The Deputy Executive Director of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia, National Coordinator and Expert at CEMR – Natia Ghvinashvili summarized the activities implemented by NALAG throughout 2021 to support gender equality.
The conference “Progress of Gender Equality Policy at the Local Level in Georgia,” which was held online, was attended by representatives of central and local government, as well as representatives of local and international organizations and field experts.
Natia Ghvinashvili thanked the event participants for their involvement and support in this process and stated that overcoming existing challenges in the direction of gender equality is only possible through unified and coordinated work.
The conference participants were addressed with welcoming remarks by the Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia – Mzia Giorgobiani, the Prime Minister’s Advisor on Human Rights and Gender Equality Issues – Niko Tathulashvili, and the Deputy Representative of UN Women – Tamar Sabedashvili.
The speakers discussed the importance of activities tailored to the needs of self-governing units, both in terms of international obligations, and called on municipal representatives to engage in even closer cooperation to overcome existing problems in this direction.
Natia Ghvinashvili began her summary presentation with a review of activities held within the framework of the project “Localization of Gender Policy” implemented with the support of UN Women, and focused attention on the municipal guidelines for gender equality of a recommendatory nature developed together with UN Women, which, according to her statement, helps self-governing units create documents tailored to their own municipalities.
According to her statement, within the framework of the current project, thematic trainings and various types of meetings were also organized, whose audience consisted of representatives of municipalities, local civil and non-governmental organizations, and field experts.
The report also emphasized the advocacy process, within the framework of which the European Charter “On Equality of Women and Men in Local Life” already has 21 signatory municipalities.
In 2021, the Association’s involvement in the 16-day campaign against gender-based violence was also significant.
As Natia Ghvinashvili explained, the Association, in cooperation with UN Women and the central government of Georgia, developed supporting instructions for the 16-day campaign against violence for member self-governing units, which were provided to local governments this year as well in an updated form.
According to her statement, within the framework of the campaign, informational, photo, and video materials about activities to be implemented in the direction of violence prevention and services existing in Georgia were uploaded daily on the Association’s portal.
It should be noted that during the same campaign period, an event was held which was dedicated to International Human Rights Day through the cooperation of the National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia (NALAG) and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.
Natia Ghvinashvili also spoke about activities implemented by various international and local partners parallel to the project and provided the attending public with information about programs and events in which she participated as an expert.
After the presentation of the report, representatives of those municipalities that developed municipal action plans for gender equality with the help of NALAG’s guidelines or are currently working on this document at this stage joined the event.
Later, the meeting continued in a discussion format, where representatives of self-governing units spoke about activities implemented in this direction in their own municipalities and shared good examples with colleagues.
When summarizing the event, the NALAG representative also spoke about future plans and expressed hope for even closer cooperation at both governmental and local levels.
