On 29 November Media Development Foundation, MDF held the round table on women’s participation in the electoral process at the Center of Democratic Engagement in Gori.
The results of the women’s survey by questionnaire aimed to reflect women’s needs in an electoral programs of the political parties were presented at the meeting. The survey was conducted by Arina Tavaqarashvili, the member ofWomen’s Cooperation Network.
According to the findings, most of the respondents gave priority to the infrastructure projects (to increase the number of villages provided by water pipeline system – 34; increase the number of villages supplied by gas – 34); which is followed by the issue linked with the social assistance for the physically disabled people (to increase pension for all categories -34); educational issue (to rise the quality of school education in order not to cover additional expenses for tutors- 33); domestic violence issues ( to establish an effective system to provide assistance for the victims of violence, to increase the involvement of social workers to the families belonging to high risk groups – 33); relations between parties and voters (to make the election programs suited to the concrete voter, to develop not only national programs but also programs for the local areas, where female voter of each particular region or town will be able to identify her own problem -33) and other issues.
Different priorities were identified during the open questions, as the respondents named women’s involvement (14), employment (12) and violence against women (9) as the priority issues.
The meeting was attended by the Chairman of Gori Municipal Council, Deputy Mayor of Gori, the advisor on gender issues of the Municipal Council and other representatives of local government; the members of the following political parties–United National Movement, Georgian Party, United Democratic Movement, as well as the representatives of NGOs and the media sources.
The survey is being conducted in the 9 towns of Georgia, based on its results the recommendations will be elaborated for the political parties in order to insure the gender sensitive election political programs and include the needs of woman in the political platforms.
The project Women for Change is implemented by Media Development Foundation, MDF with the support of the Center of Electoral Systems Development, Reforms and Trainings.