New grant programme will fund labour-saving agricultural machinery and equipment for women living in the Ateni, Plevi, Tvishi and Sori communities of Georgia. The initiative is part of the Agricultural and Rural Development project in Georgia supported by FAO and Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC).

The objective of the programme is to improve the quality of life for rural women by providing them with  needed agricultural machinery or equipment with labour-saving potential at the land preparation/cultivation (e.g. planting and weeding), harvest, post-harvest and processing stages.

Eligibility to participate in the programme was given to the groups of single mothers, women living with three or more children under 18, women with disabilities and to those living with sick or disabled family members.

FAO Gender mainstreaming and social involvement specialist Salome Kinkladze says that the main goal of this grant programme is to alleviate the pressure of the hard and often invisible household chores that put an extreme burden on rural women. According to Kinkladze, women living in the selected areas have identified their needs themselves, thus the grant call reflects women’s wishes accurately. 

The application form, as well as the Guiding document on the Call for an application, will be available in both hard copy and digital versions at the Information Consultation Centres of MEPA (Khashuri, Gori, Oni and Tsageri), the community administration centres, focal points of the Local Initiative Group, as well as, project regional coordinators. Filled-in application forms should be submitted to the focal point of the Local Initiative Groups in the target communities, or to the local regional project coordinator: it is also possible to submit the application form in digital form at the designated project email address ([email protected] ). Detailed information with contacts on submission will be posted on the FAO's official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FAOGeorgia ;

The maximum amount of the grant is up to 1,500 USD and the deadline for submission of applications is 7th December 2020.