Outcome GEO_D_1.1

By 2025, all people in Georgia enjoy improved good governance, more open, resilient and accountable institutions, rule of law, equal access to justice, human rights, and increased representation and participation of women in decision making (UNSDCF Outcome1)

The outcome was not achieved as all people in Georgia do not enjoy improved good governance, more open, resilient and accountable institutions, rule of law, equal access to justice, human rights, and increased representation and participation of women in decision making. However, significant progress has been made by increasing the visibility of the problem of sexual harassment in public service through generation of data and creation of protection mechanisms for the victim/survivors of sexual harassment in public sector; The Civil Service Bureau of Georgia conducted Georgia’s first-ever specialized study on workplace sexual harassment in civil service. For the first time in Georgia, the study generated representative data on the prevalence of workplace harassment, as well as attitudes and perceptions of civil servants to sexual harassment and its reporting. Further, the Inter-Agency Commission on Gender Equality, Violence against Women and Domestic Violence has taken significant steps towards prevention and response to workplace sexual harassment in the civil service. Some 11 government agencies have adopted sexual harassment complaints’ mechanisms/procedures in the period of 2019-2021 these are: 1. The Ministry of Defence (2019); 2. The Office of the Resource Officers of Educational Institutions under the Ministry of Education and Science (2020); 3. The Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure (2020); 4. The LEPL Civil Service Bureau (2020); 5. The LEPL State Inspector’s Service (2020); 6. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture (2021); 7. The Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development (2021); 8. The LEPL Sakpatenti (2021); 9. GEOSTAT (2021); 10. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2021); 11. Prosecutor's Office (2021). UN Women provided technical support to Civil Service Bureau while conducting the first ever study on sexual harassment in civil service of Georgia, also, all the sexual harassment complaints ’ mechanisms in public entities listed above have been developed with UN Women technical support. T o strengthen gender mainstreaming in governance processes and increas e accountability for gender sensitive policy making in Georgia , Parliamentary Gender Equality Council (GEC) initiated Parliamentary Thematic Inquiry on Gender Mainstreaming in Governmental Policies. This is the first thematic inquiry on the matter and aims to a) identify if and how gender is mainstreamed into governmental procedures, standards and methodologies on state policy development, monitoring and evaluation and b) identify if and how gender is mainstreamed into governmental strategies and action plans, pertaining to key development objectives of the country (more specifically areas such as social-economic development, labor and employment, education and science and public administration). The thematic inquiry is set out to be finalized in March 2022. UN Women is providing technical support throughout the process. N ational partners made further advances towards institutionaliz ation of gender impact assessment (GIA) as a part of the law-making and policy-making processes ; During the reporting period, UN Women together with UNDP and NDI, supported the Parliamentary Gender Equality Council (GEC) in developing a legislative proposal on institutionalizing GIA as a part of the law-making cycle. The legislative proposal was developed in close consultations with GEC GIA working group. The document was further discussed and validated via consultation meeting with development partners and government organizations on 26 October 2021. The legislative proposal on GIA institutionalization is expected to be initiated for approval in the parliament of Georgia in 2022. Based on the progress made to date, the original strategy and theory of change for this outcome is largely still applicable. If, as expected, this strategy is successful, then the legislative initiatives, tools and mechanisms put in place by the CO would within a few years start having a real impact on the lives of women and girls in Georgia by making governance systems, state institutions and policy-making more gender sensitive and also enabling for greater participation of women in decision-making processes. Evidence: News on the CO's work around Sexual Harassment complaints’ mechanisms Workplace Sexual Harassment in Civil Service study report News on the Presentation of Sexual Harassment in Civil Service study report Documents on Parliament of Georgia’s Thematic Inquiry on Gender Mainstreaming Draft package of legislative amendments on making GIA mandatory in Georgia

By 2025, all people in Georgia enjoy improved good governance, more open, resilient and accountable institutions, rule of law, equal access to justice, human rights, and increased representation and participation of women in decision making (UNSDCF Outcome1)

In 2024, Georgia made progress on gender equality, with key initiatives supported by UN Women. The Ministry of Finance adopted a gender tagging methodology to track budget allocations for gender equality, enabling 19 programs and 18 sub-programs to be identified as gender-relevant in the 2025 budget. Additionally, 230 public servants were trained on gender-responsive budgeting. Seven new state agencies established sexual harassment prevention mechanisms, and 345 public servants received training on the issue. The Civil Service Bureau, with UN Women’s support, introduced a mandatory gender mainstreaming course for all public servants. Local gender equality action plans were developed in 42 municipalities, benefiting from UN Women’s technical support to improve gender data collection and analysis. UN Women also facilitated consultations between the Public Defender's Office and civil society organizations, engaging 42 CSO representatives in gender equality discussions. In 2024 27 women’s organizations and up to 100 women activists increased their capacities, knowledge and skills on electoral rights and processes, as a result of voter education workshops conducted by UN Women. Over 1.18 million people were reached by an awareness campaign promoting women's political participation, contributing to a higher voter turnout among women in the 2024 parliamentary elections. Additionally, 73 media professionals are now equipped with knowledge to advocate for women’s political empowerment and cover politics and elections in a gender sensitive manner as a result of capacity development workshops supported by UN Women. In 2024, 189 data producers and users strengthened their skills in the collection, analysis, dissemination, and use of gender statistics through targeted capacity development workshops organized by UN Women. As a result of the partnership between UN Women and the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat), new gender equality indicators are now available through the 2024 edition of Women and Men in Georgia , 13 thematic infographics, and Geostat’s Gender Data Portal, which features 135 gender indicators, including 26 SDG indicators. A nationwide public opinion survey on gender equality attitudes was conducted, with findings to be released in 2025. Academic institutions gained access to comprehensive guidance on developing gender equality action plans as a result of the new framework “Guidance Note on Gender Equality in Academia and Research” developed by UN Women. Finally, UN women supported a study on valuing unpaid domestic and care work, highlighting women’s economic contributions by assigning a monetary value to this work providing valuable insights for policy makers. Based on the progress made to date, the original strategy and theory of change for this outcome is largely still applicable. If, as expected, this strategy is successful, then the legislative initiatives, capacities, tools and mechanisms put in place by the CO would, within a few years, start having a real impact on the lives of women and girls in Georgia by making governance systems, state institutions and policy-making more gender sensitive and also enabling for greater participation of women in decision-making processes.

By 2025, all people in Georgia enjoy improved good governance, more open, resilient and accountable institutions, rule of law, equal access to justice, human rights, and increased representation and participation of women in decision making (UNSDCF Outcome1)

UN Women has made strong progress towards achieving this outcome in 2022. Georgia has in place a new framework policy to address gender equality and the empowerment of women. The State Concept on Gender Equality was adopted in December 2022 to replace the 2006 Concept. The new Concept is aligned with Georgia’s international and national commitments; namely, it prioritizes the achievement of substantive equality (as stipulated by Article 11 of the Constitution), gender mainstreaming in the policymaking process as well as in the education sector, combating violence against women and girls and strengthening the Women, Peace and Security agenda, among others. UN Women provided technical support in the development of the draft of the Concept that was initiated in the Parliament and fully met international standards. However, the final adopted version, reworked through the parliamentary process, uses a heteronormative definition of gender equality and fails to embrace sexual orientation and gender identity issues. Gender Impact Assessments have become an integral part of law-making in Georgia. The Parliament adopted amendments to the Organic Law of Georgia on Normative Acts that add a set of questions to the justification note to be submitted along with the legislative bill, assessing the impact of the bill on gender equality, including questions on the impact of the bill on women’s access to resources and decision-making. The legislative package was developed with UN Women’s technical support in partnership with the Gender Equality Council of the Parliament. Important groundwork has been laid for the institutionalization of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) in Georgia. UN Women supported the Ministry of Finance in conducting the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability’s (PEFA) Gender Responsive Public Finance Management (GRPFM) assessment. The GRPFM report was validated by the PEFA Secretariat, housed under the World Bank, at the end of 2022. The assessment evaluates the degree to which Georgia’s public finance management (PFM) system is gender responsive. The assessment results are expected to facilitate the measurement of progress and to inform a broader strategy for the Government of Georgia on improving the PFM system and institutionalizing GRB. This policy-level advocacy work around GRB is paired with capacity development efforts around GRB; UN Women’s responsible partner, the Academy of the Ministry of Finance of Georgia, trained 363 civil servants (248 women, 115 men) representing the central and local governments on GRB in 2022. ? Representatives of local government are equipped with tools and knowledge to localize national gender equality policies at the municipal level. UN Women together with the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG) continued providing active support to the municipalities for the development and implementation of gender equality policies at the local level. As of December 2022, 44 municipalities have developed and approved local gender equality action plans aligned with the “Guidelines on the Development of Municipal Gender Equality Action Plans” by UN Women and NALAG. The above-listed results became possible through the UN Women cost-share project “Good Governance for Gender Equality in Georgia” (GG4GEG) supported by the Government of Norway. Positive steps are being taken in terms of the production and use of gender data. The National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) in partnership with UN Women implemented Georgia’s first-ever Time Use Survey (GTUS). The GTUS generated internationally comparable time use data for Georgia and filled important gap in gender statistics, specifically in reporting on SDG indicator 5.4.1. The study was implemented within the framework of the GG4GEG project funded by the Government of Norway with co-funding from UN Women’s flagship programme Making Every Woman and Girl Count. On 9 December 2022, a public presentation of the GTUS findings was held, attended by around 80 representatives of the legislative and executive branches of the Government, development partners, civil society organizations and academia. Two reports were presented to the audience: a general statistical report and a thematic report on unpaid care work. Both reports as well as a separate issue brief on unpaid care work have been made available on UN Women Georgia’s website. Additionally, detailed statistical tables from the GTUS were published on Geostat’s website. The GTUS generated substantial public attention and was covered by 45 media outlets within the first four days of its launch. In 2022, in total, 29 new indicators were added to the Gender Data Portal, while all of the other (99) existing indicators were updated with 2021 data. In addition, Geostat with UN Women’s support developed the 2022 edition of its annual publication “Women and Men in Georgia” in Georgian and in English. For the first time, the publication captures the main findings of the Time Use Survey, including data on unpaid domestic and care work and SDG indicator 5.4.1. UN Women has further supported Geostat in improving its gender statistics products based on a user satisfaction assessment. Based on the progress made to date, the original strategy and theory of change for this outcome is largely still applicable. If, as expected, this strategy is successful, then the legislative initiatives, tools and mechanisms put in place by the CO would within a few years start having a real impact on the lives of women and girls in Georgia by making governance systems, state institutions and policy-making more gender sensitive and also enabling for greater participation of women in decision-making processes.

By 2025, all people in Georgia enjoy improved good governance, more open, resilient and accountable institutions, rule of law, equal access to justice, human rights, and increased representation and participation of women in decision making (UNSDCF Outcome1)

UN Women has made strong progress towards achieving this outcome in 2023. Policies and capacities for gender mainstreaming are developed and sustained at the national and local levels and more and better-quality data and analysis are available to promote and track the progress of gender equality and women’s empowerment in Georgia. The Government of Georgia adopted the 2023–2026 Public Finance Management Strategy and the 2023 PFM Action Plan on May 24. Both the PFM Strategy and Action Plan integrate key principles of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB), contributing towards the institutionalization of GRB in Georgia and progress towards SDG indicator 5.c.1. These developments constitute an important policy shift in terms of mainstreaming gender in governance systems in Georgia, as the previous reform cycles on public finance management made no reference to gender equality goals and objectives. To achieve this, UN Women provided targeted technical support, including consultancy assistance to integrate GRB principles into the Government of Georgia's Public Finance Management Strategy and Action Plan. Aligned with the 2023-2024 PFM Action plan, UN Women plans to continue expanding the partnership with the Ministry of Finance to support the implementation of gender mainstreaming commitments under PFM reform Public Defender’s Office of Georgia has the capacity to ensure consistent and thorough monitoring of the institutionalization of gender equality and gender mainstreaming by the government at all levels; the PDO developed three thematic monitoring reports on gender equality and gender mainstreaming “ Assessment of effectiveness of gender equality institutional mechanism in Georgia ”, " Review of Georgia's Gender Mainstreaming Obligations and their Fulfilment Status, " and " Evaluation of Gender Equality Policies of Municipalities." In total 4 103 beneficiaries received legal consultations and/or information on GEWE issues in Kvemo Kartli and Shida Kartli Regions through UN Women and PDO collaboration in the period of 2020-2023. Along with financial support, UN Women provided guidance around methodological approaches, which were instrumental in enabling the Public Defender's Office of Georgia to develop thematic monitoring reports on gender equality and gender mainstreaming. The Civil Service Bureau (CSB) of Georgia has developed its Gender Equality Strategy and corresponding intra-institutional Gender Equality Action Plan with UN Women’s technical support. As a part of this plan, the entity adopted its internal sexual harassment complaints’ mechanism in 2022 and internal guidelines for the protection of victims/survivors of the Domestic Violence in 2023. The CEDAW committee in its concluding observations to Georgia State Party highlighted the gender mainstreaming progress of Civil Service Bureau as “aimed at establishing a gender-sensitive civil service.” (CEDAW/C/GEO/CO/6, paragraph 29, March 2023). This is a result of UN Women’s fruitful collaboration with the CSB that commenced in 2020 with Participatory Gender Audit of the entity and continued with Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) of the Law of Georgia on Public Service that was finalized in 2023. The GIA has identified not only the causes and consequences but also the primary barriers to women's leadership in public service. Furthermore, the GIA offers a set of legislative and policy recommendations aimed at promoting women's leadership and mainstreaming gender in public service that has implications also for other development partners engaged with CSB. The National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG) has been championing gender equality work across all 64 municipalities of Georgia. In 2023, NALAG approved its second Gender Equality Action Plan for 2024–2025. The plan prioritizes comprehensive support for all 64 municipalities in crafting municipal-level gender equality action plans, implementing measures to combat municipal-level sexual harassment and improving gender data collection at the local level. The number of municipalities that have become parties to the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life has reached 26 (40 per cent of all municipalities). All these results are stemming from the partnership agreement with NALAG, through which UN Women provided hands on technical support and offered ongoing guidance to achieve this result. The Georgian Government, development partners, civil society, and UN agencies can access more and better-quality data and analysis to promote and track the progress of gender equality and women’s empowerment. GEOSTAT with UN Women’s support, published 2023 edition of its annual publication “Women and Men in Georgia” in Georgian and in English. The publication summarizes main official sex-disaggregated statistics in the country and provides trend analysis in several domains such as health, education, social security, employment, etc. For the first time, the publication captures the main findings of Time Use Survey, including data on unpaid domestic and care work and SDG indicator 5.4.1. The publication is available on GEOSTAT’s website. The Georgian Government, development partners, civil society, and UN agencies can better assess the existing situation regarding gender equality and women’s empowerment and access a primary source for evidence-driven advocacy and programming using the third edition of Country Gender Equality Profile (CGEP), has been developed by UN Women in partnership with National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat), academia and other relevant partners. Framed under international, regional and national commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE), the CGEP is an in-depth, national-level analysis of the status of women and men based on both statistical and qualitative data. During the reporting period, CGEP has been finalized in English. The CGEP is being translated into Georgian language and will be available publicly in the first quarter of 2024. Based on the progress made to date, the original strategy and theory of change for this outcome is largely still applicable. If, as expected, this strategy is successful, then the legislative initiatives, tools and mechanisms put in place by the CO would, within a few years, start having a real impact on the lives of women and girls in Georgia by making governance systems, state institutions and policy-making more gender sensitive and also enabling for greater participation of women in decision-making processes.