CAPACITY AND NEEDS

ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY

ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON
GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA
© 2023 UN Women

Report authors: Mariam Kobaladze and Salome Dolidze, CRRC-Georgia

Designer: Tekla Giashvili

The report was prepared under the project “Women’s Leadership for Democracy in Georgia”, which UN Women is implementing with
the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

The views expressed in the report belong to the authors and do not represent the official position of either UN Women or the Swiss
Agency for Development and Cooperation.
CAPACITY AND NEEDS
ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY
ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON
GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA

UN WOMEN
Tbilisi, Georgia, 2024
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES 5
TABLE 6
ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS 7
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 8
1. INTRODUCTION 11
2. METHODOLOGY 12
2.1 Desk review 12
2.2 Mapping of organizations working on gender equality and the protection of
women’s rights 12
2.3 Qualitative study 12
2.4 Quantitative study 12
2.5 Limitations of the study 13
3. LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK ON GENDER EQUALITY AND THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN’S
RIGHTS IN GEORGIA 14
4. HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF CSOS WORKING ON THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN’S
RIGHTS AND AN OVERVIEW OF THE CURRENT SITUATION 16
5. RESULTS OF THE MAPPING OF ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY AND
THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS 18
6. STUDY RESULTS 20
6.1 Profile of the organizations participating in the quantitative survey 20
6.2 Assessment of organizational capabilities 22
6.2.1 Management and governance 22
6.2.2 Fundraising and financial management 24
6.2.3 Human resources 28
6.2.4 Monitoring and evaluation 30
6.3 Advocacy and communication 31
6.3.1 Involvement in decision-making 31
6.3.2 Cooperation with other organizations 34
6.3.3 Communication with the public 36
6.4 Research and analysis 38
6.5 Gender equality and women’s empowerment policies, international approaches,
and mechanisms 41

7. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 43

ANNEX – Organizations participating in the qualitative and quantitative 45
ENDNOTES 49
BIBLIOGRAPHY 52
LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 5.1: Operation area(s) of the surveyed organizations (number; multiple responses) 18

FIGURE 5.2: Target groups of the surveyed organizations (number; multiple responses) 19

FIGURE 5.3: Number of permanent staff members 19

FIGURE 6.1: Please indicate in which region(s) of Georgia did your organization implement projects in the past
three years (2021–2023). (%; multiple responses) 20

FIGURE 6.2: Who or which groups does your organization mostly work with? (%; multiple responses) 21

FIGURE 6.3: What are the main spheres of activity for your organization? (%; multiple responses) 21

FIGURE 6.4: How would you assess the skills of your organization’s employees in the following areas? (%) 23

FIGURE 6.5: Does your organization have the following? (%) 23

FIGURE 6.6: Please mark all of the sources from which you received funding in the past three years (2021–2023).
(%; multiple responses) 25

FIGURE 6.7: How would you assess the skills of your organization’s employees in the following areas? (%) 26

FIGURE 6.8: Does your organization have the following? (%) 26

FIGURE 6.9: Please indicate how many people are currently employed in your organization full-time and
part-time or on a consultancy basis. (%) 29

FIGURE 6.10: What type of cooperation did you have with the following actors in the past three years
(2021–2023)? (%) 31

FIGURE 6.11: Has the attitude of the following entities changed towards your organization since the initiation of
the law on the transparency of foreign influence? (%) 31

FIGURE 6.12: What type of cooperation did you have with the following actors in the past three years
(2021–2023)? (%) 35

FIGURE 6.13: How would you assess the skills of your organization’s employees in the following areas? (%) 36

FIGURE 6.14: How often do you use the following social media channels to connect with the public? (%) 37

FIGURE 6.15: How do you gather information about the needs of beneficiaries? (%; multiple responses) 38

FIGURE 6.16: Does your organization have experience in the following data collection and research methods?
(%; multiple responses) 39
FIGURE 6.17: Based on the work of your organization, what are your primary needs with regard to data
collection and analysis? (%; multiple responses) 40

FIGURE 6.18: How would you assess the knowledge of your organization’s employees on the following issues? (%) 41

TABLE

TABLE 1: Details on the in-depth interviews 45

TABLE 2: Details on the focus groups 45

TABLE 3: Organizations participating in the focus groups 46

TABLE 4: Organizations participating in the quantitative study 47

ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

CEDAW United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

CRRC Caucasus Research Resource Center

CSO Civil society organization

EU European Union

GEL Georgian lari

Geostat National Statistics Office of Georgia

GREVIO Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence

IDP Internally displaced person

Istanbul Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and
Convention Domestic Violence

LGBTQI+ Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex

NGO Non-governmental organization

OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

OSCE/ODIHR Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights

UN Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

USAID United States Agency for International Development

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The purpose of this study is to explore the capabilities development flaws and believe that the operation
and needs of civil society organizations (CSOs) working of these organizations is often reliant on the acti-
on gender equality and the protection of women’s ri- vism of one or more employees. If these employees
ghts in Georgia. The study consists of four major com- leave, the organization risks dissolution. Notably, in
ponents: (1) a desk review, which includes an analysis approximately 35 per cent of the surveyed CSOs,
of gender equality and women’s rights policies and pro- the organization’s head has remained unchanged
gress achieved, along with a historical overview of the since its founding, while in 11 per cent, the same
development of civil society organizations working on individual has led the organization for more than
gender equality and the protection of women’s rights, five years.
as well as a review of the current state of affairs; (2)
mapping of the organizations working on gender equa- The majority of CSOs (70 per cent) that participated
lity and the protection of women’s rights in Georgia; (3) in the quantitative study reported that fundraising
a qualitative study, which includes in-depth interviews is one of the challenges their organization faces. Al-
and focus groups with United Nations agencies opera- most half of the organizations (48 per cent) have
ting in Georgia, other international and local donor or- an employee whose job description includes fun-
ganizations, and local CSOs; and (4) a quantitative study, draising. At the same time, the majority of organiza-
under which an online survey was conducted with 58 tions (63 per cent) want to improve the capabilities
CSOs working on gender equality and the protection of of their employees in this responsibility.
women’s rights.
Full reliance on donors and a lack of alternative
The mapping of CSOs focusing on gender equality and funding sources (for example, income from their
women’s rights conducted as part of this study revealed own economic activities or membership fees) pose
119 organizations that carried out at least one project challenges for CSOs, as does meeting complex
in 2021–2023. More than a third of these organizations grant-winning criteria, which is especially difficult
work throughout Georgia. The regions with the most or- for newly established organizations and those ope-
ganizations implementing projects are Samegrelo-Zemo rating outside of Tbilisi.
Svaneti and Kvemo Kartli, whereas Mtskheta-Mtianeti
and Racha-Lechkhumi have the fewest. The majority of CSOs struggle to develop and implement medium-
the organizations address gender issues and education, and long-term strategies, since they often have to
including informal education. Aside from women and adjust to donor requirements and priorities.
girls, many organizations work with young people. The
majority of the organizations identified through the ma- Finding and retaining qualified human resources
pping are small, with no more than 10 employees. is challenging, which could be due to a lack of fi-
nancial sustainability, the fact that employees fre-
The quantitative and qualitative studies led to the fo- quently work overtime (35 per cent) and the fact
llowing major findings: that many organizations are unable to provide heal-
th insurance (85 per cent) or paid maternity leave
(52 per cent).
Organizational capabilities
The most sought-after skills for staff members in-
The majority of the CSOs in the study (77 per cent) clude proficiency in English, the ability to write pro-
assess their organization’s management and gover- ject proposals, general document handling-knowle-
nance capabilities positively. However, internatio- dge and digital skills. The human resource issues
nal and donor organizations point out institutional faced by organizations of disabled women are twice

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 8
 as acute compared to other organizations. There effort should be made to engage with the public
are very few disabled women activists who speak through the mainstream media.
English and are able to participate in international
conferences and dialogues. Research and analysis

Only 39 per cent of surveyed organizations have a The majority of CSOs would like to improve their
staff member whose job description includes mo- proficiency in various areas, including report wri-
nitoring and evaluation. Donors, on the other hand, ting based on research findings (65 per cent), data
believe that, even in CSOs with dedicated specia- analysis (65 per cent), data collection using qualita-
lists, monitoring and evaluation are of poor quali- tive research methods (65 per cent), proficiency in
ty. Not only is the lack of appropriate skills among data analysis software (57 per cent) and quantitati-
personnel challenging, but so is the recognition of ve research methods (54 per cent).
the significance of monitoring and evaluation. Or-
ganizations frequently do not understand how the- From the donors’ perspective, CSOs, especially those
se data may be used, how decisions can be made in the regions, encounter challenges not only in con-
based on this information or how operations can be ducting research but also in accessing free and pu-
improved, expanded or changed. blic data. These data are crucial for crafting project
proposals and planning the organization’s activities.
Advocacy and communication
Gender equality and women’s empowerment
More than a fifth of CSOs (22 per cent) name effec- policies, international approaches and
tive communication with government agencies as mechanisms
one of their challenges and would like to improve
the capabilities of their personnel in that area. According to international and local organization
representatives who participated in the study, CSOs
Civil society collaboration with government agen- have extensive knowledge and competence on the
cies worsened dramatically following the initiation subject.
of the law on the transparency of foreign influence.
According to organization representatives, this pro- CSOs argue that organizations in Tbilisi have greater
cess further constrained their involvement in poli- access to resources and are more knowledgeable
cymaking and decision-making. about gender equality and women’s empowerment
policies, international approaches and mechanisms
Despite the fact that the majority of surveyed or- than organizations outside of Tbilisi.
ganizations (65 per cent) indicate belonging to a
coalition, platform or network of civil society orga-
nizations, representatives of international organiza- RECOMMENDATIONS
tions highlight a lack of coordination among CSOs. According to the study’s findings, the following activities
They believe that organizations do not frequently are recommended:
communicate information with one another, that
resources are not effectively allocated and that the- Develop and/or identify alternate sources of fi-
re may be instances of duplicated efforts when ad- nancing, such as funds from CSOs’ own economic
dressing different issues. activity, individual donations, membership fees and
so on, as both local and international organizations
CSOs operating in the regions often communicate emphasize that CSOs’ dependence on donors un-
directly with the public through training sessions, dermines their long-term sustainability.
information-sharing and local activities. However,
representatives of international organizations argue Promote organizational development grant oppor-
that in order for organizations to succeed, greater tunities in order to support CSOs’ sustainability.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 9
These grants would enable organizations to retain processes. International organizations can play a
their employees and offices, purchase or upgrade leading role in supporting a project by establishing
necessary inventory and address key issues. At the dialogue platforms between the governmental and
same time, it is essential to include benefits and sui- non-governmental sectors. This issue has been es-
table compensation rates in the project budgetary pecially relevant since the law on the transparency
requirements. of foreign influence was proposed, and it is critical
to re-establish and maintain beneficial cooperation
Strengthen communication between donors and in a timely manner.
CSOs, and encourage donors to consider local or-
ganizations’ ideas and capacities when establishing Raise CSO staff qualifications in research methods,
priority areas for funding. This approach ensures data analysis, and monitoring and evaluation so
that local organizations can consistently and sustai- that they may collect data or use existing data and
nably address issues important to beneficiaries. studies to write project proposals and reports, as
well as organize their own activities and advocacy
Develop CSO networks and coalitions, or assist and efforts.
strengthen existing ones, to help consolidate CSO
activities for problem resolution, effective advocacy Place emphasis on empowering disabled women’s
and information exchange on areas of activity and organizations and activists, as well as their equal
specific initiatives. and full participation in the activities of gender
equality groups at both the non-governmental and
Raise CSOs’ qualifications in advocacy and effecti- governmental levels.
ve communication with government agencies, as
well as raise awareness among government repre- Improve the knowledge of organizations working
sentatives about the role and function of non-go- in the regions on gender equality, women’s em-
vernmental organizations, to improve CSO engage- powerment policies, and international approaches
ment in policy development and decision-making and mechanisms.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 10
1. INTRODUCTION

UN Women, in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for family in which people organize themselves to pursue
Development and Cooperation in Georgia, is currently shared interests in the public domain”. Examples inclu-
implementing the “Women’s Leadership for Democracy de community-based organizations and associations,
in Georgia” project. The project’s purpose is to promo- labour unions, cooperatives, professional associations,
te the full and equal participation of women and gir- chambers of commerce, independent research institu-
ls in decision-making. Under the project, UN Women tes, not-for-profit media and so on.
collaborates with civil society organizations (CSOs) to
develop their monitoring and advocacy capacity for The study focused on the following areas: (1) organiza-
women’s full and equal involvement in political life and tional capabilities; (2) advocacy and communication; (3)
decision-making. research methods, data collection and analysis; and (4)
gender equality and women’s development policies, in-
To assist civil society organizations, CRRC-Georgia per- ternational approaches and mechanisms.
formed a capacity and needs assessment of organiza-
tions working on gender equality and the protection of This report begins with a detailed discussion of the
women’s rights at the request of UN Women. methodology. Following that, the study findings are
presented. The primary findings of the study are orga-
The study’s purpose is to explore the capabilities of nized thematically into sections covering the following
CSOs working on gender equality and the protection of topics: assessment of organizational capabilities; ad-
women’s rights, identify their strengths and weaknes- vocacy and communication; research and analysis; and
ses, and make evidence-based recommendations for gender equality and women’s empowerment policies,
their future development. Notably, to define ‘CSOs’, the international approaches and mechanisms. A list of
report follows the OECD Development Assistance Com- organizations that participated in the qualitative and
mittee definition, which states that a CSO includes all quantitative components of this study is provided in
“non-market and non-state organizations outside of the the annex.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 11
2. METHODOLOGY

The research design of the study consisted of four com- Interviews with representatives of the identified
ponents: (1) a desk review; (2) a mapping of the organi- non-governmental organizations working on gen-
zations working on gender equality and the protection der equality and the protection of women’s rights.
of women’s rights; (3) in-depth interviews and focus
groups; (4) and an online survey. Overall, 119 organizations were identified as a result of
the mapping of CSOs working on gender issues and the
2.1 DESK REVIEW protection of women’s rights. The mapping collected
the following information about the organizations: the
The desk review aimed to summarize the existing policy type of organization, the number of permanent staff,
of gender equality and the protection of women’s rights the municipalities where the organization conducts ac-
in Georgia and the level of progress achieved thus far. In tivities, the organization’s target groups and the organi-
parallel, the review also sought to assess the history and zation’s field(s) of activity.
existing situation of CSOs working on gender equality
and the protection of women’s rights. 2.3 QUALITATIVE STUDY

The desk review analysed several sources, including As part of the qualitative component of the study, 10
international and national reports as well as academic in-depth interviews and five focus groups were conduc-
studies on gender equality, vulnerable groups and the ted.
circumstances faced by civil society in Georgia.
In-depth interviews were held with representatives
2.2 MAPPING OF ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER of United Nations development agencies operating
EQUALITY AND THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS in Georgia and other international and local donor
organizations that closely cooperate with local CSOs.
The mapping of organizations was conducted to identify The interviews intended to study their experience and
CSOs that work on gender equality and the protection perspectives on the capacity of organizations working
of women’s rights. The mapping revealed registered or- on gender issues and the protection of women’s rights
ganizations that work at the national as well as muni- as well as the challenges that these organizations are
cipal levels and that have been active within the past facing.
three years (2021–2023). Organizations with no activi-
ties after 2020 were not included in the list. Focus group discussions were conducted with represen-
tatives of local non-governmental organizations, with
Organizations were categorized, and information about the aim of studying the capacity and needs of the orga-
them was collected in three ways: nizations in depth. Representatives of non-governmen-
tal organizations working in Tbilisi and in the regions
Review of the CSO database on the website cso- participated in the focus group discussions.
georgia.org, where 203 organizations indicate that
they are working on gender issues. CRRC-Georgia Detailed information about the in-depth interviews and
contacted all of them and collected information focus groups is provided in Tables 1, 2 and 3 of the annex.
about the organizations based on the mapping cri-
teria. 2.4 QUANTITATIVE STUDY

Search of articles/posts in online media and social The quantitative component of the study included an
networks. online survey that aimed to explore the capacity and

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 12
needs of the organizations. The online survey was based 2.5 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
on a questionnaire, which was based on the qualitative
study results. Before the main fieldwork, a pilot survey The study has certain limitations that should be consi-
was held with four organizations. The questionnaire was dered when interpreting the results:
updated as a result of the pilot study results.
Absence of a unified list of all civil society organi-
The link to the online survey was sent to all 119 identi- zations – There is limited information on the CSOs
fied organizations; of them, 58 CSOs participated in the actively working on gender equality and the protec-
survey. The online survey was conducted between 16 tion of women’s rights. Therefore, despite multiple
October and 1 November 2023. attempts, there is a risk that some organizations
could not be identified by the study and thus were
Table 4 of the annex provides the list of organizations not contacted.
that participated in the online survey.
Lack of CSO needs and performance assessments
The small number of organizations that completed the and studies on the subject – One of the challenges
questionnaire did not allow for generalization of the identified during the study was the lack of prior stu-
survey results on CSOs, taking into consideration that dies and assessments on the situation and activities
not all organizations working on gender equality and of organizations working on gender equality and
the protection of women’s rights could have been iden- the protection of women’s rights.
tified and contacted. However, the number of surveyed
organizations was sufficient to enable the researchers Lack of an impartial perspective – The data are ba-
to draw a general picture, including identifying the main sed on self-assessment of the CSOs, which creates
challenges, the capacity of organizations and the pri- the risk that the data could contain biased assess-
mary trends. ments.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 13
3. LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK ON GENDER
EQUALITY AND THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN’S
RIGHTS IN GEORGIA

Since gaining independence, Georgia has taken a num- of Georgia10 and the Code of Administrative Offen-
ber of important steps towards gender equality and wo- ces of Georgia.11 Moreover, in 2020, the Parliament of
men’s empowerment. Georgia adopted amendments to the Election Code of
Georgia,12 according to which the political parties are
Georgia ratified the Convention on the Elimination of required to have a woman as every fourth candidate in
All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) the proportional list presented to the Central Election
in 1994.1 By ratifying the convention, Georgia became Commission.
accountable to the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women. In 2004, the Gender In Georgia, institutional mechanisms supporting wo-
Equality Council of the Parliament of Georgia was esta- men’s empowerment operate across various branches
blished, and in 2006, the Parliament adopted the Sta- and levels. In the legislative branch, there is the Gen-
te Concept on Gender Equality,2 which was updated in der Equality Council of the Parliament; in the executive
2022. Also in 2006, the Law on Combating Human Tra- branch, the Inter-Agency Commission on Gender Equa-
fficking and the Law on Violence against Women and/ lity, Violence against Women and Domestic Violence; at
or Elimination of Domestic Violence, Protection and the local level, the municipal gender equality councils;
Support of Victims of Violence were both adopted.3 In and at the national level, the Ombudsman’s Office.13
2010, the Law on Gender Equality was adopted in Geor-
gia,4 and in 2011, on the basis of UN Security Council Despite the progress achieved, existing data indicate
resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security, that there are a number of challenges to gender equa-
the first national action plan was approved.5 In 2012, on lity in the country.14 Notably, according to the 2023 Glo-
the basis of amendments to the Criminal Code of Geor- bal Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum,15
gia, domestic violence was recognized as a criminal law Georgia has a score of 0.708 in the Gender Gap Index,
offence.6 Moreover, in 2014, the Parliament of Georgia ranking 76th out of 146 countries.16 However, in 2022,
adopted the country’s first Law on the Elimination of All Georgia ranked 55th out of 146 countries, with a score
Forms of Discrimination.7 of 0.731.17 Importantly, in 2023, significant deteriora-
tion was indicated in the following sub-indices: health
Importantly, in 2017, the Government of Georgia rati- (in 2022, ranking 37th with a score of 0.978; in 2023,
fied the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing ranking 56th with a score of 0.974) and political em-
and Combating Violence against Women and Domes- powerment (in 2022, ranking 57th with a score of 0.248;
tic Violence (Istanbul Convention),8 which was a step in 2023, ranking 91st with a score of 0.163).
forward towards the improvement of legislative fra-
mework on violence against women issues. The same According to the 2022 ‘Report of the Public Defender of
year saw the creation of the Inter-Agency Commission Georgia on the Situation of Protection of Human Rights
on Gender Equality, Violence against Women and Do- and Freedoms in Georgia’,18 violence against women
mestic Violence, tasked with implementing and coor- remains a significant challenge. In November 2022, the
dinating the national action plan on gender equality Council of Europe Group of Experts on Action against
and women’s empowerment.9 In 2019, the Parliament Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GRE-
of Georgia adopted the Law on Sexual Harassment and VIO) published an assessment report,19 which stated
made respective amendments to both the Labour Code that GREVIO welcomes the efforts of the Government

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 14
of Georgia to strengthen women’s rights by adopting ting the registration and work procedures of NGOs are
new legislation and pursuing new policies; however, the Civil Code of Georgia and the Law of Georgia on
there are issues that remain problematic. In particular, Entrepreneurs.24 Registration of public organizations is
GREVIO indicates the need to increase funding in order dictated by the Civil Code of Georgia, the Law of Geor-
to sufficiently support the response to cases of violence gia on Entrepreneurs, and the Order of the Minister of
against women. Moreover, the report also claims that Justice on adopting the instruction of registration pro-
there is a lack of comprehensive medical assistance for cedures of for-profit and non-profit entities.25 According
victims of rape and violence, as well as a lack of shelters to the 2023 report of the CSO Meter,26 the legislation
for victims of domestic violence. At the same time, ba- component in Georgia is assessed at 5.2 points out of
sed on the recommendations outlined in the report, it the maximum 7 points. Nonetheless, overall, Georgia
is necessary to provide respective training to law enfor- has one of the most flexible legislative frameworks for
cement body representatives on these issues. In order the operation of civil society organizations.27 Registra-
to support the prevention of violence against women tion can be completed in one day, costs are minimal,
and increase the effectiveness of combating the issue, the list of documents to be submitted is brief, and the
the report recommends greater involvement of non-go- law provides CSOs with sufficient flexibility to determi-
vernmental organizations at all levels of preparation, ne their structure.28
coordination and implementation of respective laws,
public policy and programmes. It is also recommended In light of this more or less favourable situation, the
to support the expansion of specialized services provi- Georgian Parliament supported the first hearing of
ded and managed by non-governmental organizations. the draft law on the transparency of foreign influence
in 2023, which required individuals, CSOs and media
Despite the level of progress achieved in the fight outlets that received more than 20 per cent of their
against violence against women, Georgia still faces sig- funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign
nificant challenges with regard to the equality of LGB- influence”. However, due to large-scale public protests
TQI+ groups. In 2000, Georgia adopted a new Criminal and harsh criticism from the international community,
Code that no longer includes an article recognizing ho- the Parliament abandoned the draft law during its se-
mosexuality as a crime.20 However, events related to cond hearing.
Pride Week in recent years indicate the spread of ho-
mophobia and transphobia in Georgia.21 In July 2023, The initiative was viewed by partners as an enormous
before the start of Pride Week, the Georgian Orthodox setback to Georgia’s democratic aspirations, since, if
Church demanded a law on the prohibition of queer enacted, it would have had a devastating impact on the
propaganda.22 Several days later, representatives of groups and individuals who actively work to safeguard
far-right groups stormed an event organized within Pri- human rights and democracy in the country. Despite
de Week.23 the withdrawal of the draft law, these events heighte-
ned political polarization (between the ruling majority
Thus, it is important to strengthen the work on gender and opposition parties) and greatly harmed the dialo-
equality and the protection of the rights of women and gue between the legislative body and civil society ac-
LGBTQI+ groups, particularly through the crucial role of tors, including women’s rights advocates. Many public
civil society organizations. organizations working on women’s issues and gender
equality boycotted the activities of the Parliament’s
As for legislation regulating the work of non-govern- Gender Equality Council, refused to attend joint events
mental organizations, the main legislative acts regula- and called for the resignation of the Council’s chairman.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 15
4. HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF CSOS
WORKING ON THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN’S
RIGHTS AND AN OVERVIEW OF THE CURRENT
SITUATION

In 1991, after Georgia gained independence, non-go- the development of women’s non-governmental or-
vernmental organizations started to emerge in the ganizations in Georgia. Despite the barriers, women’s
country. They were mostly dependent on funding from movements achieved progress in raising awareness on
western sources.29 After the Fourth World Conferen- human trafficking, domestic violence and gender equa-
ce on Women (the Beijing Conference) and the start lity issues. However, the organizations had to fight to be
of UNDP’s women’s development project in 1997,30 heard in political processes. The lack of cooperation be-
non-governmental organizations with the main focus tween women’s movements and government agencies
of protecting women’s rights started operating in Geor- hindered the progress of gender equality.33
gia. Interestingly, according to the primary state report
submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Dis- Since the 2000s, there is little information about the
crimination against Women in 1998, the majority of development of women’s non-governmental organiza-
women’s non-governmental organizations at that time tions. From the 2000s, however, specialization based on
were involved in charity, cultural and educational acti- specific areas can be noticed in the work of these orga-
vities; however, there were no exclusively feminist or- nizations. If organizations worked on a variety of issues
ganizations. Rather, there was still a certain resistance before, they later specialized in those particular areas.34
to self-identifying as a ‘feminist’ among organizations,
despite having a clearly feminist agenda.31 In addition, the prominence of feminist messaging is
now noticeable. If being identified as a feminist was
In that period, international donor organizations made problematic in organizations before, today this issue is
several attempts to consolidate women’s non-gover- no longer a challenge; in fact, there are a number of
nmental organizations. In 2000, with the support of organizations that are openly feminist organizations and
OSCE/ODIHR, the Women’s NGO Coalition of Georgia share an ideological platform. Despite this, there are sti-
was established. Moreover, in 2002, with the support of ll certain differences in this dynamic among organiza-
UNIFEM’s regional project “Women for Conflict Preven- tions working in Tbilisi and in other cities and regions
tion and Peace-building in the South Caucasus”, the wo- of Georgia. There is now a strong link between organi-
men’s network “Women’s Unity for Peace” was created. zations and their target audiences. In contrast, prior to
Despite the progress achieved, women’s movements 2010, women’s organizations that were not service pro-
could not manage to consolidate effectively. One of the viders but that worked more on advocacy did not have
reasons, according to experts, was that the consolida- a strong connection with their target audience (women
tion attempt took an incorrect approach, coming from and girls); however, after 2010, this approach changed
donors in a top-down model. Such an approach, in this and positive trends appeared. Another positive change
case, proved harmful, as local actors adapted to the re- is how actively the organizations function today, inclu-
quirements of international donor organizations instead ding by being involved in strategic litigation and by es-
of identifying existing challenges and needs around tablishing precedential court cases that attempt to ad-
them, at the local level, and responding to them.32 dress existing legislative foundations while eliminating
legislative shortcoming.35
Frequent legislative changes, a lack of consistent su-
pport and scarce resources had a negative impact on In the 2020 study ‘Research Report on the Needs As-

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 16
sessment of Women with Disabilities for the Future trust from society. The latter is a particular problem for
Empowerment of Women’,36 there is a focus on the ca- ethnic minority community groups, which have to over-
pabilities of organizations for women with disabilities. come many more difficulties due to established stereo-
As the report explains, organizations for women with types and prejudice.
disabilities make an insignificant impact when it comes
to lobbying the issues relevant for this group. The lack According to the 2021 Civil Society Organization Sustai-
of access to funds and difficulties related to the as- nability Index,38 CSOs in Georgia are facing significant
sumption of individual responsibilities by women with financial challenges. They have limited access to long-
disabilities working in those organizations are identified term funding, and they also depend on foreign donors.
challenges. Advocacy efforts of CSOs are still active, but coopera-
tion with the Government on sensitive issues remains
A 2023 study on the social impact of community groups problematic. At the same time, based on the same re-
and projects confirms that community organizations port, the existing infrastructure of CSOs is insufficient
are facing numerous challenges; however, even with in addressing the diverse needs of society. Moreover,
minimal financial and human resources they manage public trust towards CSOs has decreased. Despite the
to play an important role in their communities, increa- challenges, civil society organizations play a crucial role
sing the quality of life and supporting its development.37 in Georgia’s social and political arena; they advocate for
According to the report, mostly women are involved in a variety of relevant issues and maintain relations be-
community organizations, which support their engage- tween communities, government and business. There-
ment in public life, self-realization, and socialization. As fore, they play an important role participating in gender
for challenges, they are related more to the issue of rai- equality and protecting the rights of women and the
sing funds and a lack of human capital, as well as less LGBTQI+ community.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 17
5. RESULTS OF THE MAPPING OF ORGANIZATIONS
WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY AND THE
PROTECTION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS

The precise number of CSOs functioning in Georgia mented at least one project in the 2021–2023 period.
is unknown. As a result, the number of non-govern- The organizations identified by the mapping are registe-
mental groups focusing on gender equality and wo- red as non-commercial (non-profit) legal entities, which
men’s rights is also approximate. The Civil Society Ins- is a common type of non-profit organization in Georgia.
titute (CSI) estimates that Georgia has about 1,200 Approximately a third of the organizations (38) report
civil society and community organizations.39 Of those working throughout Georgia (Figure 5.1). When it co-
organizations, 203 claim to address gender equality mes to regional distribution, the most organizations im-
issues. plement projects in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti (22), fo-
llowed by Kvemo Kartli (18), while the smallest number
The study identified 119 organizations focusing on gen- of organizations operate in Mtskheta-Mtianeti (3) and
der equality and women’s rights, all of which imple- Racha-Lechkhumi (2).

FIGURE N 5.1:
Operation area(s) of the surveyed organizations (number; multiple responses)

Georgia-wide 38

Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti 22

Kvemo Kartli 18

Imereti 14

Guria 14

Adiara 11

Kakheti 10

Samtskhe-Javakheti 8

Shida Kartli 7

Tbilisi 6

Mtskheta-Mtianeti 3

Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti 2

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 18
In terms of the main fields of activity for the CSOs, a ty development (17 organizations), women’s economic
large share of them work on gender equality issues (67 empowerment (15 organizations) and the promotion of
organizations), education, including informal education political and civic activism (13 organizations). In terms
(51 organizations), human rights protection (43 orga- of their target beneficiaries, in addition to women and
nizations), violence against women (21 organizations), girls, many CSOs focus on young people (58 organiza-
local self-governance (20 organizations), ecology (19 or- tions), individuals with special needs (28 organizations)
ganizations), youth issues (19 organizations), communi- and ethnic minorities (25 organizations) (Figure 5.2).

FIGURE N 5.2:
Target groups of the surveyed organizations (number; multiple responses)

119

58

28 25 30
13 7

Women and Young People with Ethnic IDPs Women Other

girls people disabilities minorities affected by
violence

More than half of the CSOs interviewed for the map- between 10 and 15 employees (eight organizations) or
ping (62 organizations) had one to five employees (Fi- more than 15 employees (14 organizations) is minimal.
gure 5.3). About a fifth of them (25 organizations) em- A small proportion of CSOs (six organizations) have no
ploy six to 10 people. The number of organizations with permanent staff.

FIGURE N 5.3:
Number of permanent staff members

62

25

14
6 8
4

No permanent 1-5 6-10 11-15 More than No data

staff employees employees employees 15 employees available

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 19
6. STUDY RESULTS
6.1 PROFILE OF THE ORGANIZATIONS PARTICIPATING IN THE QUANTITATIVE SURVEY

Overall, 58 organizations established between 1997 and yed organizations (50 per cent) operated at the munici-
2021 took part in the quantitative survey. The majority pal or settlement level, 30 per cent at the regional level,
of them were registered either in Tbilisi (26 per cent) and 19 per cent at the national level. Only one orga-
or in another Georgian city (62 per cent), with only 12 nization carried out projects at the international level
per cent registered in a village. Importantly, the vast during that period.
majority of the surveyed organizations (83 per cent) im-
plemented at least one project in 2023. Only four orga- In terms of regional distribution, approximately a quar-
nizations had no initiatives from 2021 to 2023. Two of ter of CSOs operate in Kvemo Kartli, Kakheti and Same-
them cited a lack of funding as a contributing factor. In grelo-Zemo Svaneti (Figure 6.1). Racha-Lechkhumi and
the case of the other two organizations, the underlying Kvemo Svaneti as well as Mtskheta-Mtianeti are the
issue was that the majority of personnel left or that the regions with the fewest organizations conducting pro-
organization decided to terminate its operations. jects. Importantly, in 2021–2023, only 20 per cent of
the surveyed CSOs carried out a project near the admi-
In the past three years (2021–2023), half of the surve- nistrative boundary line with the occupied territories.

FIGURE N 6.1:
Please indicate in which region(s) of Georgia did your organization implement projects in the past three years
(2021–2023). (%; multiple responses)

Kvemo Kartli 26

Kakheti 26

Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti 26

Samtskhe-Javakheti 24

Imereti 24

Guria 22

Tbilisi 21

Shida Kartli 17

Adiara 17

Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti 10

Mtskheta-Mtianeti 10

Young adults between the ages of 18 and 32 and wo- nic minorities and individuals with disabilities. There
men residing in rural areas are the target audience for are not many organizations that work with the LGBTQI+
the majority of the surveyed CSOs (Figure 6.2). Further- community, the senior population, migrants or inter-
more, just fewer than half of the polled organizations nally displaced people (IDPs) from Georgia’s occupied
work with youth under the age of 18, members of eth- territories.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 20
FIGURE N 6.2:
Who or which groups does your organization mostly work with? (%; multiple responses)

Women and girls 100

Young people (ages 18-32) 76

Women residing in rural areas 74

Children (under age 18) 48

Ethnic minorities 46

People with disabilities 44

IDPS 28

Senior population 24
Migrants 17
LGBTQH community representatives 11

Other 10

In terms of the number of beneficiaries, 30 per cent of living in rural areas want to work with this group of peo-
the organizations had up to 100 direct beneficiaries in ple. Forty-eight per cent want to work with people with
the past three years (2021–2023), 32 per cent had up to disabilities, 43 per cent want to work with children, 39
500, 19 per cent had up to 1,000, and 19 per cent had per cent with IDPs, 35 per cent with migrants, 34 per
more than a thousand direct beneficiaries. cent with the elderly, 32 per cent with ethnic minorities,
and 13 per cent with LGBTQI+ community members.
The majority of CSOs polled (78 per cent) say that they
want to widen their target audiences. Sixty per cent of The majority of the surveyed organizations work in the
organizations that do not currently work with people areas addressing formal and informal education, com-
aged 18–32 want to cover this age group in the future. bating violence against women and supporting wo-
Fifty-four per cent of CSOs that do not focus on women men’s economic empowerment (Figure 6.3).

FIGURE N 6.3:
What are the main spheres of activity for your organization? (%; multiple responses)

Education/informal education 85
Combating violence against women 74
Women's economic empowerment 70
Supporting women's political and civic activities 48
Ecology 39
Development of agriculture 30
Health care 26
Good governance 24
Supporting peace and security 20
Other 17

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 21
The majority of the surveyed organizations (93 per cent) gions. Organizations frequently struggle to attract
are engaged in activities that raise public awareness; 76 and retain employees who have the qualifications
per cent are activities related to advocacy or lobbying; necessary. Furthermore, due to a lack of human
69 per cent offer training courses to beneficiaries; 28 resources, one person is frequently asked to work
per cent provide legal consultation or aid to beneficia- on a variety of tasks at the same time while also
ries; 22 per cent award grants; and 13 per cent provide fulfilling numerous duties. In addition, organiza-
healthcare services. tion representatives often highlight the disparity
between job duties and compensation, as well as
For 30 per cent of the CSOs, their leading activity is the absence of other employment benefits.
advocacy and lobbying, while for 20 per cent, it is the
provision of services. Fifty per cent of the organiza- In the quantitative survey, one third of orga-
tions say that they provide both advocacy/lobbying nizations expressed a desire to enhance their
and service provision activities. monitoring and evaluation capabilities. Repre-
sentatives from international organizations also
On the question of what the financial turnout for each discussed this necessity. They argue that the lack
organization was in 2022, 11 per cent of organizations of qualified persons addressing monitoring and
refrained from answering; 7 per cent (four organiza- evaluation in organizations is a problem, as is the
tions) reported having no financial turnout in 2022; lack of understanding for its necessity.
13 per cent had up to GEL 10,000 of turnout; 33 per
cent had a financial turnout between GEL 10,000 and The organizational capacity assessment of the CSOs was
GEL 50,000; 6 per cent had between GEL 50,000 and based on an analysis of the management and gover-
GEL 100,000; and 30 per cent had a financial turnout of nance of the organizations, their financial capabilities,
more than GEL 100,000. human resources, monitoring and evaluation skills, and
other mechanisms.

6.2 ASSESSMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL

6.2.1 MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE
CAPABILITIES
A large majority of women’s organizations partici-
The two main concerns for organizations are fi- pating in the survey positively assess the capacity of
nancial capacity and sustainability. Organizations their organization in terms of the organization’s mana-
rely primarily on international donor funds and gement and governance (78 per cent), as well as the
thus lack diversity in their funding sources. structure and operations system of the organization
(64 per cent). At the same time, the majority of or-
Organizations are unable to set long-term goals ganizations positively assess their employees’ skills in
and carry out actions that are consistent with project management (80 per cent), financial manage-
their vision due to a lack of financial sustainabi- ment (79 per cent) and project reporting (78 per cent)
lity. As a result, they have to adapt to the needs (Figure 6.4). The number of organizations that assess
and priorities of donor organizations. the above-mentioned skills as satisfactory or bad is
small. Notably, 37 per cent of the CSOs named project
The lack of financial viability causes human re- management as their strong suit, while 24 per cent na-
sources drain in companies, particularly in the re- med financial management.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 22
FIGURE N 6.4:
How would you assess the skills of your organization’s employees in the following areas? (%)

Project management 28 52 20

Financial management 35 44 17 2 2

Project reporting 35 54 20 2

Very good Good Satisfactory Bad Do not have those skills at all

Similar to the CSOs participating in the survey, represen- or written strategy of organizational development
tatives of women’s organizations placed less emphasis (72 per cent), a clearly defined organizational struc-
on organizational needs in terms of management. They ture with a job description for every employee (67
only highlighted that often the organization heads have per cent), and guidelines and instruments supporting
to write project proposals themselves, which usually re- project development (72 per cent) (Figure 6.5). Mo-
quires specific knowledge and additional time. Hence, reover, 59 per cent of the surveyed CSOs prepare an
they would like to train their employees in proposal wri- annual financial report, and 48 per cent prepare an
ting as well as project management. annual activity report. Additionally, 48 per cent have
a mechanism to monitor their supplies or inventory,
The majority of the surveyed organizations have a and 31 per cent have guidelines or standard opera-
managing board (78 per cent), an official action plan ting procedures.

FIGURE N 6.5:
Does your organization have the following? (%)

A governing board 78 22

An official/written strategy or action plan 72 28

Guiding principles and instruments to support

project development 72 28

A clearly defined organizational structure with

a job description for every employee
67 33

An annual financial report 59 41

A mechanism for storage/inventory monitoring 48 52

An annual activity report 48 52

Standard operating procedures 31 69

Yes No

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 23
Despite the high self-assessment of the CSOs, when dis- 6.2.2 FUNDRAISING AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
cussing the organizational capabilities of women’s orga-
nizations, representatives of international organizations Financial capabilities and sustainability were named as
highlighted a lack of internal institutional development, two of the most important problems, both by women’s
including a lack of internal institutional structure and re- organizations and by international organizations.
sources. They spoke about a lack of management skills
in women’s organizations, which includes management When discussing financial capabilities, the majority of
of both the organization itself and separate projects. Ac- the surveyed organizations (70 per cent) say that their
cording to them, organizations often struggle to deve- main challenge is fundraising. At the same time, 63 per
lop detailed plans, budgets or project proposals. On the cent of organizations would like to increase their emplo-
project implementation and finalization level, they find yees’ capacity to fundraise. Generally, CSOs do not eva-
it hard to provide reports that meet the donor require- luate the fundraising and sustainability of their organiza-
ments, especially in terms of providing information rele- tion very positively. Almost half of the surveyed CSOs (48
vant to the outcome evaluation indicators and in terms per cent) report that the capacity of their organization to
of analytical reporting. fundraise is satisfactory; 33 per cent assess their capaci-
ty positively, while 19 per cent assess it negatively.
Often, the activity of only several employees defines
the effectiveness of a CSO; this is considered an ins- Notably, sources of CSO funding are not diverse, with
titutional weakness of organizations, because if these CSOs mostly dependent on donors. The majority of the
staff members leave, then the organization may face organizations participating in the online survey received
the risk of ceasing operations. A fifth (20 per cent) of funding from international development agencies and
the surveyed organizations indicated that the appoint- donor organizations, including UN agencies operating in
ment of the organization’s head is permanent. At the Georgia, in the past three years (2021–2023). Moreover,
same time, when asked when was the last time the this is the main source of funding for the surveyed orga-
organization’s head changed, 35 per cent of the orga- nizations. Furthermore, more than half of the organiza-
nizations answered that the head had never changed. tions (52 per cent) have received funding from local civil
According to 11 per cent, the organization’s head has society organizations (Figure 6.6). The number of tho-
not changed for more than five years. Some of the re- se that have raised funds through their own economic
presentatives of international organizations noted that activities and/or through donations from individuals,
a large share of non-governmental organizations are the State, membership fees, crowdfunding, communi-
a ‘one-woman show’—that is, organizations centred ty funds or businesses is relatively small. At the same
around one person. Often, this person is the founder time, the number of sources and donors through which
of the organization, and due to the aforementioned the organizations were funded in the past three years
institutional weakness, it is not clear whether the (2021–2023) is not diverse. In 2021–2023, the surveyed
organization will manage to continue functioning if/ organizations received funding from a minimum of one
when this specific person leaves and is no longer invol- and a maximum of 19 donors, with four sources on ave-
ved in its activities. rage. Additionally, 22 per cent of the surveyed organiza-
tions claim to have received funding from UN Women.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 24
FIGURE N 6.6:
Please mark all of the sources from which you received funding in the past three years (2021–2023).
(%; multiple responses)

Grants from international donor organizations

(apart from the UN agencies operating in Georgia) 59

Grants issued by local CSOs 52

Grants received from UN agencies operating in Georgia 41

Income from own economic activities 19

Donations from individuals 17

State funding 9

Membership fees 9

Crowdfunding 7

Community fund 6

Funding received from business 6

Other 4

Representatives of international organizations noted “Many organizations shut down because of [a lack of
unanimously that full dependence on donors and a lack funding]. Currently, the [long-term] existence of even
of alternative sources of funding is a significant challen- organizations that have been operating in Georgia for
ge for women’s organizations and for the development 20–25 years is not certain… There is no institutional
of civil society in general. It is directly reflected on the mechanism, [and] there are very few budget lines at
sustainability of CSOs. As an international organization the regional level in order for civil society organizations
representative stated: “If funding stops, they will stop or initiative groups to manage to get funding from the
functioning.” local [government] budget.” —Representative of an in-
ternational organization
According to another representative of an international
organization, during the 30 years of existence of civil Representatives of CSOs from the regions also parti-
society in Georgia, with a few exceptions, organizations cularly highlighted the importance of involving local
have not managed to create other sources of funding, self-governance units in financial support for organiza-
such as social enterprises, membership fees or raising tions and the distribution of resources.
money through charity. Therefore, not only the imple-
mentation of specific projects but also the payments for Moreover, financial resources coming from internatio-
an office’s rent, utility fees or staff salaries depend on nal development agencies and donor organizations are
donor funding. mostly short-term grants, which force CSOs to partici-

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 25
pate in new funding competitions frequently. Prepa- Notably, more than half of the surveyed CSOs (52 per
ration of each new grant proposal usually requires a cent) do not have an employee who, based on their job
large amount of resources, and this is a sizeable cha- description, is responsible for fundraising. A small share
llenge particularly for organizations operating outsi- of organizations assess their organization’s employees’
de of the capital. Representatives of organizations for skills in fundraising positively, the majority’s assessment
disabled women especially highlighted this problem. is satisfactory, and 17 per cent provide a negative as-
One representative claimed that for them, “fundrai- sessment of staff skills in that area (Figure 6.7). As for
sing was a very large challenge due to the lack of ex- the preparation of a project proposal, 13 per cent of the
perience in writing high-budget project [proposals] CSOs say that their employees have developed those
that could attract the EU, USAID, UN and other such skills very well, 41 per cent assess those skills well, and
donors”. At the same time, according to regional or- another 41 per cent assess them satisfactorily. Only 6
ganizations, with short-term projects it is harder to per cent say that their employees have not developed
achieve the set goals and to involve the public in it. these skills well.

FIGURE N 6.7:
How would you assess the skills of your organization’s employees in the following areas? (%)

Fundraising 2 15 65 17 2

Project proposal writing 13 41 41 6

Very good Good Satisfactory Bad Do not have those skills at all

On the other hand, grant competition requirements computers for all staff members. Of those who do have
do not enable the organizations to purchase or update computers (69 per cent), 26 per cent consider the ow-
their technical equipment or cover office costs. Often, ned equipment outdated and requiring replacement.
a budget proposal should cover only project activities, Fifteen per cent of organizations have no printer, copy
which has negative repercussions for the sustainabi- machine or other necessary technical equipment. Of
lity of their organizations. Overall, 72 per cent of the those who do have this equipment (85 per cent), 22
surveyed organizations have an office (Figure 6.8). per cent said that it needs to be replaced.
However, 31 per cent explain that they do not have

FIGURE N 6.8:
Does your organization have the following? (%)

An office 72 28

Enough computers for all employees 43 26 31

A printer, copy machine and other

necessary technical equipment 63 22 15
sentatives note that it would

Yes Yes, but it requires renovation/ replacement No

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 26
The CSO representatives note that it would be better in which they will be compatible”. Therefore, donors
if donors issued organizational development grants, or should set it as their priority to empower regional orga-
‘core grants’, that would enable them to prioritize their nizations and reflect that in their grant calls. According
needs. Without that, CSOs have to follow the donor’s to one of the organization representatives: “We should
agenda. Often, while announcing grant calls, donors not expect [regional CSOs] to compete with well-esta-
follow their long-term strategy, which does not fully or blished, sustainable and strong organizations.” Even the
accurately reflect the local context. three years of experience indicated in the grant calls is a
significant barrier for young organizations competing to
“Often, [donors] set the priorities for us, when it should win the grant and develop further.
be the other way round. Needs should be coming from
below, especially with regional organizations. Here, we When discussing challenges, organizations from the
have a lady who is knowledgeable, has qualifications regions also highlighted the issue of accessing infor-
and knows what the problems are in the regions. Such mation about grant opportunities. They view the issue
people should be defining the grant directions and re- as an essential problem for regional organizations and
gional needs and not vice versa.” —Regional women’s would like to have a platform—for example, a website—
organization representative that would collect information about respective grant
competitions.
According to international organization representati-
ves, financial dependence on donors also means that “In many cases, if they have no professional connec-
organizations are fully focused on project implementa- tions, if they do not accidentally come across [the grant
tion and cannot manage to develop medium- or long- call] on jobs.ge, then these organizations do not receive
term strategies and act on their own vision. “They have information about interesting projects, that they have
no opportunity or luxury to conduct the activities that recourses to implement, and these regional organiza-
would be fully based on their visions because donors tions, whether in Kakheti or Imereti, can carry them out
have their own priorities, and organizations often have better than any other organization from Tbilisi.” —Re-
to fully adjust to the donor priorities because they have gional women’s organization representative
no other sources of funding in Georgia,” according to an
international organization representative. International organization representatives indicated
certain inequalities in terms of access to financial re-
Not only are strong organizations with a long history fa- sources between old and newly established organiza-
cing this problem, but so are small and relatively new tions, on the one hand, and organizations from Tbilisi
organizations. In the event that funding ceases, organi- and from the regions, on the other. To receive funding
zations cannot ‘survive’ for the several months until they from certain donors, it is necessary to comply with and
receive their next source of funding. According to the address a great deal of criteria—for example, a mini-
respondents, donors are also to blame, as the funding mum of five years of experience and the presence of
that they provide does not fully envisage the opportuni- an internal institutional structure and systems. A sig-
ty for organizations to earmark a certain amount as sa- nificant portion of organizations cannot meet these
vings. They either have to spend the received grant fully requirements. Therefore, they have even more limited
or return the unspent amount. The budgets of many access to financial resources.
projects do not and cannot include costs beyond the
actual project activities that the organization needs to “If I am not strong, I cannot get funding. And if I do
incur in order to operate and become more sustainable. not get funding, I cannot get strong. There are seve-
Representatives of women’s organizations from the re- ral non-governmental organizations—relatively stron-
gions point out that in the regions, particularly in villa- ger—that often receive funding from international
ges, organizations need a lot of support and empower- organizations. And there are organizations that have
ment, noting the need for “more investment”, “more absolutely no access to that.” —International organiza-
opportunities” and the “creation of such grant schemes tion representative.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 27
As for regional inequality, when organizations from 6.2.3 HUMAN RESOURCES
Tbilisi write project proposals to receive large grants,
they do not consult with organizations from the re- Along with financial sustainability, the largest challenge
gions about their needs and problems. They contact for CSOs is human resources. Organizations, particular-
regional organizations only at a later stage and then in- ly those in the regions, do not have—or find it difficult
clude them in the project. For this reason, the budget to maintain—employees with proper qualifications.
is distributed in such a way that Tbilisi-based organiza- The problem is mostly related to experience and com-
tions receive at least two thirds of the funding while petence in project proposal writing and gender equali-
the rest could be distributed among several other or- ty issues. Large-scale attrition of staff usually requires
ganizations. “This is an absolutely hierarchical attitude, teaching and preparation of new personnel, which is a
which unfortunately manifests as financial inequality,” significant challenge for organizations. One of the or-
one respondent noted. Regional and relatively small ganization heads noted: “I would greatly like to have a
organizations often have no qualified personnel and good team, to have discussions and debates about to-
no financial resources to hire someone to help with pics within this team. We do not have [such a] process.
the preparation of proposals and the search for grant Something is thought up in one person’s mind, and we
opportunities. are writing that in the proposal. Sometimes the project
wins and sometimes not.”
International organization representatives noted that
apart from financial resources, it is challenging for or- A large share of organizations participating in the study
ganizations to manage their finances, to fully utilize a are small-sized organization. On average, the surve-
grant and to conduct financial accounting. They are yed CSOs employ five people full-time and four people
not always capable of using the template for financial part-time. Twenty-six per cent of the surveyed organiza-
accounting that is provided to them and required by tions do not have a full-time employee, and 24 per cent
the donor organization. A portion of the organizations do not have a part-time employee (Figure 6.9). Sixty-ni-
have introduced financial protocols but cannot utilize ne per cent of the organizations do not have interns,
them fully. only 20 per cent have one intern, and 11 per cent have
two to five interns.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 28
FIGURE N 6.9:
Please indicate how many people are currently employed in your organization full-time and part-time or on a consultan-
cy basis. (%)

Full-time 54 6 15 26

Part-time/on a consultancy basis 54 17 6 24

1-5 employees 6-10 employees 10 More than 10 employees No employees

As for the number of volunteers, the surveyed organiza- one person. “It is impossible for one person to debate in
tions have on average six volunteers. Thirty per cent of the Parliament, debate on television, write a good pro-
organizations have no volunteers, 56 per cent have up ject proposal, implement a good project, and then wrap
to 10 volunteers, and 15 per cent have more than 10 it up with a good monitoring report at the same time,”
volunteers. an international organization representative noted.

Notably, women are quite well represented among the In addition, representatives of CSOs speak about a sig-
staff of CSOs focusing on women’s issues. On average, nificant mismatch of completed work and remuneration
these organizations employ six women full- or part-ti- for it, and in many cases a lack of other benefits. One
me or as interns. The majority of organizations (61 per of the international organization representatives hi-
cent) employ up to five women, 21 per cent have up to ghlighted the difficulty of creating decent and dignified
10 women, and 19 per cent have more than 10 women working conditions for employees due to limited finan-
employees. Only 11 per cent of the surveyed organiza- cial resources, which hinders the strengthening of the
tions have either one employee with disabilities (in two organization. “If I cannot provide health insurance and
organizations) or two employees with disabilities (in four maternity leave to my employees, then what women’s
organizations), and 28 per cent employ ethnic minorities. right can I protect, right?” She added that nowadays
in Georgia, there are organizations working on gender
A large part of the CSOs (52 per cent) assess their ca- equality and the protection of women’s rights that do
pability in terms of human resources positively, 35 per not provide their female employees with maternity lea-
cent as satisfactory, and 13 per cent as poor. At the ve or health insurance, nor support in terms of repro-
same time, the majority of the surveyed organizations ductive health.
(69 per cent) believe that human resources manage-
ment is executed well in their organization. This finding from the qualitative component of the study
is confirmed by the quantitative data collected. More
According to representatives of women’s organizations than one challenge was identified concerning the wor-
and international organizations, due to the lack of hu- king conditions of full-time workers. In particular, only
man resources, often one person has to multitask and 15 per cent of those organizations that have full-time
fulfil several responsibilities at the same time, which re- employees (74 per cent) say that their employees have
sults in overtime work, such as working on weekends. health insurance covered by the organization. In more
High workloads, especially due to the specificity of work than half of the organizations (52 per cent), employees
topics, causes employee burnout. Many organizations do not use paid maternity leave even for three months,
cannot attract and keep “knowledgeable and compa- and in 35 per cent of cases, employees work for more
tible” employees. They cannot have a highly qualified than 40 hours a week. At the same time, it is notewor-
manager, accountant, assistant or other employees at thy that in 98 per cent of organizations, employees have
the same time, and often these responsibilities lie with a flexible work schedule.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 29
The disconnect between the completed work and the “The country has 44,000 disabled women over [the age
remuneration received for it, which is mostly due to of] 13, and you cannot count more than 10 activist wo-
the lack of financial sustainability in the organizations, men who can speak English, and there are only three
was named as one of the main reasons for the loss disabled women who have participated in international
of staff. Women’s organization representatives from conferences abroad.”
the regions shared their concerns regarding the unfair
distribution of salaries and the attitude of the donors 6.2.4 MONITORING AND EVALUATION
towards organizations operating outside of Tbilisi. “It is
somehow considered normal that an employee might About a third (28 per cent) of the organizations partici-
have a salary of GEL 180 in a project, and this is consi- pating in the online survey would like to raise their qua-
dered normal, based on distribution. It is very hard to lifications for monitoring and evaluation. International
bring in qualified staff with this remuneration, and the organization representatives raise this need as well. Ac-
entire field is left with hopes for activism,” as a repre- cording to them, the lack of qualified personnel working
sentative of a women’s organization from outside of in this direction in organizations is problematic, as is the
Tbilisi noted. lack of understanding of the importance of monitoring
and evaluation.
Knowledge of English in organizations is additionally
problematic, as well as experience in writing project According to the majority (80 per cent) of the CSOs
proposals, working with documents and having tech- participating in the survey, organizations perform the
nical skills. This problem is particularly acute among monitoring and evaluation of their projects. However,
CSOs operating in the regions. Notably, 45 per cent of at the same time, only 39 per cent have an employee
organizations participating in the online survey positi- responsible for monitoring and evaluation. Additiona-
vely assess the English proficiency of their employees, lly, 43 per cent of organizations assess the monitoring
24 per cent think it is satisfactory, and 24 per cent say and evaluation skills of their employees positively, 54
it is poor. According to 7 per cent of the organizations, per cent as satisfactory, and 4 per cent as poor. Notably,
their employees do not know English at all. As for pro- 28 per cent of organizations would like to improve their
ficiency in computer software, the majority (79 per staff’s qualifications in this direction.
cent) assess the knowledge of their staff positively,
while 20 per cent believe that their knowledge is sa- Women’s organizations from both Tbilisi and the re-
tisfactory. gions spoke less about monitoring and evaluation. A
representative of one of the organizations from a re-
Challenges related to low levels of English proficiency gion noted that some grant calls are so complicated
were highlighted by international organization represen- that local organizations find it difficult to complete
tatives as well. According to them, this language barrier is them: “To develop its log frame, a non-governmental
a primary reason why CSOs cannot manage to search for organization will probably need at least two and even
information about grant competitions and other oppor- three years of experience in writing project proposals
tunities, or prepare project proposals. This difficulty is actively, [just] to understand the log frame. A log fra-
particularly relevant for small local organizations. me for some of the projects is extremely difficult.” This
demonstrates that the capacity for monitoring and
Representatives of women’s organizations said that evaluation among women’s organizations, particular-
their lack of employees proficient in English limits their ly among organizations from the regions, is not suffi-
opportunities to participate in high-level meetings. Mo- ciently developed.
reover, in terms of professional development, they have
fewer opportunities to visit other countries where they The monitoring and evaluation component was named
could learn best practices and raise their expertise in by international organizations as one of the more sig-
order to implement stronger advocacy campaigns. A re- nificant challenges for women’s organizations. Accor-
presentative of an organization serving disabled women ding to them, many CSOs have no respective staff for
noted that these problems are twice as acute for them: this component; thus, monitoring and evaluation is

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 30
not done at the level nor with the quality required by international organization representatives in CSOs’ in-
donors. Organizations find it challenging to first define volvement in decision-making, cooperation with other
monitoring and evaluation indicators correctly from a organizations and communication with the public.
project’s initiation and then to collect the respective in-
formation later. Hence, some donors include the costs 6.3.1 INVOLVEMENT IN DECISION-MAKING
of hiring a monitoring and evaluation specialist in their
project budget, while others offer training and consul- The organizations’ self-assessment of the involvement
tancy in that area to organizations. of CSOs in decision-making processes differs from the
reality; the involvement of women’s organizations in
According to respondents, in terms of monitoring, the decision-making processes is quite low, especially since
lack of these skills among the staff of women’s organiza- the events that followed the initiation of the law on the
tions is challenging, while understanding of the neces- transparency of foreign influence in March 2023.
sity and importance of high-quality data is also limited.
Organizations additionally often have not fully realized Generally, a large majority of organizations participating
how they can use these data to make decisions accor- in the online survey (70 per cent) assess the organiza-
dingly, improve their activities or change them. tion’s skills in advocacy and communication well. As for
cooperation skills with the central and local govern-
ments when advocating for important issues, more than
half of the organizations (56 per cent) assess their own
6.3 ADVOCACY AND COMMUNICATION skills positively, 41 per cent as satisfactory, and only 4
per cent as poor. Despite the majority’s positive self-as-
Full participation in decision-making at both the sessment, 22 per cent of respondents considered com-
national and local levels remains a challenge for munication with the central and local governments as
women’s organizations, especially after the ini- one of the challenges they face, and 24 per cent would
tiation of the draft law on the transparency of fo- like to improve the qualifications of their organization’s
reign influence in March 2023. staff in this area.

The majority of surveyed CSOs are formal mem- International organization representatives believe that
bers of a coalition, platform or network, yet there there is a large gap among women’s organizations in
is a lack of actual coordination across organiza- terms of knowledge and skills in advocacy. There are
tions, as well as duplication of efforts on a number experienced organizations that know which issues they
of issues. should take into consideration when making an advoca-
cy plan and leading this process. However, many organi-
The disparity in attitudes between CSOs func- zations lack this knowledge and skill.
tioning in Tbilisi and the regions is a significant
challenge. Organizations working outside of the Notably, representatives of CSOs from the regions claim
capital are less informed and thus less involved in that advocacy results do not always depend on their ac-
national-level advocacy efforts. tion and efforts. In order to resolve problematic issues
and improve the rights and opportunities of specific
The majority of CSOs communicate directly groups, it is necessary to cooperate with the central and
with beneficiaries through training sessions and local governments. Nonetheless, in order to make chan-
meetings. Both women’s organizations and do- ges, it is also important for government agencies them-
nors agree that women’s organizations need to selves to show readiness, courage and will. In this re-
improve their media and strategic communica- gard, the CSO representatives highlighted the problem
tion skills. of the lack of awareness of NGOs’ roles and functions,
as, according to them, public officials often do not reali-
This section on advocacy and communication addresses ze that the non-governmental sector “is an aide and not
the views and experience of women’s organizations and an enemy”. Considering this, public officials in the muni-

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 31
cipalities often avoid meetings because they are afraid tion window that organizations have no time to “make
of being seen as “overly defensive” if they do not have qualitative, content-specific interventions and certain
answers to certain problems. In such situations, non-go- contributions,” one CSO representative noted. The di-
vernmental organizations then have to explain that the fficulties of working with state agencies are particularly
goal of CSOs’ constructive criticism is to identify existing hard for organizations working on LGBTQI+ issues. Due
problems and establish ways to resolve them, not to to their infrequent involvement in discussions and wor-
provoke any hostile activities. king processes, they struggle to participate in the deci-
sion-making process, and their recommendations often
Moreover, based on the assessment of women’s orga- go unconsidered.
nization representatives, the local governments, which
are a frequent target of advocacy and an important At the same time, according to respondents, sometimes
partner for implementing activities for regional orga- the meetings have no discussion format at all, and civil
nizations due to decentralization challenges existing in society representatives have no opportunity to express
the country, struggle to act independently. They follow themselves. Additionally, government agencies do not
the course of the central government, including when it take into consideration the feedback that CSOs provi-
comes to their attitude towards and cooperation with de on specific documents. This is why representatives
non-governmental organizations. of civil society organizations often do not attend such
meetings at all and have no expectation that govern-
Overall, despite certain positive experiences of invol- ment representatives will take their expressed views
vement in the decision-making process, representati- into account. Hence, they resort to alternative means
ves of women’s organizations claim that they manage and try to exert certain influence on government deci-
government cooperation either minimally or not at sions through activism, public statements and commu-
all. Women’s organizations from the regions that have nication with embassies.
had a more positive experience cooperating with the
municipalities and have had more support from them International organization representatives also spoke
claim that the local government is getting involved in of similar trends and noted that despite certain prece-
the projects of those organizations, especially when the dents and positive experiences of cooperation, signifi-
local government has a good opportunity to portray it- cant shortcomings and difficulties have been noticeable
self well. Some believe that the local government rarely recently. “Currently, we see that the space [of coopera-
considers CSOs’ views, particularly during local budget tion] is getting narrower and narrower, and many win-
discussion processes, and only does so when their pers- dows for cooperation are closed,” according to a repre-
pectives on specific issues align. Some believe that “if sentative of an international organization.
you are not confrontational, you can achieve certain
things; much more can be achieved through negotia-
tions, certain concessions, and compromises”. Impact of the initiation of the law on the transparency
of foreign influence on cooperation of
Representatives of women’s organizations with negati- women’s organizations with government agencies
ve experiences of cooperation with the central govern-
ment say that state agency representatives do not feel The quantitative study paid significant attention to ex-
accountable towards civil society organizations and, ploring the issue of communication with the central
despite the fact that they have invested a great deal and local governments and the involvement of organi-
of intellectual work in the process of developing stra- zations in the decision-making process before and after
tegic documents and action plans, CSOs’ positions on the initiation of the law on the transparency of foreign
key issues are not taken into consideration. In certain influence. It appears that after the initiation of the draft
cases, legislative initiatives are not shared with the civil law, cooperation with both the central and local govern-
sector in advance, or they have such a short consulta- ments decreased (Figure 6.10).

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 32
FIGURE N 6.10:
What type of cooperation did you have with the following actors in the past three years (2021–2023)? (%)

Are partners Exchange information Do not cooperate Prefer not to answer

Central government before the initiation of the law on

the transparency of foreign influence 11 31 41 17

Central government after the initiation of the law on

the transparency of foreign influence 4 26 56 15

Local government bodies before the initiation of the

law on the transparency of foreign influence 28 50 9 13

Local government bodies after the initiation of the

law on the transparency of foreign influence 17 44 22 17

Forty-three per cent of the surveyed organizations say foreign transparency, public attitude towards them
that before the initiation of the draft law, the central has not changed (Figure 6.11). According to 19 per
government invited them to respective meetings and cent, however, public attitude has deteriorated.
events. Half as many (22 per cent) say the same after the Twenty-four per cent of organizations say that the
initiation of the draft law. At the same time, according attitude of the central government towards them
to 57 per cent of the surveyed organizations, before the has become more negative since the initiation of the
initiation of the law on the transparency of foreign in- draft law, and 31 per cent claim the same about the
fluence, local government representatives invited them attitude change from the local government bodies
to meetings and events, while after the initiation, this towards them. At the same time, the majority of or-
number decreased to 46 per cent. ganizations (69 per cent) report that the attitudes of
beneficiaries towards them have not changed; 35 per
Importantly, 65 per cent of the surveyed organiza- cent say the same about the attitudes of law enfor-
tions believe that after the initiation of the law on cement bodies.

FIGURE N 6.11:
Has the attitude of the following entities changed towards your organization since the initiation of the law on the
transparency of foreign influence? (%)

Donor organizations 19 2 72 7

Beneficiaries 13 7 69 11

The public 9 19 65 7

The central government 2 24 26 37 11

Local government bodies 2 31 46 11 9

Law enforcement bodies 2 7 35 44 11

Became more positive Became more negative Did not change

Had no point of contact Prefer not to answer

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 33
After the initiation of the draft law, a fifth of the sur- for civil society organizations to be ready to restore
veyed organizations (21 per cent) assess the security cooperation, in a manner favourable to all sides. Repre-
of the organization and its members as less protected, sentatives of international organizations see their role
39 per cent as somewhat protected, and 35 per cent as in creating platforms for dialogue between the gover-
protected. nment and the non-governmental sector and suppor-
ting this process. Respondents noted that civil society
CSO representatives also speak about the negative im- representatives have the same expectations from them:
pact of the initiation of the draft law on foreign trans- that international organizations should be facilitators in
parency in focus group discussions. According to them, cooperation processes.
after the March 2023 events, spaces for cooperation
and communication with both the central and local 6.3.2 COOPERATION WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
governments have reduced and become more limited.
Moreover, the organizations participating in the study The participants of the survey confirmed the importan-
claim that after these processes, they feel a more hos- ce of cooperating with other CSOs when it comes to is-
tile attitude from government agencies towards them. sues of partnership with government agencies and ad-
In certain cases, non-governmental organization repre- vocating for issues of importance. However, it is worth
sentatives are under significant pressure. noting that joining forces is not always possible.

According to the CSOs operating outside of Tbilisi, the Sixty-five per cent of the surveyed organizations say that
hostile attitude of the local government is sometimes they are members of a coalition, platform or network of
reflected in their attempts to hinder certain activities of CSOs. Seventy-four per cent say that they have had at
the organizations. least one meeting within the framework of a coalition,
platform or network.
“Now, it may not be the case that someone is coming
directly to you and throwing an egg at you or storming As for different forms of cooperation, 52 per cent of
into your meeting, but no one knows how [the hostility CSOs say that they are partners with international or-
will manifest]. And in our case, I can already share se- ganizations working on gender equality issues, 63 per
veral examples of the local government trying to exert cent say that they are partners with local organizations
certain influence indirectly, not threatening you physi- working on gender equality issues, and 57 per cent say
cally but having a certain influence on your relatives and that they are partners with NGOs working on other is-
loved ones; so, there is pressure in this regard.” —Re- sues (Figure 6.12). Forty-six per cent of CSOs report that
presentative of a regional women’s organization their cooperation with universities and research orga-
nizations consists solely of information exchange. Thir-
International organization representatives speak about ty-three per cent of the surveyed organizations exchan-
the same difficulties and believe that in this situation, ge information with the private sector, while another 33
government agencies should take action to restore per cent do not cooperate with the private sector at all.
“the broken bridge”. On the one hand, it is important It is worth noting that 43 per cent of the organizations
for government agencies to highlight the contributions would like to improve their competence in effective
of civil society, and on the other hand, it is necessary communication with donor organizations.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 34
FIGURE N 6.12:
What type of cooperation did you have with the following actors in the past three years (2021–2023)? (%)

Are partners Exchange information Do not cooperate Prefer not to answer

Local organizations working on gender equality 63 30 4 4

Non-governmental organizations working

on other issues 57 33 6 4

International organizations working

on gender equality
52 31 9 7

Private sector 26 33 33 7

Universities and research organizations 24 46 22 7

The representatives of women’s organizations stres- as beneficiaries. According to her, the organizations
sed the need to create and strengthen coalitions and working on disabled women’s issues are not invited to
networks in order to increase CSO involvement in de- high-level meetings on gender equality matters, as they
cision-making processes, to assist one another and to are remembered only in the context of issues affecting
solve problems. According to them, partnership and su- disabled persons.
pport are stronger in the regions. Regional CSOs have
small networks founded on the basis of geography or The representatives of women’s organizations and in-
cooperation within a certain project. They use such re- ternational organizations have also spoken about a cer-
lationships in their work on different projects and in ge- tain hierarchy and inequality between Tbilisi-based and
neral to exchange information and experience with one regional organizations. According to them, the organiza-
another. According to CSOs, cooperation with other or- tions from Tbilisi are reluctant to include regional orga-
ganizations becomes particularly important when short nizations in their work when identifying problems and
on money. developing advocacy strategies at the national level.
This happens when, often, regional organizations may
According to the representatives of CSOs and interna- be more knowledgeable about local issues. Regrettably,
tional organizations based in Tbilisi, there are no large the process only invites such organizations to participate
networks of women’s organizations working on gender during implementation phases. Regional organizations
equality issues that are engaged in strong cooperation have less access to donors and fewer opportunities to
with one another. Furthermore, the organizations often voice their problems and challenges. Regional organi-
lack information on one another’s work. This causes zations are also often dissatisfied with the little access
a lack of solidarity and a doubling of efforts. Another they have to particular information. For example, often
challenge is competition for grants and funds, as well regional CSOs would like to be part of joint statements
as for working on specific topics and receiving credit for made separately by civil sector representatives, but as
success. they do not receive information about such initiatives
in a timely manner, they are denied the opportunity. As
A different opinion was voiced by a representative of an international organization representative explained,
an organization serving disabled women, who stressed the discussions around the so-called ‘foreign agents’
that for them, the challenge was being involved in inclu- law accurately demonstrated the significance of having
sive projects where they would be equal partners with regional organizations involved in the process. Without
women’s rights organizations and not considered only the support of the regions, Tbilisi-based organizations

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 35
would not have achieved much of an impact. Therefore, groups are linked to certain beliefs and biases on both
regional organizations say that it is necessary for interna- sides. The ‘old generation’ of organizations believes that
tional development agencies and donor organizations to they have an advantage, since they have been working
choose more diverse partners in Georgia and give greater on women’s issues for a long time and deserve credit
support to regional and local organizations. It is also im- for certain achievements. In contrast, the ‘new genera-
portant that a platform for regular meetings be created tion’ of organizations does not necessarily agree with
where organizations can meet one another at least once this and believe that they have a more modern and
a year and share their ideas, experiences and problems. practical vision on the topic. “This divide often serves as
This would make the network more connected. a barrier to coordinated and united efforts when advo-
cating for common topics. That is why I think that more
Representatives of international organizations say that dialogue and coordination among CSOs and women’s
there are certain platforms and communication formats organizations is vital,” as a representative of an interna-
that are sometimes created by donor organizations and tional organization explained.
sometimes by women’s organizations themselves. For
example, UN Women has thematic groups that attempt 6.3.3 COMMUNICATION WITH THE PUBLIC
certain coordination efforts. However, as an internatio-
nal organization representative says, local NGOs are not The majority of organizations that took part in the quan-
keen to share information with one another. There are titative research component positively assess their abili-
other groups as well, such as informal chat groups like ty to communicate with the public. Sixty-seven per cent
the November 25 Group, where some information is of the organizations say that they have an employee
shared. However, just sharing information is often not responsible for communications. Forty-eight per cent
enough, and it is important to have a discussion where of the organizations have an official written strategy
each side has an opportunity to express a critical opi- for communication and information dissemination. The
nion and reach some consensus. majority thinks that the competence of their employees
in communicating with the public and the media is very
Another problem is a lack of coordination and a cer- good or good, and 33 per cent think it is satisfactory
tain divide between the ‘new’ and ‘old’ generation of (Figure 6.13). A large majority also positively assesses
women’s organizations. International organization re- the skills of their employees in communicating with be-
presentatives think that disagreements between these neficiaries.

FIGURE N 6.13:
How would you assess the skills of your organization’s employees in the following areas? (%)

Communication with the public/media 30 31 33 4 2

Communication with beneficiaries 41 48 9 2

Very good Good Satisfactory Bad Do not have those skills at all

More than half (54 per cent) of the surveyed CSOs have book pages, 33 per cent use it daily for communicating
their own website. Nearly all of the organizations have a with the public, and 27 per cent use it several times a
presence on social networks. Ninety-four per cent have week (Figure 6.14). As for Instagram, the second most
a Facebook page, 37 per cent have an Instagram page, popular social network among the surveyed organiza-
33 per cent have a YouTube channel, 19 per cent have tions, only 5 per cent use it daily, while 40 per cent use
a LinkedIn page, 17 per cent have a TikTok page, and 11 it several times per week.
per cent have a Twitter/X account. Of those with Face-

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 36
FIGURE N 6.14:
How often do you use the following social media channels to connect with the public? (%)

Facebook 33 27 18 12 10

Instagram 5 40 15 15 25

YouTube 22 39 6 33

Linkedln 10 10 20 60

TikTok 11 33 11 22 22

Twitter/X 20 40 40

Every day Several times a week but not every day At least once a week

I At least once a month Less often than once a month

Fifty-two per cent of the organizations say that they are of strategic communications and public communica-
partners with a local or regional media channel; 30 per tions in general. They would also like to learn about new
cent exchange information with one; and 7 per cent do feminist approaches. Some representatives of regional
not cooperate with one. Only 13 per cent of the surve- organizations also added that for them, it was impor-
yed organizations say that they cooperate with media tant to gain more knowledge about community mobili-
based in the capital. Forty-three per cent say that they zation methods.
exchange information with them, and 35 per cent do
not cooperate with them. “I would love to learn about new approaches and to
attend training about how to get women out of their
The representatives of regional organizations stress homes—the women who look at us through their win-
their knowledge of women’s needs at the local level. In dows when we go to them and refuse to engage in
this regard, they have an advantage because they have communication. I would want to learn how to influence
more access to the local population and local matters. their behaviour, especially the behaviour of their men,
They also share common experiences and backgrounds. who block them from going out into society.” —Repre-
The representatives of some organizations mentioned sentative of a women’s organization
that they work closely with local media in their region,
which helps them spread information. It is more diffi- According to the representatives of international orga-
cult for Tbilisi-based women’s organizations in terms nizations, women’s organizations should pay more at-
of cooperating with the media. They spoke of a lack of tention to public communications, as they often fail to
education in the media. On the one hand, it is a challen- effectively deliver their message to the public. They sin-
ge for them to convince media representatives to cover cerely and publicly broadcast the problems, needs and
issues of gender equality and women’s rights. On the hurdles facing women’s empowerment, but with little
other hand, there is a need to raise awareness among result.
journalists in this field.
Some respondents think that women’s organizations
Some representatives of women’s organizations men- should improve strategic communications and not only
tioned that there is a need to deepen their knowledge care about positive ‘PR’. It is important to understand

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 37
the language used by organization representatives to important work but fail to show it, thus failing to gain
talk with the public, whether it is with the local commu- public trust and support among donor organizations
nity, at a training session or through the media. (which is vital for securing funding).

As for relations with the media, representatives of inter-

national organizations think that cooperation with the 6.4. RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
media is crucial for the success of organizations becau-
se, in modern-day Georgia, the media has a large degree
of influence over people and can be a “powerful ally”. The majority (96 per cent) of CSOs collect infor-
For this reason, it is important that organizations over- mation about beneficiaries’ needs using a variety
come the differences existing between the media and of methods. However, the vast majority of them
women’s organizations. The problem, though, as some still feel they need to improve their knowledge of
respondents put it, is that the “popular language today research methods, data analysis and the use of re-
is overwhelmingly that of hate towards women”. Major search data.
television and print publications are not feminist-min-
ded entities and do not support women. Therefore, it International organizations believe that it is still
is particularly tricky for women’s organizations to choo- difficult for CSOs to undertake quality research
se effective means of communication and messaging. or interpret the findings of existing research and
In the opinion of international organization representa- use them in advocacy and the planning of future
tives, communicating with the media is often a challen- projects.
ge for women’s organizations. There are people in these
organizations who know how to speak with the media. More than half (58 per cent) of the organizations that
However, the majority does not know how to give in- took part in the quantitative research component po-
terviews, how to build relations with the media or how sitively assess their abilities to conduct research and
to choose the messages they want to broadcast to the analyse results. The vast majority of the organizations
public via the media. (96 per cent) say that they gather information about the
needs of their beneficiaries. As for the methods of co-
Besides relations with the media, respondents from llecting data, the majority of organizations say that they
women’s organizations also emphasized other challen- conduct surveys of the beneficiaries, collect feedback
ges related to other types of communication skills and about the different activities they conduct, use the per-
opportunities, including data visualization and how to sonal observations and experiences of their staff, and
share their work results via social media. CSOs are very analyse existing research and statistics that are available
different in this regard as well. There are those that do (Figure 6.15).

FIGURE N 6.15:
How do you gather information about the needs of beneficiaries? (%; multiple responses)

By conducting surveys of the beneficiaries 83

Through feedback forms following project activities 73

Through the personal observations/experiences of the staff 52

By using existing studies and analysing statistical data 48

By conducting in-depth interviews and focus group discussions

42
with beneficiaries By monitoring social networks

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 38
The majority of organizations that took part in the re- as well as finding and analysing qualitative research re-
search claim to have experience collecting and analysing ports and obtaining such reports from Geostat. Half of
data using quantitative research methods (Figure 6.16). the surveyed organizations have hired a research com-
The majority has experience obtaining and analysing pany or a researcher to conduct qualitative or quantita-
data from central or local government agencies. At the tive research. Forty-six per cent of the surveyed organi-
same time, the majority also has experience collecting zations report having trained their employees to collect
and analysing data using qualitative research methods, and analyse data.

FIGURE N 6.16:
Does your organization have experience in the following data collection and research methods? (%; multiple responses)

Collecting data through quantitative research methods 83

Conducting quantitative research analvsis 83

Requesting or finding data from central or local

government bodies and analysing it
76

Finding and analysing qualitative studies/re ports 69

Collecting data through qualitative research methods 69

Conducting qualitative research analysis 67

Requesting or finding Geostat data and analysing it 67

Hiring a research company or a researcher to conduct a

qualitative or quantitative study 50

Training organization staff in data collection and analysis 46

Half (50 per cent) of the surveyed CSOs say that they con- realizing why research and data-based planning and de-
duct research frequently and analyse existing research cision-making are so important.
data when preparing project proposals or implementing
projects. Forty-one per cent use similar approaches less It is also worth noting that the majority of surveyed wo-
frequently. Forty-eight per cent say that the research men’s organizations would like to increase their com-
results often influence decision-making process within petence in preparing reports using research results, in
CSOs; 41 per cent say that this happens sometimes; and analysing data, in collecting data using qualitative re-
one organization says this has not occurred. Despite the search methods, in learning data analysis software and
positive self-assessment of women’s organization re- in using quantitative research methods (Figure 6.17).
presentatives, the surveyed respondents of internatio- The fact that women’s organizations require certain
nal organizations note that conducting quality research training in order to learn research specifics, methods
and using its results is still a problem for women’s or- and data analysis is also supported by the qualitative
ganizations. There are cases when organizations find research. Even organizations that claim to have expe-
it hard to differentiate research methods, do a proper rience in collecting data and conducting research have
analysis and draw conclusions. Besides the lack of deep acknowledged the need for additional training and
and qualified research, the challenge for CSOs is also in knowledge.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 39
FIGURE N 6.17:
Based on the work of your organization, what are your primary needs with regard to data collection and analysis?
(%; multiple responses)

Raising qualifications in report writing

using research results 65

Raising qualifications in data analysis 65

Raising qualifications in data collection using

qualitative research methods 65

Learning data analysis programs 57

Raising qualifications in data collection

using quantitative research methods 54

Other 4

Have no needs in that area 6

The representatives of some CSOs spoke of the need “When a donor organization contemplates this or that
to learn about such specific tools as gender audits and issue or considers announcing a grant in this or that re-
gender impact assessments. Awareness of the mentio- gion, it would be very good to also make corresponding
ned methods often happens at the central government research available for interested parties. Such research,
level; however, they are not well known to the repre- no matter who it was conducted by, would be very im-
sentatives of the civil sector and local government. The- portant for NGOs as a guideline and supporting tool.”
refore, the latter need to be trained and taught about —Representative of a regional women’s organization
these tools so that they do a better job of providing le-
gal expertise and advocacy. A representative of an organization for disabled wo-
men stressed the lack of available in-depth research.
During discussions, the representatives of women’s or- She said that numerous research papers mention the
ganizations stressed numerous times that research and vulnerability of disabled women, including limited
access to open data are crucial. For regional organiza- opportunities for education and employment, but they
tions, even the ability to access existing research is a do not express the reasons for this reality. Moreover,
problem. They also find it difficult to conduct research disabled women are never involved in fieldwork. If they
with currently available resources. However, the avai- were, it would allow for the collection of more relia-
lability and accessibility of other open research pose a ble data, as, according to the representative, “Disabled
significant challenge. Having access to existing research women open up best to other disabled women.” Thus,
would be a significant support for regional organizations disabled women need appropriate preparation and su-
in terms of identifying specific problems in particular pport to become good researchers and to do an ade-
fields and planning projects. quate job in the field.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 40
6.5. GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT POLICIES, INTERNATIONAL
APPROACHES, AND MECHANISMS

Representatives of international and local organi- perience, such as reproductive health, selective
zations name experience as one of the strengths abortion and early marriage, among others.
of women’s organizations. Their profound unders-
tanding of gender equality issues and their capa- The organizations surveyed in the quantitative research
city to articulate a robust stance on this subject component assessed somewhat positively their emplo-
demonstrate this. yees’ knowledge of the Council of Europe Convention
on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women
CSOs based in the regions need to increase their and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), the Sus-
knowledge about gender equality and women’s tainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Convention on
empowerment policies, international agree- the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
ments and mechanisms more than CSOs based Women (CEDAW), and the national policy of gender
in Tbilisi. equality (strategies, (Figure 6.18). As it turns out, the
employees of women’s organizations have relatively li-
There are a number of issues about which the ttle knowledge of the Beijing Declaration and Platform
organizations have little knowledge or work ex- for Action.

FIGURE N 6.18:
How would you assess the knowledge of your organization’s employees on the following issues? (%)

Action against violence against women

and domestic violence (Council of Europe's 20 31 35 12
Istanbul Convention)

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 11 44 33 9 2

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms

of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) 11 44 33 9 2

National policy on gender equality

(strategies, action plans and laws) 11 37 39 11 2

Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 7 17 37 28 11

Very good Good Satisfactory Bad Do not have those skills at all

Only 22 per cent of the surveyed CSOs say that they (17 per cent, or two organizations), and other reports.
have taken part in preparing alternative reports and
materials for different entities. The respondents men- The representatives of women’s organizations both in
tioned the implementation reports regarding CEDAW Tbilisi and in the regions note that the Tbilisi-based
(50 per cent, or six organizations), GREVIO (33 per cent, organizations have access to more resources. There-
or four organizations), the Universal Periodic Review fore, regional and Tbilisi-based organizations differ in

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 41
terms of their general knowledge of the matter and violence, but they lack knowledge about gender and
their experience working on it. In the experience of reproductive health, selective abortion and the harm-
one respondent, their organizations find it difficult ful practice of early marriage.
to find partners to work on gender equality matters
in the regions. There are organizations that work on The representatives of women’s organizations stressed
many different topics but lack in-depth knowledge of the importance of learning monitoring mechanisms
a specific issue. and gender analysis as key preconditions for success-
ful participation in different projects. “Without such
According to the representatives of some organiza- an analysis, we often have no chance of obtaining a
tions, existing knowledge is more individualistic than grant,” said a representative of a women’s organization.
systemic. There are specific people working in this field “I would start strengthening my organization with lear-
who have strong knowledge about gender equality and ning, with very serious trainings about gender equa-
women’s empowerment policies, as well as on inter- lity, so that a strong group is established in the orga-
national approaches and mechanisms. However, at the nization. This would give us more chances of winning
organization level, this knowledge is not widespread projects,” said a representative of a regional women’s
or shared. It is important to have not just theoretical organization. Despite the need, according to the sur-
knowledge but an opportunity to learn about success veyed organizations, such trainings and other activities
stories. There are numerous conventions and docu- aimed at improving opportunities for development are
ments about gender equality at the international level seldom available.
that are relevant and significant for Georgia. However,
implementing them in Georgia is a challenging task According to the representatives of women’s organi-
that requires extensive collaboration among numerous zations, for international development agencies and
individuals. donor organizations, it is becoming more and more
important to break down the issues of gender equa-
Some representatives of international organizations lity into those affecting specific groups, such as disa-
say that the organizations sometimes have narrow bled persons, the LGBTQI+ community, refugees, mi-
specializations, and in such cases, their qualifications grants and other groups. As a result, it is important for
are higher. However, there are plenty of even narrower them that local partner organizations have knowledge
issues about which the sector lacks knowledge and ex- and experience in not only gender equality issues but
perience. For example, CSOs have accumulated quite a also much more specialized issues pertinent to specific
lot of knowledge and work experience on the topic of groups.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 42
7. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The research conducted on the needs assessment of nity leave. As a result, the organizations find it difficult
CSOs working on gender equality and the protection of to employ and retain qualified professionals. Thus, or-
women’s rights has revealed the following: ganization employees have to perform multiple func-
tions in exchange for low remuneration.
Administrative, financial and organizational
challenges Challenges of advocacy and communication

The main challenge faced by the surveyed CSOs rela- The results of the research revealed that CSOs are
ted to internal institutional development is the depen- often unable to become meaningfully involved in the
dence of organizations’ success not on an entire team decision-making process, both at the central and local
but on only several employees. Another challenge is a levels. Typically, they try to be actively involved in the
lack of competence in preparing project proposals ac- development of strategic documents; however, their
cording to donor demands as well as monitoring and recommendations and suggestions frequently remain
assessing project results, since organizations often lack unincorporated. In some cases, they are not even able
employees with the respective qualifications. Yet ano- to participate in the consultation process due to unrea-
ther challenge is getting CSO employees to recognize listically short time frames set by the central or local
the importance of monitoring and assessment. governments.

Still, the most acute problem for women’s organiza- The situation especially worsened after discussions
tions is related to financial stability. In most cases, or- of the March 2023 draft law on the transparency of
ganizations struggle to diversify their funding and are foreign influence, when cooperation between gover-
dependent on a single donor. This creates difficulties nment agencies and NGOs was severely reduced. Re-
both in terms of the financial viability of an organiza- gional women’s organizations found themselves in a
tion and in terms of strategic development, since, in particularly difficult situation because, for them, close
such cases, organizations are unable to carry out their cooperation with local government is an essential com-
initiatives and are limited to working on the projects ponent of projects.
identified by their donors.
It is also important to note that the research results
The research also revealed geographic inequality reveal a lack of coordination among women’s organiza-
among organizations with regard to their access to tions. This is particularly noticeable in the relationships
funding. Often, regional organizations cannot inde- between Tbilisi-based and regional organizations. Spe-
pendently take part in grant competitions because of cifically, when planning and implementing an advocacy
complex competition requirements. There are cases strategy, regional organizations are either involved late
where a Tbilisi-based organization receives a grant and or not at all. There is a divide between the ‘old’ and
partners with regional organizations. However, in such ‘new’ generations of women’s organizations as well.
cases, regional organizations cannot exert any meanin- This implied disconnect acts as a barrier to them joi-
gful influence on the content of the project or the allo- ning forces to tackle common problems.
cation of its budget.
As for public communication, despite the majority of
Financial stability has a great effect on organizations’ women’s organizations having direct contact with their
human resources as well. The organizations are often beneficiaries in the form of trainings and informational
unable to offer their employees an adequate salary or meetings, they are not engaged in effective communi-
other benefits such as health insurance or paid mater- cation with the media. The reason for this is that they

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 43
cannot use effective language and thus fail to deliver Strengthen communication between donors and
messages to the public in a simple and easy-to-unders- CSOs, and encourage donors to consider local
tand way. organizations’ ideas and capacities when establi-
shing priority areas for funding. This approach
Challenges related to obtaining knowledge of research ensures that local organizations can consistently
and gender equality policy, international approaches and sustainably address issues important to be-
and mechanisms neficiaries.

Conducting quality research and effectively utilizing the Develop CSO networks and coalitions, or assist and
results remain a challenge for the surveyed organiza- strengthen existing ones, to help consolidate CSO
tions. On the one hand, the lack of experience in terms activities for problem resolution, effective advoca-
of obtaining financial resources and collecting and pro- cy and information exchange on areas of activity
cessing data serves as a significant barrier for organiza- and specific initiatives.
tions. On the other hand, oftentimes, organizations do
not think they need to make decisions based on data. Raise CSOs’ qualifications in advocacy and effective
communication with government agencies, as well
Another important observation is that the knowledge as raise awareness among government represen-
and expertise of international policy approaches and tatives about the role and function of non-gover-
mechanisms for gender equality and women’s em- nmental organizations, to improve CSO engage-
powerment are quite high. But even here, a geogra- ment in policy development and decision-making
phic difference is apparent. Namely, organizations in processes. International organizations can play a
Tbilisi have more access to resources and, therefore, leading role in supporting a project by establishing
more in-depth knowledge of alternative methods and dialogue platforms between the governmental and
approaches to gender mainstreaming than organiza- non-governmental sectors. This issue has been es-
tions based in the regions. Moreover, there are a num- pecially relevant since the law on the transparency
ber of issues about which there is little knowledge and of foreign influence was proposed, and it is critical
experience in the sector, including reproductive health to re-establish and maintain beneficial cooperation
and selective abortion. in a timely manner.

To overcome the above-mentioned challenges, the Raise CSO staff qualifications in research methods,
following activities are recommended: data analysis, and monitoring and evaluation so
that they may collect data or use existing data and
Develop and/or identify alternate sources of finan- studies to write project proposals and reports, as
cing, such as funds from CSOs’ own economic ac- well as organize their own activities and advocacy
tivity, individual donations, membership fees and efforts.
so on, as both local and international organizations
emphasize that CSOs’ dependence on donors un- Place emphasis on empowering disabled women’s
dermines their long-term sustainability. organizations and activists, as well as their equal
and full participation in the activities of gender
Promote organizational development grant oppor- equality groups at both the non-governmental and
tunities in order to support CSOs’ sustainability. governmental levels.
These grants would enable organizations to retain
their employees and offices, purchase or upgrade Improve the knowledge of organizations working
necessary inventory and address key issues. At the in the regions on gender equality, women’s em-
same time, it is essential to include benefits and powerment policies, and international approaches
suitable compensation rates in the project budge- and mechanisms.
tary requirements.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 44
ANNEX
ORGANIZATIONS PARTICIPATING IN THE QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE COMPONENTS OF THE STUDY

TABLE N 1: Details on the in-depth interviews

# Organization Mode of communication Date

1 UN Women Face-to-face interview 01.08.2023

2 National Democratic Institute (NDI) Video conference 30.08.2023

3 Delegation of the European Union to Georgia Video conference 31.08.2023

4 German Society for International Video conference 05.09.2023

Cooperation (GIZ)

5 Mercy Corps Video conference 07.09.2023

6 Council of Europe Video conference 07.09.2023

7 CARE International Video conference 08.09.2023

8 UN Women (group interview) Hybrid mode 08.09.2023

9 United Nations Development Programme Video conference 15.09.2023

(UNDP) (group interview)

10 United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Video conference 15.09.2023

11 Women’s Fund in Georgia Video conference 18.09.2023

TABLE N 2: Details on the focus groups

Number of
Mode of
# Organizations participating Date
communication
organizations

1 Organizations operating in the regions of

8 Video conference 22.09.2023
Guria and Mtskheta-Mtianeti

2 Organizations operating in various re-

6 Video conference 23.09.2023
gions

3 Organizations operating in Tbilisi and

6 Video conference 26.09.2023
various regions

4 Organizations operating in the Samegre-

9 Video conference 27.09.2023
lo-Zemo Svaneti region

5 Organizations operating in Tbilisi and

9 Video conference 28.09.2023
various regions

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 45
TABLE N 3: Organizations participating in the focus groups
# Name of organization
1 Creative Youth Platform
2 We are Sensible Future
3 Rural Communities Development Agency
4 Women for Regional Development
5 Guria Civic Center
6 Lanchkhuti Youth Movement
7 Women for Counrty's Future
8 Eastern European Centre for Multiparty Democracy – Kutaisi Branch
9 Community Center “AniBani”
10 Women’s House
11 International Organization for Women and Children’s Rights “Mejlisi”
12 Union FREYA
13 Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center “SiNC”
14 Self-Government Resource Center of Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti
15 Association “Woman and Business”
16 Kvemo Kartli Women’s Organization “Unity”
17 Young Feminists
18 Rural Women for Human Rights
19 Samtskhe-Javakheti Media Center
20 TASO Foundation
21 Association of Disabled Women and Mothers of Disabled Children – DEA
22 Association “Mercuri”
23 Community Development Fund “Nepa”
24 Hands for Peace
25 Reactive
26 Association “ATINATI”
27 IDP Women Association “Consent” – Zugdidi Branch Office
28 Women’s Association “Gvirila”
29 Neogeni
30 Women’s Information Center
31 Women Fund “Sukhumi”
32 Sapari
33 Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group
34 IDP Women Association “Consent”
35 Union “Woman and Reality”
36 Sakhli Advice Center for Women
37 Women Engage for a Common Future – Georgia

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 46
TABLE N 4: Organizations participating in the quantitative study
# Name of organization
1 Women for Regional Development
2 We are Sensible Future
3 Rural Women for Human Rights
4 Samtskhe-Javakheti Media Center
5 Oasis
6 Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group
7 Platform Salam
8 National Association of Local Authorities of Georgia
9 Civic Engagement and Activism Center
10 Gelati Rural Women Council
11 Georgian Farmers’ Association
12 Kakheti Area Development Centre
13 Samtskhe-Javakheti Women for Peaceful Georgia
14 TASO Foundation
15 Women for Change
16 Association “Mercuri”
17 Association HERA XXI
18 Women’s Consultation Center House
19 Young Feminists
20 Federation of Women of Georgia “QOLGA”
21 Georgian Girl Scouts “Dia”
22 Women Fund “Sukhumi”
23 Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center “SiNC”
24 Self-Government Resource Center of Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti
25 Sapari
26 The Aged Women’s Association “Deserving Old Age”
27 Women’s Association “Gvirila”
28 Women’s Gaze
29 Association “Disvel Women’s Council”
30 Guria Development Union
31 Kvemo Kartli Media
32 Center for Participation and Collaboration (CPC)
33 Civic Initiatives Association
34 Women for Chiatura Future
35 House of Initiatives
36 Tetritskaro Youth Center
37 Kvemo Kartli Women’s Organization “Unity”
38 Education and Development Center “Toliskuri”

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 47
39 Karaleti Women’s Solidarity Center
40 Khobi News
41 Association “Women for Regional Development”
42 Community Center “AniBani”
43 Women’s Initiative Group of Chkhorotsku “Equal”
44 Women for the Future of Javakheti
45 Institute for Change and Innovation
46 Step Kharagauli
47 Union FREYA
48 Guria Civic Center
49 Women for Counrty's Future
50 Women for Justice
51 Society of Democratic Women of Marneuli
52 Center for the Protection of Women’s and Children’s Rights and Gender Equality
53 Parents Organization of Children with Disabilities “Lampari”
54 Media Center Kakheti
55 Carpe Diem
56 Kakheti Regional Development Foundation
57 National Network of Women with Disabilities
58 Rural Communities Development Agency

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 48
ENDNOTES
CHAPTER 3
1
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
https://www.matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/5691899?publication=0

2
Decree of the Parliament of Georgia on Adopting “The State Concept of Georgia on Gender Equality”.
https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/5664358?publication=0

3
Law of Georgia on Combating Human Trafficking.
https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/26152?publication=17

4
Law of Georgia on Gender Equality.
https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/91624?publication=10

5
UN Women. 2021. Country Gender Equality Profile of Georgia.
https://georgia.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2021/11/country-gender-equality-profile-of-georgia_georgia

6
Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia. “Domestic Violence and Violence against Women.”
https://pog.gov.ge/interesting-info/family-violence

7
Law of Georgia on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination.
https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/2339687?publication=3

8
The Council of Europe Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention).
https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/3789678?publication=0

9
Amendment of 12 June 2017 to the Ordinance of the Government of Georgia No. 286 on “Establishing the
Inter-Agency Commission on Gender Equality, Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, and Adopting
the Ordinance”.
https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/4796304?publication=0

10
On the Amendment to the Organic Law of Georgia “Labour Code of Georgia”.
https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/4548377?publication=0

11
Administrative Offences Code of Georgia.
https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/28216?publication=533

12
Election Code of Georgia.
https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/1557168?publication=80

13
UN Women. 2021. Country Gender Equality Profile of Georgia.
https://georgia.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2021/11/country-gender-equality-profile-of-georgia_georgia

14
UN Women. 2024. Country Gender Equality Profile of Georgia.
https://georgia.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2024/02/country-gender-equality-profile-of-georgia-2023

15
World Economic Forum. 2023. Global Gender Gap Report 2023.
https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2023/

16
According to the index, 0 means inequality and 1 means equality.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 49
17
World Economic Forum. 2022. Global Gender Gap Report 2022.
https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2022/digest

18
Public Defender of Georgia. 2022. Report of the Public Defender of Georgia on the Situation of Protection
of Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia. https://ombudsman.ge/res/docs/2023033120380187763.pdf
19
GREVIO. 2022. Baseline Evaluation Report: Georgia.
https://rm.coe.int/grevio-report-on-georgia-2022/1680a917aa

20
The Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights in Georgia: Submission to the Human Rights
Council for the 10th session of Universal Periodic Review Working Group.
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/lib-docs/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session10/GE/JS3_JointSubmission3-eng.pdf

21
https://ge.usembassy.gov/decisive-action-needed-to-protect-lgbtqi-rights-in-georgia/

22
https://oc-media.org/georgian-orthodox-church-calls-for-queer-propaganda-law/

23
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66145898

24
https://csometer.info/countries/georgia

25
Ibid.

Civil Society Institute. 2023. CSO Meter: A Compass to Conducive Environment and CSO Empowerment –
26

Georgia 2023 Country Report.

https://csometer.info/sites/default/files/2024-03/CSO%20Meter%20Country%20Report%20Georgia%202023%20EN%20%283%29.pdf

27
Bourjaily, N., L. Panov, E. Hartay and I. Mkheidze. 2022. Assessment of the Legal Environment for CSO
Financial Sustainability and Corporate and Individual Philanthropy.
https://www.icnl.org/wp-content/uploads/Assessment-of-the-Legal-Environment-for-CSOs-Georgia.pdf

28
Ibid.

CHAPTER 4
29
Nodia, G. 2005. Civil Society Development of Georgia: Achievements and Challenges. Caucasus
Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development.
https://www.cipdd.org/upload/files/POLICY.PDF

30
Sabedashvili, T. 2007. Gender and Democratization: The Case of Georgia 1991–2006. Heinrich Böll
Foundation. https://ge.boell.org/sites/default/files/gender_and_democratisation_eng.pdf
31
Ibid.
32
Ibid.
33
Ibid.
34
Interview with an international organization representative.
35
Ibid.

CAPACITY AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING ON GENDER EQUALITY IN GEORGIA 50
 Zaalishvili, R. 2021. Study on the Needs of Women with Disabilities: Research Report on the Future
36

Empowerment of Women 2020. Partnership for Human Rights.

https://www.phr.ge/publication/documents/191?lang=geo

37
Margvelashvili, A., T. Zurabishvili and S. Murghulia. 2023. Study on the Social Impact of Community Groups
and Projects. Community Development Resource Centre.
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38
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