Georgia’s Parliament Speaker slams foreign donors for alleged uncritical support of NGOs

Shalva Papuashvili, the Chairman of the Parliament of Georgia, on Monday criticized foreign donors for their alleged uncritical support of domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs), arguing that this had led to a disconnect between civil society and the needs of the people.

In a social media post, Papuashvili expressed concern that donors had allegedly become too dependent on the organizations they fund, which had resulted in a “Frankenstein model” of civil society that he claimed “fails to reflect public interests”.

Papuashvili emphasized that donors needed to take responsibility and reconsider their approach to funding and accountability. He highlighted that the “lack of transparency and dialogue has created a problematic situation where NGOs manipulate funders and resemble disunited opposition parties”.

“The ironic aspect is that donors are enamored with their own creations and accept NGO actions and opinions without scrutiny,” Papuashvili wrote. “The gap between expectation and reality, intentions and results, has pushed foreign-funded NGOs towards radicalism.”
He called for a reevaluation of civil society funding, stressing that democratic principles such as transparency, pluralism, and competition should apply to NGOs as they do to other public actors and state institutions. Papuashvili suggested that implementing transparency laws could be a good starting point to address these issues.