Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 08/2009

Health-Care Reform in Georgia: A Civil-Society Perspective

Tobias Hauschild, Esmé Berkhout

June 2009

Oxfam Publishing

Abstract

Oxfam and partner organisations in Georgia have been campaigning as part of the Georgian coalition ‘Future without Poverty’ for access to quality health care, in particular maternal health care, since 2005. In 2006 the Government of Georgia launched a new health policy reform agenda, with the ultimate aim of privatising the whole Georgian health-care system. Aware of the potentially far-reaching consequences of such fast-paced health-care reform, and concerned by the lack of clear information about the strategy and the direction of these reforms, Oxfam and partner organisations decided to undertake an in-depth analysis of the reforms, using interviews with various stakeholders and detailed desk research.