More than 100 agricultural extension specialists participated in the series of gender trainings conducted in seven different municipalities of Georgia during February 2020. The trainings, aimed at equipping the extensionists with tools for mainstreaming gender into their extension work, were organized by FAO under the EU-funded European Neighborhood Programme for Agricultural and Rural Development (ENPARD III).

In the agricultural sector of Georgia women have limited access to productive resources such as land, agricultural inputs and financing opportunities, as well as a limited access to information, extension services, trainings and new technologies. This impedes the full development of Georgian agriculture because women, a significant part of the workforce, don’t participate in the economic development of this sector as much as they could.

Since 2013, under the ENPARD Programme, FAO is consistently supporting the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia (MEPA) in gender mainstreaming in its policy documents.

In February 2020, FAO implemented a training programme on gender mainstreaming for extension specialists working in the Information and Consulting Centers as well as for management of the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency (ARDA). These trainings took place in Akhaltsikhe, Marneuli, Telavi, Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Zugdidi and Kobuleti. Over 100 participants now have the skills and tools to provide extension support to women more effectively.

“Women are underrepresented in the different programmes that support access to knowledge or access to finance for farmers, and we need to make an extra effort to ensure that we provide equal opportunities for women and men,” said Javier Sanz Alvarez, FAO Programme Coordinator for EU-funded projects in Georgia. 

FAO experts provided the training participants the information and theoretical concepts on gender and gender mainstreaming.  Based on the knowledge obtained through the trainings, extensionists are expected to design and deliver quality advisories to the farmers in a gender sensitive way.

The European Union is supporting rural development in Georgia through its ENPARD Programme. Aiming at reducing rural poverty, ENPARD has been implemented since 2013, with a total budget of 179.5 million euros. The first phase of ENPARD focused on developing national agriculture potential, while the second and third phases focus on creating economic opportunities for the rural population that go beyond agricultural activities. More information on ENPARD is available at: www.enpard.ge.