiene practices for children and families.
We also try to amplify the voices of young people, create opportunities for children to share their views and engage in decision-making processes. UNICEF
works to capacitate professionals in child rights, develop model programmes and generate data and use this information to inform advocacy and programmes.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNICEF has also been supporting the Government to reduce the impact of COVID-19 in Georgia. The Real Time Monitoring Survey of the impact of COVID-19 on the welfare of families and children, carried out by the National Statistics Office of Georgia in partnership with UNICEF and with support from USAID, showed that average monthly income of households decreased due to the Pandemic. To cope with the reduced income, most often households cut down on household expenses other than food, spent savings, cut down on food expenses and borrowed money from friends and acquaintances.
With a worsening situation for many children, the Government introduced new and expanded social protection measures for children including increasing child benefits. UNICEF welcomed the initiative of the Government in April 2022 to address the needs of the most vulnerable children in Georgia and to further increase child benefits from GEL100 to GEL150 which is an important step towards decreasing child poverty in Georgia. UNICEF has been partnering with the Ministry of IDPs, Labour, Health and Social Affairs to strengthen the Targeted Social Assistance programme in order to reduce the number of children living in extreme poverty. With the positive assessment of this initiative, we do hope that the Government will develop specific interventions for poor children who are not beneficiaries of Targeted Social Assistance programme but are still vulnerable and need support.
3. What are the main positive aspects of cooperation with ICC Georgia, why is it important for you to have ICC Georgia as an advisory board member?
Business directly and indirectly impacts the lives of children as consumers, family members of employees, young workers and as future employees and business leaders. Children are also part of the communities and environments in which business operates. Business leaves a footprint on the lives of children through its products and services, supply chains, manufacturing methods, marketing methods, distribution practices, environmental and social impacts and investment in local communities.
Harnessing the power of business and markets for children is one of UNICEF’s core strategies for achieving programme results for children. Partnership with businesses includes addressing child rights in the business ecosystem, supporting the companies to respect child rights through their policies and practices, and advocating and raising awareness of communities around key issues affecting children. This year we launched the Business Advisory Council for Children which will act as a platform for the exchange of knowledge, and good practice, focusing on increasing the visibility of children’s rights on the business agenda. We are glad that International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is a member of the Business Advisory Council and hope we will launch many useful initiatives to support children and families.
Globally UNICEF signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ICC to mobilize businesses large and small to support for the rights of children. ICC and UNICEF aim to achieve these goals by, among other things, facilitating dialogue between ICC members and UNICEF, conducting joint advocacy and communications, mobilizing resources, and addressing barriers to the distribution of essential goods and services.
The Memorandum defines ways of collaboration instead of defining thematic areas for collaboration, so that UNICEF offices can determine engagements that are most locally relevant. UNICEF and ICC are working to define priority areas of partnership in Georgia based on the global Memorandum.
4. Tell us about the UNICEF’s support to strengthen inclusive and quality education in Georgia including Early Childhood Education?
Early childhood education is crucial for every child. As well as preparing children for primary education, good quality preschools help children navigate social relationships and find their place in the world. With the right resources – human and financial – a good preschool improves school readiness and thereby heightens a child’s chances of reaching their full potential. Investments in early childhood education enhance the health, well-being, learning and protection of young children, but the benefits go far beyond the individual child to include economic growth, sustainable development and equal opportunities for all citizens.
Georgia faces challenges in this area, including relatively low levels of preschool participation among disadvantaged children, a lack of preschool teachers who are trained in modern, child-centred approaches, and limited investment in preschool education.
The Law on Early and Preschool Education and Care adopted by the Parliament of Georgia in June 2016 – developed with UNICEF’s technical support – includes innovations to improve quality, access and equity in early childhood education and care. One key innovation has been the introduction of mandatory national standards for all public and private preschool institutions such as standards for teacher qualification, education process, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition. Every kindergarten must meet these new mandatory standards if it is to be authorized.
UNICEF has supported the Ministry of Education and Science in developing training modules, guidelines and visual resources to help preschool teachers put these standards into practice. Many preschool teachers do not have a relevant academic background, or may have been educated many years ago, when approaches to early childhood education and development were very different. We aim to help them catch up with the latest thinking and methods, which emphasize child-friendly, play-centred and culturally responsive techniques. UNICEF also intensified our partnerships with Georgian universities to develop and introduce the Bachelor degree programmes to better train and equip future preschool teachers and managers.
We also work with municipalities to strengthen their capacity to implement the new standards, examine alternative models of service delivery to better reach all children as well as retraining and continuous professional development for all preschool personnel.
In general education, in partnership with the Government of Estonia, UNICEF has been supporting the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia to build a highly skilled national teaching workforce, as well as to improve the quality of learning for children. The main components of the partnership included the revision and improvement of the National Curriculum, based on the Estonian model of teaching and learning methods, and the establishment of university training courses for Georgian educators.
With the support of the Government of Norway, 8 Child Rights Centres were established in 7 state universities to serve as a resource hub and spread knowledge about child rights among different professionals, educators, academia, civil society organizations, parents and children. The Centers support future and current education specialists, parents and communities to better understand child rights. The Centres organize various activities like trainings, open lectures and discussions and develop specific education materials on child rights.
In Georgia, there are many children, especially from the most socially and economically marginalized groups, who do not have access to compulsory education. The children who have dropped out or at high risk of not being in school include children with disabilities, children living and working on the streets, children from ethnic minority groups, children in public care, orphaned children, internally displaced persons, stateless children, refugees, and children from very remote areas.
The Ministry of Education and Science with the support of UNICEF and the Norwegian Government are implementing the initiative to strengthen the quality and inclusiveness of the national education system. The programme focuses on children between 3 – 18 years of age, with a specific emphasis on children with disabilities, national minorities, and marginalized children, including those who are currently not attending school and are at risk of dropping out. In particular, effective teacher learning programmes and supportive teaching and learning resources have been developed; training of resource school leaders, teachers, representatives of educational resource centres and local government members have been conducted; partner schools have provided children with after school programmes for learning, recreation, and supervised leisure; pre and in-service teacher training programmes in universities and in the Teacher Professional Development Centre have been strengthened to provide new teachers with adequate knowledge and skills; and stigma and harmful social norms against children with special educational needs and disabilities are being addressed.
5. We know that during these hard times, you have implemented various initiatives to support Ukrainian children and families. Could you tell us more about those initiatives?
According to UNHCR more than 7 million refugees have been forced to flee to neighboring countries while an additional estimated 6.5 million people have been displaced internally within Ukraine. Since the inset of the war, UNICEF has been active to address the humanitarian needs of Ukrainian children and their families fleeing to Europe.
UNICEF has been scaling up delivery of life-saving humanitarian support, including provision of supplies and services, building capacity of frontline responders, providing emergency cash support, and supporting national systems and capacities in close coordination with governments, UN agencies, CSOs, national networks, youth, and communities.
Since then, more than 144 000 Ukrainians have entered Georgia. As of October, some 26,000 remain in the country. UNHCR estimates that a similar number will remain in Georgia over the next several months.
Thanks to the generous contributions of the Government and donors, initial needs for the refugee response were met, which allowed for continuation of learning for the current school year. However, needs remain high and further support is needed for families, especially for readiness for winter in anticipation of a harsh season.
UNICEF is working with the Government to define the needs and to provide support. Through targeted municipalities, in which Ukrainian refugees mainly reside, UNICEF plans to transfer one-time cash support to Ukrainian children.
UNICEF continues to advocate and mobilize resources to support Ukrainian children as well as other vulnerable children in host communities.
UNICEF is also strengthening the state agencies involved in the process of identification, referral and response of unaccompanied and separated refugee children. The current initiative entails: analyses of international standards, local legislation and practice of the system dealing with unaccompanied and separated refugee minors in Georgia (including justice proceedings as well as childcare system and regulations); preparing a concept relevant regulations, elaborating guidelines and practical scheme for multiagency cooperation and referral process; strengthening the capacity of the representatives of the state agency and relevant police force.
6. What is your contribution in providing non-formal education to youth in rural and mountainous regions?
UNICEF works with young people to empower them to build their skills through informal education and to amplify their voices.
UNICEF provides support to the Government in building youth’s volunteering culture in Georgia through supporting the establishment of volunteers’ national online platform, training of adolescents in volunteering, peer-education and peer support. With support of USAID the selected volunteers were engaged in training on active citizenship and volunteering; individual benefits of volunteering, community benefits of volunteering, volunteer project design, adolescents’ engagement and participation, problem identification and solving, peer-education and advocacy through face-to-face (including outreach training activities) and online training sessions. The trained adolescents were provided with seed funding for implementing small scale community projects identified with the involvement of community members and municipalities. The volunteer adolescents were registered on UNICEF supported online volunteering platform, which also measured adolescents’ accomplished volunteering hours.
UNICEF engaged adolescents in entrepreneurship and resilience building through increasing their capacities and engaging in peer education and community activities. The initiative was implemented in the areas, where the adolescents have less access to education and information, including Pankisi Gorge and border line villages of Kvemo Kartli. The selected adolescents participated in the training sessions on entrepreneurship and using innovative approaches in entrepreneurship, transforming ideas into real work, branding their products and effective communication and leadership, self-positioning, productivity, modern technologies, stress management – coping with loneliness and stress, recognize and combat negative behaviors. The adolescents obtained the skills to cope with problems as well as transform their ideas and wishes into real projects, like preparation of homemade soap and its dissemination among vulnerable peers.
UNICEF carried out trainings for adolescents, including marginalized groups, in the Samtske-Javakheti, Guria, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, Imereti and Adjara regions on the importance of safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene for the health and wellbeing, advocacy and supported them in advocating for improved water, sanitation and hygiene conditions in their respective schools.
UNICEF organized the capacity building of adolescents through informal training sessions on gambling and its risks and consequences, that was based on evidence generated through the research conducted among adolescents/school students on the knowledge, attitude and practice towards gambling.
A series of trainings for children and young people were carried out on media literacy and digital literacy to equip children and young people with practical skills to understand how to verify sources of information, identify fake news and the specific groups spreading misinformation about COVID-19, and proactively debunk those.
7. UNICEF also works on strengthening child protection systems and services. What are your priorities in this direction?
UNICEF has been the main supporter of the Juvenile Justice and Child Care systems reforms in Georgia. The results produced within both reforms are remarkable.
UNICEF supported the development and adoption of the major legal documents ensuring well-being of children and their families. In 2015 Georgia adopted
the Juvenile Justice Code which introduced child-friendly approach for children in the criminal justice system. Later, in 2019 the Code on the rights of the Child was adopted – a comprehensive legal act covering all rights and freedoms of children and their implementation and protection mechanisms. UNICEF has been supporting the implementation of both codes through bringing relevant laws in compliance with the requirements of the Code, strengthening existing and creating of new mechanisms, increasing the specialization of professionals, developing relevant methodology, tools and quality assurance mechanisms.
UNICEF with the support of the European Union continues strengthening systems and services for child protection in Georgia. The three-year project aims to strengthen legislation, policies and guidance to support the de-institutionalization process; and enhance the capacity of the professional workforce at central and municipal levels to support and protect children and families in Georgia.
UNICEF with the support of Estonian Government and in cooperation with the State Care Agency and other partners, supported the establishment of the integrated service for child victims of sexual abuse – the service which offers all kind of investigation activities and rehabilitation programmes in one, child-friendly and safe space.
UNICEF continues supporting the justice system reform for children though further strengthening diversion and mediation programme for children in conflict with the law, multidisciplinary mechanisms for the implementation of the Juvenile Justice Code, specialization of professionals and support mechanisms for children below the minimum age of criminal responsibility.
8. What are your future projects and plans in Georgia?
We continue implementing the interventions envisaged under the UNICEF and Government of Georgia’s joint plan of action of 2021-2025. We will work to support the Government in implementation of the Code on the Rights of the Child; strengthening the social protection system including the disability status determination system; building the capacities of municipalities to facilitate child-centered and equitable social programing; reforming primary healthcare services for mothers and children, integrating lessons learned from COVID-19 and expanding digital health solutions; introduction of blood lead level surveillance and expanding environmental health agenda; introduction of a school nutrition programme; monitoring of water, sanitation and hygiene in schools; implementation of the Early and Preschool Education and Care Standards and development of the Education Code; ensuring inclusivity and accessibility of preschool and general education and strengthening teaching workforce; piloting educational innovations, including digital technologies; developing pilot programmes for informal education, including after school activities; continuing deinstitutionalization process and alternative care; addressing violence against children; reforming child-friendly justice system; development and implementation of the National Youth Strategy and psychosocial and physical development of children and youth as well as collection and analysis of data and monitoring of the situation on children and adolescents.
We hope to intensify our partnership with ICC and business in building skills of young people, in improving health and social services and in enhancing child rights in business practices. We need to join efforts so that all children have the best start in life and possibilities to implement their full potential.
