Gender Assessment in Georgia.

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Gender Assessment in Georgia

Everyone is born free and is equal before the law, regardless of race,

skin color, language, sex, religion, political and other beliefs, national,

ethnic and social origin, property, title of nobility or place of residence

Article 14, Constitution of the Republic of Georgia

In March 2003 the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) conducted a Gender Assessment in Georgia. The importance of this work is emphasized even by the mere fact that it was the first time such the research had been carried out in this Caucasian country, famous among other things for the controversial question of whether it belongs to Europe or Asia (thus whether the attitude towards gender should be discussed from European or Asian perspective).

In this paper I would like to analyze why the Gender Assessment was conducted in Georgia; what was the scope of the work; what methodology was used for it; what were the specific findings (if any); which problems were pointed out by USAID as the most crucial for Georgian society; and what were the conclusions and the recommendations of USAID in order to contribute towards “expanding democracy and free markets while improving the lives of the citizens of the developing world”. In addition, by briefly comparing this assessment to several other gender assessments conducted by USAID in other countries I intend to show the reason of difference between the most important issues concerning gender which are stressed in all of these Assessments.

Before proceeding to the main body of my essay let me explain what is Gender Mainstreaming. The definition of Gender Mainstreaming was adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, to design the methods and institutional preparations to achieve gender equality. Gender mainstreaming is an approach that regards gender as a critical consideration in policy planning, designation, evaluation, and decision-making processes. For further explanations let us refer to United Nations Gender Policy: “Mainstreaming a gender perspective is the process of assessing the implications of any planned action for both women and men. The strategy seeks to ensure that women and men benefit equally by integrating their experiences and concerns into the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs in all political, economic and societal spheres. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality”.

As for Georgia, “gender mainstreaming strategies are intended to improve the effectiveness of USAID assistance by ensuring that both men and women are fully integrated into Georgian society and USAID policies and programs”. For that reason, the conducting of Gender Assessment was considered to be essential for USAID, as it would examine current programs thus presenting a basis to methodical integration of gender into upcoming USAID work. The accomplished work included but was not limited to the assessment of the nature of gender relations in Georgia, its role in the country’s development, the assessment of the possible gender issues in the future strategic policies and procedures and providing specific recommendations to the USAID’s Mission in Georgia for gender’s further considerations into its policies.

The Mission pointed out the importance of awareness of gender mainstreaming and the necessity to improve the unequal status of women, because without full and equal participation of women in the Georgian society the development results are not likely to be sustainable, and the political, economic and social advancement of the country will in fact never occur. However, being aware is only one side of the coin. Another side consists of creating and establishing of gender policy and procedures, by requiring from partners of the Mission and all their beneficiaries to collect accurate gender-disaggregated data. The first step to achieve this goal was to conduct gender assessment, and consequent analyzing of its findings and recommendations would assist USAID Mission in Georgia to mainstream gender into its own strategy, policies and procedures. Therefore, the scope of work was focused on the Mission’s program only in Georgia, and the main questions introduced by the assessment concerned the differences between men’s and women’s problems and their solutions as well as the differences between men’s and women’s contributions to different activities.

To complete the assessment, the team of two experienced specialists elaborated on significant documents delivered to them by different partner organizations, programs, NGOs and Activists. Furthermore, they conducted vast research in the whole region of Georgia. This encompasses both formal interviews with members of numerous targeted organizations and informal discussions with other relevant individuals.

For a better and thorough analyzing of the data gathered, it was divided into several groups named “Strategic Objectives”, and these are Accelerated Development and Growth of Private Enterprises, a More Economically Efficient and Environmentally Sustainable Energy Sector, Legal Systems that Better Support Implementation of Democratic Process and Market Reforms, More Efficient and Responsive Local Governance, Reduced Human Suffering in Targeted Communities, Trafficking in Persons and Domestic Violence. Let me elaborate on USAID’s specific findings concerning gender analysis within the context of each of these strategic objectives.

While assessing gender in economic environment of Georgia, one must not forget that this country is one of the poorest amongst post-soviet states, with “extensive corruption, economic stagnation, and dismal poverty”. Georgia’s economic progress is particularly hindered by the following three issues: economic position of women which is lagging behind men; considerable difference between women’s and men’s opportunity to raise their financial situation; and society’s lesser belief in women’s capability than that of men’s.

Analyzing gender in Georgia’s context means taking into consideration the country’s traditional, patriarchal environment as well as difficult transitional phase in a global economy. High out-migration of both women and men together with women’s more unpaid labor contribution towards the households and their lower earning capacity creates the country’s specific economic features. As for gender division among the job sectors, the situation could be well imagined by specialists even without piles of research done: women constitute the major mass within the low-paid sector (education and health care in Georgia’s case) and less than 20 % within the high-paid sector (industry and construction). Yet, in all cases gender’s distribution within the position level in private sector is still uneven: women occupying mostly administrative and clerical while men – managerial posts. Besides, requirements from employers concerning age-specific, appearance-specific and other limitations inhibit fairness of employment processes.

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Analyzing women’s participation in privatization processes brings more light to gender unequal dissemination within the sphere. Less than 25 % of privatized businesses is owned by women, its overwhelming majority disseminated in trade, public services and health, and representing mostly small and medium enterprises. Moreover, women business owners lack necessary technology, market knowledge, information how to operate, even starting capital, and access to credit loan. In addition to all the above, professionals claim (and being informed about Georgia’s reality one can well understand why) that tax laws are completely unregulated and burdensome, and almost the entire body of inspectors are ...

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