Gender Equality in Water Sector in Georgia: Challenges and Perspectives

The views expressed in this paper are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The countries listed in this paper do not imply any view on ADB's part as to sovereignty or independent status or necessarily conform to ADB's terminology.

February 2014 Nino Abuladze

Gender Equality in Georgia

Major policy documents and latest rankings

Law on Gender Equality enacted in 2010. In 2013 labor code of Georgia was revised and numbers of gender aspects were incorporated in the law.

The Overview of International Rankings Georgia ranks: 72 out of 187 countries - Gender Inequality Index(GII) (reproductive health,
improvement, labor market)

118 out of 136 countries - Global Gender Gap Index (GGI) (economic,
political, education, health)

60 out of 86 countries - Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) (discriminatory social institutions)

Women Employment Trends in Georgia

Female Employment rate -59% Male Employment rate ranges between -77% Women in Parliament-12 % Women in Ministerial Positions-16% Note: According to UN statistics, 67% of the work of all over the world are performed by women, but their worldwide income subject equals to 10% - of the total.

United Water Supply Company of Georgia (UWSCG)

Total Number of Employees in UWSCG 2543 Male employees 1938 Female employees 605 At the Head Office in total- 300 Male - 203

Female- 97

15 departments and 24 divisions. 2 female head of department 3 female head of division. There are no female managers at the Service Centers of UWSCG

Gender Action Plan and the United Water Supply Company of Georgia (Implemented Actions)
Component 1 : Infrastructure Improvement Component 2: Institutional Effectiveness Component 3: Project Implementation Support

Implemented Actions:
Sex disaggregated employee database established Sex disaggregated consumer database established Companys internal documents revised and made more gender sensitive Gender sensitive public awareness campaign designed and implemented /NGOs working on Gender issues (Trainings, Information Meetings, Distribution of Info. Materials).-Women Information Center HR Development Strategy/Management Contractor

Challenges & Perspectives

Current figures Women represent 24 % of company employees (2 543 employees) Women represent 16 % of Manager Positions in the head office Targets Women employee representation increased to 30% Women representation in key management positions increased to 30%

Challenges: Old, amortized water and Wastewater System Hard physical Work for Repairing . Perspectives:

Frequent Accidents

New Investment Projects New Standards, New Materials, New Technologies Reduction of Frequency of accidents and number of technical personnel Increase of Monitoring, Controlling and Research Need. New Approaches and New Technologies will make a big impact on Gender Equality in Water Sector

Growth of women employment and Women Leadership in UWSCG

Better compliance with framework of Georgian labor code; Improvement of UWSCG social standing as the utility company showing high standards of gender equality; Service delivery adapted to women household managers needs; Well organized, accurate and detaile oriented Top Managers

In 2012 number of female workers was -533 In 2013 its-605

Incentives for Women employees at the United Water Supply Company of Georgia

Encouragement of women job seekers to work for the company Special bonus system for women employees

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

UWSCG