“Balancing for Better” - EUMM Marks International Women’s Day

The EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) marks International Women’s Day (IWD) today to celebrate the remarkable achievements of women and highlight the need for continuing efforts to advance gender equality. EUMM joins this year’s global IWD campaign ‘#BalanceforBetter’.

“At EUMM we take great pride in the contribution of women to our work. We will continue our efforts to reach gender parity, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because we know it further strengthens our Mission and the effectiveness of the work we carry out in Georgia. This has to be a consistent effort. Gender equality is not something you promote on 8 March – it has to be on our agenda 365 days of the year,” says EUMM Head of Mission, Mr Erik Høeg.

Since the EUMM began implementing an Action Plan to improve gender balance in its operations in 2018, significant results have been achieved. Currently women comprise 50% of senior management positions in field offices and 40% of senior management posts at headquarters. Overall, women comprise 27% of international staff and 62% of local staff at EUMM. 

The EUMM systematically mainstreams gender into all aspects of its operations, in line with the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy and the EU’s Strategic Approach to Women, Peace and Security.  The work in this field in the Mission is coordinated by the Deputy Head of Mission, presently Ms. Catherine Fearon, who stated: “I am pleased to be supervising the overall gender mainstreaming in the Mission, and proud of the achievements that we have made, together with our specialised Gender Adviser and a network of gender focal points in all of our locations. These assist to generate and implement new initiatives to promote gender equality and gender mainstreaming”.

The EUMM marks 8 March by publishing its biannual report on progress on gender mainstreaming in the Mission. The report is available here.

As part of the International Women’s Day campaign, the Mission headquarters in Tbilisi and Field Offices in Gori, Mtskheta and Zugdidi also organised a range of activities to raise awareness about gender equality and equal rights – both internally at EUMM and among the local population in Georgia.

The EUMM Field Office in Mtskheta organised a photo exhibition reflecting the daily life of women living in conflict-affected areas of Georgia, while EUMM monitors in Zugdidi delivered important messages about gender equality and harmful stereotypes through outreach visits in local schools. In Gori, EUMM organized a roundtable discussion with women working in civil society, as government officials and in academia to shed light on existing challenges in the effort to increase gender balance and women’s meaningful participation in the public sphere.