UNFPA: STRIVING FOR GENDER EQUALITY

For over 30 years, UNFPA has been providing assistance around the world to maximize its effort in improving the rights and status of woman of all ages, and working towards a discriminatory-free world with equal rights and opportunities.
UNFPA emphasises gender equality as a key element in its programmes. In its current agenda for Georgia, UNFPA has incorporated gender component to enhance and encourage the participation of various civil society groups, particularly the youth, elderly and the woman in the decision making and monitoring process.

Advocacy and Capacity building for Gender Equality
In partnership with the Government of Georgia and UN agencies
Implementation period: 2006-2010

Goals: To promote awareness on the issue of gender equality in the society and encourage the media, NGOs and community based organizations participate in human rights monitoring.

Activities and achievements:
Policy Dialogue:
To address the issue of gender equality, UNFPA launched its first Country Programme in 2006 with its prime focus on policy dialogue and institutional capacity building.
In close collaboration with its partner UN agencies (UNDP and UNIFEM), UNFPA in 2006 provided support to the newly established Gender Equality Machineries to develop Gender Equality Strategy for the State.
UNFPA along with its partner UN agencies ensured the participation and involvement of civil society organizations in policy dialogue and elaboration of the State Strategy.
The Gender Equality State Strategy Document was finalized in June 2006, and subsequently the Gender Equality Concept was adopted by the Parliament which led to the creation of a concrete and comprehensive policy framework for further strengthening of gender equality in the country.

Capacity Building for Gender Mainstreaming:
With the aim to strengthen and include the gender mainstreaming into the National Legislation, UNFPA in partnership with the Advisory Council on Gender Equality at the Chair of the Parliament, have provided special trainings on gender analysis to staff members of various Parliamentary Committees.

Youth Participation:
UNFPA identifies the youth as a key player in monitoring human rights and achieving gender equality.
In an effort to build the capacity of the youth and encourage their involvement in gender mainstreaming, UNFPA supported Tbilisi State University, the biggest IHL in Georgia to conduct Students Conference on “Gender and Society”.

UN JOINT PROJECT ON SUPPORTING GREATER GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA
The UN Joint Project “UN Initiative in support of Greater Gender Equality in Georgia” is a joint initiative of the following UN agencies in Georgia: UNFPA, UNDP, UNIFEM, UNICEF and UN RC office with UNFPA being a Managing Agent of the initiative. 
Duration: 2006-2009 with possible extension
Activities and achievements
During its first phase the UN Joint Project was focused on Assessment of Domestic Violence Situation in Georgia; The purpose of the study was to draw a full picture of domestic violence situation in the country in terms of availability of information and data, efficiency of legislation, institutional and monitoring mechanisms. In 2006, a research was conducted by Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights in collaboration with the local research institution IPS. The assessment results were followed by a set of recommendations for the UN agencies and the State on potential spheres of intervention. 
The UN Joint Project Steering Committee made the findings of the study available for all stakeholders in Georgia by conducting a special high level policy dialogue with participation of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and brought them to the public attention through TV talk shows on leading TV channels.

Starting from 2008, the UN Joint Project entered into the second phase, which is focused on supporting Greater Gender Equality in Georgia through fostering coordination and collaboration among the government and the civil society and strengthening Gender Equality National Machineries in the country.
 
Within the framework of the project the review of the Gender Equality Strategy and monitoring of the 2007-2009 National Action Plan on Gender Equality in Georgia was conducted.   The final report with findings and recommendations will help the stakeholders to better understand the achievements and shortcomings and will serve as a basis for drafting of the new National Action Plan on Gender Equality.

The Project supports coordination among the Donor community working on Gender issues as well as collaboration among the government and the civil society to encourage information sharing and foster a dialogue.

The UN Joint Project is keen on supporting creation of the Gender Equality Mechanism at the Executive Branch of the Government while providing technical support to the National Machineries in developing of effective and comprehensive monitoring tools and strategies which will support implementation of gender equality priorities in the country. 

Combating Gender-Based Violence in the South Caucasus Project (GBV-SC)
A 3-year initiative jointly funded by UNFPA and the Government of Norway, and in close cooperation key government entities, NGOs and academia.

Implementation period 2007-2010

Goal:
Advance the efforts to create a Gender-Based Violence (BGV) -free environment, empower women and contribute towards the sustainable development and democracy in the region, through:

• Informing, communicating and educating the public on gender tights and issues;
• Engendering laws, policies and plans;
• Supporting the establishment of service mechanisms to prevent, protect and respond to gender-based violence acts;
• Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of efforts aimed at addressing gender-based violence.

Activities and achievements:

• Initiation of the qualitative and quantitative country-wide survey on the causes and consequences of Domestic Violence (DV), implemented by ACT Research and Centre of Social Science, which started in June 2008 with the quantitative and qualitative tools development and will be completed in the fall of 2009. The UNFPA survey on domestic violence is the first region-wide initiative of this kind and is being implemented simultaneously in three countries of South Caucasus – Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. The survey findings will be used as a baseline for formulating national policies and plans as well as for advocacy and public awareness-raising campaigns on gender-based and domestic violence in Georgia.

• Target group education on gender issues, rights and equality, as well as gender-based domestic violence and male involvement; Trainings Gender and GBV/DV are conducted by International Centre on Conflict and Negotiation (ICCN) on to educators throughout Georgia, using specifically designed training curriculum; Target Group Education will reach cross-section of beneficiaries: high school- and university-aged youth, young men in military services, and representatives of public institutions and NGOs and women in general. It is envisaged that on the second stage of the project (late 2009-2010) the trainings will be transformed into a larger-scale informational campaign, where trained educators will be deployed to various locations in Georgia to educate broader audiences (approx. 2,000 youth, men, and women) on gender issues, gender rights and equality, gender/domestic violence and male involvement.

• Supporting capacity building & building GBV/DV free environment of national and local actors responsible for protecting and enforcing the rights and participation of women by:

• the drafting of the Monitoring Report on the Implementation of the National Action Plan on Elimination of Domestic Violence 2007-2008, which sheds light on the positive developments and the existing gaps in the implementation of the Action Plan, setting the ground for developing the new 2009-2011 Action Plan and the National Referral Mechanism on DV;
• supporting development of the State Referral mechanisms for the victims of domestic violence through recruiting a technical expert to draft a set of documents outlining the state referral mechanism for the victims of domestic violence, standards for the crises/intervention centers and the service provision standards for shelters;
• Supporting elaboration of the amendments package to the Law of Georgia on Domestic Violence to further improve the legal base for combating GBV/DV in Georgia

• GBV-SC project is supporting broad multi-media campaigns on GVB/DV issues to raise the awareness of the population and advocate for strengthening the state response mechanisms. The project joined with the annual global campaign “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence”, through a large scale public awareness raising movement organizing various activities to raise awareness on gender rights and issues. From November 25 through December 10, over 50 campaign related activities were held by different actors covering various regions of Georgia. Some of the activities organized by GBV-SC within the framework of the campaign were: screenings of short documentary films on domestic and gender-based violence in Georgia, conference on gender and family issues at the Tbilisi National Youth Palace, a TV talk show on domestic violence in Georgia, a photo contest on women’s rights etc.

• In celebration of the international Women’s Day, March 8, GBV-SC supported Annual IV Gender Week 2009 in Georgia together with UNDP, Gender Equality Council under the Chair of the Parliament of Georgia and local NGOs working on gender. Within the framework of the Gender Week, GBV-SC Georgia awarded winners of the Journalists Contest on best articles on Women’s Rights and Gender Issues. The contest was announced by UNFPA in October 2008 and covered various topics such as women’s rights, women’s role in the family and society, domestic violence and women in conflict. The purpose of the initiative was to motivate journalists of various calibres to engage in gender-related work and to raise journalists’ professional interest in women’s rights and domestic violence.

http://www.ungeorgia.ge/userfiles/files/GBV-SC%20Georgia_Newsletter_Edition_3.pdf

http://www.ungeorgia.ge/userfiles/files/GBV%20Newsletter%20Edition2.pdf

http://www.ungeorgia.ge/userfiles/files/GBV%20_%20NewsletterF3.pdf

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