FAO and EU report on gender inequalities in rural Georgia
Breeding livestock, producing crops and household goods, fetching water and firewood, housework, cooking for family, looking after children, the elderly and sick members of the family – this is the short list of the rural women’s obligations in Georgia. However, women’s contribution to the agricultural production remains invisible and under-recognized, according to a report just released by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), supported by the European Union and Austrian government.
Georgia is primarily an agricultural country and women are crucial participants and contributors to agricultural development. Although, rural women rarely consider themselves as farmers because most of the work performed by them is considered as part of their family responsibilities. Poor infrastructure in the countryside, the low level of housing, limited access to transport and modern energy supplies increase women’s workload and time burden.
FAO’s report, Gender, agriculture and rural development in Georgia, explores existing gender inequalities in agriculture, their causes, and their impact on the economic and social development of rural areas and on food security and nutrition. The report attempts to highlight the challenges, gaps and practices that need to be considered by policy-makers and project managers in Georgia.
The report reiterates the main gender inequalities in the country, namely: the gap between policies, legislation and their implementation – despite the progress made by the Government of Georgia in improving gender equality policies, the enforcement and monitoring of these laws and policies remain a challenge.
The report points out to the gender gap in earnings and the gender-based segregation in employment: because women are usually perceived as helpers or contributing family members, they are more likely to be involved in unpaid and informal work. Women are also paid less in almost all the sectors of agriculture. On average, Georgian women earn 75 percent of men´s salary, what falls to 35 percent of men´s salary in fisheries. And usually, men prevail in higher managerial positions and better-paid jobs in agriculture, engineering and construction, where very few women are represented.
At the same time, this assessment emphasizes women’s limited access to productive resources such as land, finance and decision-making -- and more limited when compared to men – access to information, new technologies and agricultural inputs. This may often happen due to the widespread stereotypes that areas such as, for example, agricultural machinery ‘naturally’ belongs to the men’s domain. Trainings and services for these products tend also to be directed towards men. This approach not only sustains the existing status-quo. It also overlooks women’s existing roles (in the management and storage of pesticides, for example), ignoring the fact that if women had better access to training and information they would increase agricultural productivity.
“Limited access to ownership of land and other resources, material and nonmaterial, is one of the major barriers for women’s empowerment in rural areas. Due to limited or no access to land, women cannot participate in some of the agricultural funding schemes and are not always eligible for bank loans that leaves them at a significant disadvantage. Thus, there is a need to make funding schemes accessible for the women living in the rural areas through the women targeted interventions”, said Ms Dono Abdurazakova, FAO Senior Gender Expert.
This report identifies the need for further research in a wide range of areas within gender, food security and agriculture areas. Based on the review of the main challenges, the report suggests a set of recommendations for FAO, but also policy makers, programme and project implementers, as well as wider groups of practitioners and service providers in agriculture and rural development.
The publication was produced under the project - Capacity development of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia: Improved policy making and effective implementation of the Strategy for agricultural development, funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA). The production of the document was supported by European Union under European Neighborhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD).
The book is the sixth in the series of FAO country gender assessments of agriculture and the rural sector in Europe and Central Asia. It is available online: