Georgia

Georgia adopted its most recent National Action Plan (NAP) in 2018 for the period 2018-2020. The NAP was developed by the Inter-Agency Commission on Gender Equality, Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (hereinafter the Commission), which was formed as a result of Georgia’s second NAP. The Commission developed the NAP through a participatory process, in partnership with the Thematic Consultative Working Group, composed of representatives from municipalities, civil society, and international organizations. The NAP interprets the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda both domestically and internationally, focusing on conflict-affected areas, internally displaced persons, and occupied territories within Georgia as well as on mainstreaming the WPS agenda in its international peacekeeping and diplomatic activities. The NAP has four priority areas, aligned with the primary pillars of UNSCR 1325: participation; prevention; protection; and monitoring. These thematic priority areas have corresponding actions and indicators; nevertheless, the monitoring and evaluation framework is broad, rather than being specific, consisting of regular evaluations to assess progress. The NAP does not have an allocated budget. 

Georgia’s third NAP is preceded by two other NAPs, adopted in 2012 and 2016 and implemented for the period of 2012-2015 and 2016-2017, respectively. Georgia’s first NAP forms part of broader national efforts to mainstream gender and was developed following the adoption of the Law on Gender Equality in 2010, and the establishment of the Council for Gender Equality. Working at the national level to the grassroots level and in cooperation with international donors and UN agencies, women’s organizations have been instrumental in the development and implementation of the NAP in Georgia. The country’s three NAPs are similar in structure and level of detail, with each NAP consisting solely of an implementation matrix that includes goals, outputs, indicators, responsible party, and timeline. The second and third NAPs also have a preface that provides a brief overview of the implementation of previous NAPs as well as participatory drafting processes of NAPs. 

Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The country has been experiencing ethnic tension since its founding, including the Abkhazia War (1992-1993) and the Russo-Georgian War (2008), and involving separatist movements in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which have become breakaway regions. Despite the fact that women have been mostly excluded from peace processes involving these conflicts, they have continued to demand a seat at the peace table as well as carrying out work with women impacted by conflicts on the ground, including internally displaced women and girls. In 2008, a group of women founded the Movement of Women for Peace and Security, with the goal to increase women’s participation in peacebuilding and decision-making processes. Nevertheless, women human rights defenders continue to carry out their work under increasingly precarious conditions in Georgia. 

CEDAW

1994

Global Gender Gap Index 2020

74 out of 153

Arms Trade Treaty Signed

2014

Military expenditure (2019)

$316 million USD

Explore Georgia's National Action Plan

  • Actors
  • Timeframe
  • Objectives
  • Actions/Activities
  • Indicators
  • M&E
  • Budget
  • Disarmament

NAP Development

More than 25 NGOs were involved in consultations on NAP formation with multiple meetings convened between the Government and the over 102 organizations which advocate for internally displaced persons and conflict affected women in the regions of Tbilisi, Qvemo Qartli, Shida Qartli, Imereti and Samegrelo. The Women’s Information Center has been instrumental to coordinating Civil Society and government to push for the development of a NAP in Georgia. The Women’s Information Center participated in the NAP’s development through the Governmental Working Group and is also represented in the Coordination Group responsible for overseeing the NAP’s development.

Civil society formed part of the development of the NAP through the Thematic Consultative Working Group.

WILPF does not have a country section in Georgia and therefore was not involved in the development process of Georgia’s NAP.

The Georgian NAP was developed through collaboration between the Governmental Working Group (with representatives from all major ministries and the Parliament of Georgia) and relevant Civil Society organizations

NAP Implementation

In the table that lists objectives, activities, and indicators is a section that lists responsible implementing institutions. However, specific civil society organizations are not mentioned here. The only reference, which appears a number of times, is the phrase "in cooperation with interested donor organisations" following a government institution.

Specific government agencies are listed with activities. These include: Gender Equality Council, Office of National Security Council, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Office of State Minister for Reintegration issues, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Education and Science, local governments, the Public Broadcaster, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Inter-Agency Coordination Council on Combating Human Trafficking, State Fund for the Protection of and Assistance to the Victims of Human Trafficking, Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, Legal Entity of Public Law, and Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance.

NAP Monitoring and Evaluation

The Gender Equality Council will lead the monitoring and evaluation process. A Coordination Group made up of a number of ministries will convene once a month to evaluate the progress.

Georgian women’s Civil Society has worked to collaborate with government and also international donors and UN agencies. Civil Society organizations participated in a review of gender sensitive security sector reform, undertaken by DCAF, UN Women and the EU, which considered the progress of the NAP. The review concluded the following recommendations:

  • The need to identify resources (existing and new) for the NAPs implementation, and establish a working group to undertake a resource evaluation
  • Civil Society should utilize expertise in monitoring and evaluation to support the governments evaluation process
  • The need to establish a streamlined communication mechanism between government entities responsible for NAP and Civil Society to support the role of coordination role of the Gender Equality Council

2018 update: civil society will be involved in the implementation and monitoring stages.

The NAP will be undergo regular evaluations that will assess how delivery processes of the NAP’s strategic outcomes are led by government ministries and institutions to asses how challenges are addressed and what best practices are to further build upon.  Based on the evaluations, if necessary, a set of amendments to further improve the NAP will be submitted to the Parliament of Georgia for approval.

UPDATE 2018: The fourth NAP is to be implemented for a period of three years 2018-2020.

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For each activity, a "deadline" is given for completion. These deadlines fall into three categories: 2012-2015, 2012-2013, and 2013-2015. The Georgian NAP covers the period for 2012-2015.

UPDATE 2018:

Compared to the previous NAP, this NAP has four priority areas instead of five. The priority areas of the 2018-2020 NAP are:

  1. Participation
  1. Prevention
  1. Protection
  1. Effective Implementation and Monitoring of the National Action Plan

Each priority area has a goal and set of objectives for reaching that goal.  For example, for Objective 1, Goal 1 - " Increased participation of women at the decision-making level in the security sector and peace negotiations", the Georgian NAP offers three objectives:

Relevant policy developed to promote career advancement of women in the security sector and human resources management system based on the analysis of sexdisaggregated data is in place;

Representation of women in peace negotiations is supported;

Inclusion of IDP and conflict-affected women, youth and women’s organizations in the peacebuilding process is increased, and people-to-people diplomacy initiatives are supported.

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The Georgian National Action Plan is organized by five Priority Areas:

Priority Area I: Participation: participation of women at decision-making level in conflict elimination, prevention and management processes.

Priority Area II: Prevention: Consideration of women’s needs in conflict prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women

Priority Area III: Prevention: Consideration of women’s needs in conflict prevention and eliminating all forms of violence against women, especially sexual and gender based violence

Priority Area IV: Protection: Protecting conflict affected women’s human rights; ensuring their physical, social, economic and political security

Priority Area V: Relief and Recovery – Addressing special needs of women in war/conflict and post-conflict situations

Each priority area has a goal and set of objectives for reaching that goal.  For example, for Priority 1, Goal 1 - "Support to participation of women in security and peace-building related matters", the Georgian NAP offers four objectives:

Support to participation of women in security and peace-building related matters

Support women’s participation in official peace negotiation processes.

Support women’s participation in military units and peacekeeping forces, increase their awareness on women, peace and security issues.

Support to people-to-people diplomacy and women’s participation in these processes

UPDATE 2018:

Each objective in Georgia's NAP offers a set of activities. For example, for Priority 1, Objective 1 - "Relevant policy developed to promote career advancement of women in the security sector and human resources management system based on the analysis of sexdisaggregated data is in place", the following activities are listed:

  1. To create a sex-disaggregated data collection and analysis system;
  2. To collect and analyze sexdisaggregated data and make it publicly available (percentage, rank, position);
  3. To develop human resources policy based on analysis of sexdisaggregated data that will promote equal career advancement opportunities for women and men;
  4. To ensure equal participation of women and men in career development programmes;
  5. To develop, update and approve internal documents establishing a gender equality policy within security sector institutions;
  6. To hold regular meetings between employees of security sector institutions to share best practices and ensure effective coordination.

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Each objective in Georgia's NAP offers a set of activities. For example, for Priority 3, Objective 1 - "Eliminate sexual and gender-based violence; promote zero tolerance towards sexual violence against women and girls", the following activities are listed:

  • Cooperation with international and civil society organizations, study of the mechanisms of prevention of gender-based and sexual violence during armed conflicts/wars, protection of and help to the victims of sexual violence, develop recommendations on elimination of identified deficiencies
  • Review of the existing legislation on the crime of sexual violence committed in conflict and post conflict periods from the viewpoint of zero tolerance and develop recommendations, as necessary, on the amendments to relevant legislation;
  • Ensure appropriate training of military units, peacekeeping forces and police units on gender issues and on UN Security Council Resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888, 1889 and 1960, especially on prevention, identification and response to gender based violence against women and girls.

UPDATE 2018:

Each activity has a set of indicators attached. For example, for Priority 1, Objective 1 - "Relevant policy developed to promote career advancement of women in the security sector and human resources management system based on the analysis of sexdisaggregated data is in place", lists the following indicators:

1.Existence of human resources policy and strategy documents considering gender perspectives;

  1. Existence of a system for regular monitoring and evaluation of the human resources policy and strategy;
  2. Existence and availability of sex-disaggregated data in the security institutions (in civil service and armed forces);
  3. Share (%) of women in decision making positions (as compared to men).

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Each activity has a set of indicators attached.  For example, in Priority 2, Objective 2, Activity 3 - "Strengthen cooperation between the government and civil society aiming at raising awareness of population on the territories adjacent to occupied regions on anticipated risks and threats, as well as on conflict prevention" lists two indicators:

Number of meetings held between the Gender Equality Council, governmental and civil society organizations; joint initiatives;

Percentage of population covered by activities on potential risks and threats as well as conflict prevention issues, aimed at raising public awareness; number of participants, disaggregated by sex.

UPDATE 2018:

The NAP will be undergo regular evaluations that will assess how delivery processes of the NAP’s strategic outcomes are led, how challenges are addressed and what best practices are to further build upon.  Based on the evaluations, if necessary, a set of amendments to further improve the NAP will be submitted to the Parliament of Georgia for approval.

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The Gender Equality Council is responsible for the National Action Plan’s coordination and the NAP contains a framework of Indicators to monitor progress. Most indicators are qualitative only. 

A Coordination Group has been formed to oversee implementation across government. The Coordination Group is to meet once per month, and is comprised of representatives of relevant Ministries, Security Council, Civil Society and the Public Defender Office.

There is no specified or allocated budget, only notation of the source of funding (i.e. government/ donor organizations).

No indicators or actions are included that formulate strategies for fundraising, detail what level of funding is required for which specific activities, or what accountability mechanisms will ensure funding is raised and used in implementing the NAP.

Georgia's NAP does not address disarmament issues, or connect the proliferation of weapons with women's insecurity.

Documents and Further Reading

Women in Peace and Security through UNSCR 1325: Literature Review, Content Analysis of National Action Plans, and Implementation (Miller, Pournik, Swaine 2014)
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