“Women in Georgia – Tradition and Contemporaneity” is a short documentary film prepared by ‘Netgazeti’ (online newspaper) about women living in Ghordjomi Community (Khulo Municipality, Ajara). Ghordjomi is one of the largest Muslim communities in Ajara and is known for its early marriage traditions, and other strict rules and attitudes towards women. The film describes the harsh daily routine of the women starting from 6 am in the morning with taking care of the cattle, children, household and the restrictions they face in daily life.
The ALCP AJ programme’s Focus Group Survey and Gender Analysis captured these issues and also noted the consequent effect on the participation of women in the decision-making processes at the community and local governmental levels which is chronically low.
The programme employs a systemic approach in which gender mainstreaming is integral to ensuring equitable impact. To date interventions have included:
- A Memorandum of Understanding with Ajara’s self-governments to cooperate in the gender related issues and to support implementation of the Law on Gender Equality of Georgia.
- Facilitating the appointment of Gender Advisors in all five municipalities of Ajara
- Organized training for the Advisors on how to increase women participation in community meetings. Following the training, Gender Advisors worked with Village Representatives and as a result the attendance of women in the community meetings has increased by 10-15 %.
As the follow up to these activities, the programme will further ensure women’s access to decision-making and public goods and information by establishing a municipal service the ‘Women’s Room’ in the municipalities of Ajara region.
Another constraint captured by the Gender Analysis is that female farmers lack information regarding livestock husbandry, again due to the several cultural, ethnic and social constraints. Programme facilitated training on cow’s reproduction cycle for the female SSLPs in eight villages of the five municipalities of Ajara region, where intervention of the improved bull services is on place.
The main subject of the training was a heat detection followed by other issues concerning breeding, veterinary, nutrition, etc. This type of information is important for women, as they are mainly responsible for identifying the right time for cows to breed, however they feel uncomfortable to ask questions to the vets who are mostly men. Therefore, the female experienced vet and AI practitioner, Nana Balanchivadze was invited to carry out the trainings.
The female farmers expressed their interest and emphasized necessity of the female vets’ involvement in the veterinary matters. The participants were mostly interested in the reproduction cycle, symptoms and treatment of the cattle diseases. Overall, 108 women were trained. In addition, 42 men also asked trainer for advice on breeding and veterinary.
Livestock transhumance will no longer disturb Tsintskaro Village population in Tetritskaro Municipality. The local Municipal DRR Working Group initiated a new infrastructure project which will solve the problems related to the seasonal transhumance in this particular village.
From the ISET Economist news (http://www.iset.ge/news/?p=3311)
By Eric Livny
(Summary of a debate hosted by ISET as part of SDC-supported Inclusive Growth Dialog series.)
There are many reasons to love the concept of farmer cooperation (and cooperation more generally). To begin with, there is a great aesthetic value in seeing people coming together, sharing resources and helping each other. After all, instinctive collectivism was the basic condition of human existence from time immemorial. But, there are also powerful economic reasons for farmer cooperation.
The Road – a beautifully shot documentary capturing the reality and dichotomies of the people who use the ancient transhumance route; the lifeline of livestock in Georgia
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure (MRDI) and the Swiss Development Cooperation project the Mercy Corps Georgia implemented, Alliances Lesser Caucasus Programme (ALCP) in Kvemo Kartli, The aim of the memorandum is to support the ongoing outreach at local government level of practical implementation of the 2010 Georgian Gender Equality Law which will greatly aid in the general development of rural Georgian municipalities.
From the ISET Economist news (http://www.iset.ge/news/?p=3056)
By Tim Stewart
As Georgia embarks on an ambitious program to develop farmer organizations, it is worth considering both the positive and negative lessons from the experience of similar initiatives, both in Georgia and elsewhere in the developing/transition context. The piece by Tim Stewart, originally published on www.springfieldcentre.com, identifies some of the main reasons for the failure of start-up farmer organizations. The challenge for Georgia is to learn from these mistakes in planning and implementation, and ensure improved coordination among the many cooks involved (the newly created Agency for the Development of Agricultural Cooperatives, the Ministry of Agriculture, international donors, NGOs, and farmer associations).
Publishing the following series of stories is an attempt to highlight the ethnic diversity of Kvemo Kartli. We are going to tell you the stories of five women living in various parts of Kvemo Kartli; these women have different lifestyles and represent different cultures, but they still have a lot in common. This is their history in stories. Stories of work, endurance, taboos, restriction, dignity, honesty and womanhood. You will not see figures and percentages here; this is not a quantitative survey. These are stories that allow us to build on those figures and percentages and enable us to develop profiles of Ajarian, Svan, Azeri, Armenian, Greek and local Georgian women’s lives, to understand their complexities and areas of commonality and to reflect this in our work as a programme.
Kvemo Kartli is one of the most ethnically diverse regions of Georgia. Ethnic diversity has developed over centuries and many contrasts and cultural differences have accumulated in this region; the study and management of these contrasts and differences and the development of models for peaceful cohabitation is not an easy task. Cultural, ethnic and language differences can be seen in every detail of life. Differences are present in rural and urban areas, in highlands and lowlands, in methods of doing business. Our objective in recording these stories was to attempt to create a profile of these women, to listen to them and build the picture of their lives, to understand the effects that culture and ethnic origin have on their lives, to see what opportunities they have and how they use or fail to use these opportunities, if they have them at all.
 |
|
|
|
|
