UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. UN Women in Georgia supports state and non-state partners towards the achievement of substantive gender equality. In line with national and international commitments, UN Women works on the levels of policies and legislation, institutions and grassroots, in order to achieve transformative results for increased gender equality and greater protection of the rights of women and girls. UN Women Country Office in Georgia with the generous support of the Government of Norway is implementing the “Good Governance for Gender Equality in Georgia” project (GG4GEG). The project’s overarching goal is to ensure that women and girls in all their diversity benefit from gender-responsive governance and fully and equally participate in decision-making and economic life in Georgia. In order to contribute to the achievement of this impact-level goal, the project has set two outcomes, each with three interlinked outputs, described below. Outcome 1: Gender-responsive legislative and policy frameworks are adopted and implemented to promote gender equality and women’s meaningful participation in decision-making and leadership at all levels. • Output 1.1: Laws, policies and capacities for gender mainstreaming in public policymaking and implementation and public finance management are developed and sustained at all levels • Output 1.2: Public sector institutions and their human resource management policies and practices integrate gender equality and promote women’s participation and leadership at the national and local levels • Output 1.3: More and better-quality data and analysis are available to promote and track the progress of gender equality and women’s empowerment Outcome 2: Women are empowered economically and access entrepreneurial and employment opportunities through a gender-sensitive private sector and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Georgia • Output 2.1: Businesses have increased understanding and capacities to implement the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) • Output 2.2: Women-owned enterprises are empowered through enabling, gender-sensitive entrepreneurial ecosystem and equal access to Business Development Support (BDS), markets and capital. • Output 2.3: Women, particularly the poor and socially excluded, obtain skills and access information, networks, economic opportunities and support services to become farmers/entrepreneurs or to join the formal labour sector. The GG4GEG project applies a holistic approach to reach this goal, enabling linked interventions at two levels: communities/grassroots and institutions. The chosen approach and the implementation of the WEE agenda in Georgia during GG4GEG Phase I (2019-2023) served as a catalyst and supported the state and non-state partners to enhance progress towards the achievement of substantive gender equality in the country. In July 2023, UN Women started implementing the second main phase (2023-2025) of the GG4GEG project. Phase II of the project plans to leverage UN Women and its partners’ joint results in Phase I and further accelerate the achievements of the project’s ambitious goals and objectives. The proposed partnership under this Terms of Reference corresponds to the achievement of the second Outcome. On the institutional level, the project will engage with private businesses interested in increasing their contributions to the SDGs, their accountability and women’s economic empowerment by promoting gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and community. The work with this constituency will build on lessons learned and partnerships established with a pool of 183 companies that have signed on to the WEPs. Entrepreneurship ecosystem actors (accelerators, incubators, investors, financial institutions, business development service providers and other relevant actors in the entrepreneurial ecosystem), will also be involved with the project, including the state entrepreneurship development agency, Enterprise Georgia. On the community level, the project will support two key groups of women: vulnerable women from grassroots communities to improve their job skills and their access to financial and economic services and women entrepreneurs who are already engaged in business and interested in scaling up their businesses are linked to larger cooperatives and corporate value chains. Although Georgia has taken steps towards building a gender-equal society, gender equality and non-discrimination are far from being achieved, especially in the economic sphere. Georgia ranks 55th out of 146 countries in the 2022 Global Gender Gap Index, backsliding six positions compared to the 2021 rankings. Georgia slipped down the rankings in the Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex as well, from 64th position in 2021 to 72nd in 2022.[1] The female labour force participation rate in the past decade (40–46 per cent) largely lags behind men’s rate (62–67 per cent), and the adjusted gender pay gap stood at 21.4 per cent in 2020.[2] Gender inequalities are most acute in rural areas. Gender stereotypes, the unequal division of unpaid agricultural and domestic work and a lack of gender-responsive services and programmes limit women’s abilities to acquire new skills, develop businesses and earn a sustainable income.[3] Empowering women in the economy and closing gender gaps in the formal labour market are key to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.[4] Achieving the SDGs has become more challenging now that we have entered the final decade before the 2030 Agenda’s deadline, all the more so considering the implications of the coronavirus pandemic. The report of the UN Secretary-General on the progress towards the SDGs makes it clear that despite considerable positive developments towards empowering women globally, progress on SDG 5 (to achieve gender equality), SDG 8 (to promote full and productive employment and decent work for all) and SDG 1 (to end poverty) lags behind across a range of indicators.[5] Thus, addressing the COVID-19-induced economic crisis, using new opportunities and creating equal grounds for men and women globally will require a massive and focused international effort.[6] The role and power of private sector in accelerating implementation of the SDGs and among others contribute to the empowerment of women cannot be underestimated. Women’s Empowerment Principles – Equality Means Business (WEPs) provides private sector with specific tool to make significant contribution to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Beyond the basic responsibilities of respecting human rights, companies can choose from a menu of options stipulated by the WEPs to advance women’s empowerment within their workplaces, marketplaces, and communities. In the past five years, the private sector’s interest in women’s issues has increased in Georgia through UN Women’s engagement. A growing number of businesses have adapted their policies, programmes and initiatives to create diverse working environments where women and girls can succeed. An increasing number of companies have created inclusive business models and invested in women’s economic empowerment initiatives. More and more companies believe that they can achieve better business outcomes, including lower rates of absenteeism and turnover, more innovation and employee engagement, access to new markets and investors, a stronger reputation in the community, and higher productivity and profitability—ultimately contributing to the economic and social well-being of communities as well as overall economic growth. UN Women was the first to launch the Women’s Empowerment Principles in 2014 to mobilize the Georgian private sector to promote gender equality in the workplace, marketplace and community. To accelerate and support implementation of the WEPs, UN Women has partnered with different types of organizations (e.g. chambers, associations, donors, international financial institutions, councils) to enhance WEPs dissemination among private sector actors. The WEPs work has changed the private sector dynamics. Nowadays, 183 companies partner with UN Women to advance women’s rights and advocate for gender equality policies in Georgia. These companies represent small-, medium- and large-sized companies from almost every industry (including education, ICT, finance, hospitality and others) and connect more than 70,000 employees in total. As a continuation of the WEPs work, the UN Women Georgia Country Office plans to continue reaching out to and supporting businesses through the provision of information on the WEPs, tailored and targeted advisory services and other types of technical support to implement WEPs-guided, gender-responsive measures. UN Women Georgia will also continue to advocate for the recognition of the role of the private sector, which requires the generation of evidence that informs about the impact of WEPs integration on the vitality and productivity of the private sector, the diversification of the economy, the reduction of unemployment and the importance of women’s participation in different sectors of the economy. It is further planned to link grass-roots women with the private sector companies to provide women entrepreneurs and rural women with free trainings, internships, mentorship, employment and business opportunities in order to achieve more active participation by women in the economy and more inclusive economic growth in the Georgian context. For the next 2.5 years, UN Women’s vision is to encourage more and more stakeholders to join a network of organizations with similar values and take greater ownership of the gender equality work by investing in their commitments. Engaging with the WEPs signatories will help foster the creation of a gender-sensitive ecosystem of companies and organizations that drive the gender equality agenda forward throughout the value chain. Sharing the signatories’ WEPs implementation progress helps raise awareness and inspires other stakeholders to join and commit to the WEPs. The more companies that are committed and the more ownership they have on the WEPs work, the stronger the strides that UN Women can make for women’s empowerment. To support the coordination of the WEPs community, UN Women is seeking to hire a national consultant who will serve as a liaison point connecting WEPs signatory companies to help the WEPs signatory companies to take action to deliver the gender equality and women’s empowerment aspirational outcomes. The WEPs Coordinator will support the coordination of the WEPs community and will be in charge of facilitation of membership, partnerships and initiatives, administrative arrangements, coordination and reporting, knowledge collation and dissemination, including through holding information sharing meetings, delivering trainings and workshops. More specifically, the WEPs Coordinator will be responsible for maintaining WEPs signatory database, calling meetings, sending out invitations, working with the WEPs Council and sector-specific working groups, establishing and maintaining the WEPs knowledge hub, reporting on the status and activities of the WEPs community, etc. [1] In 2021, the Global Gender Gap Index benchmarked 156 countries, while in 2022, ranking comprises 149 countries. [2] Source: Geostat. [3] ACT, Gender Assessment of Agriculture and Local Development Systems (Tbilisi, UN Women, SCO, ADC, 2016). Available at https://georgia.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2016/04/gender-assessment-of-agriculture-and-local-development-systems-0. [4] United Nations Secretariat, Leave No One Behind: A Call to Action for Gender Equality and Women’s Economic Empowerment, pp. 1–2. [5] United Nations Economic and Social Council, Report of the UN Secretary-General on Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (2020). E/2020/57. Available at https://undocs.org/en/E/2020/57. [6] Donor Tracker Insights, “Investing in shared prosperity: Financing for women’s economic empowerment”, 13 July 2020. Available at https://donortracker.org/insights/investing-shared-prosperity-financing-womens-economic-empowerment.
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