DIRECTORATE GENERAL FOR NEIGHBOURHOOD AND ENLARGEMENT NEGOTIATIONS – DG NEAR Short-term high quality studies to support activities under the Eastern Partnership HiQSTEP PROJECT WOMEN IN POWER AND DECISION -MAKING IN THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP COUNTRIES STUDY REPORT This report has been prepared by the KANTOR Management Consultants Consortium. The findings, conclusions and interpretations expressed in this document are those of the Consortium alone and should in no way be taken to reflect the policies or opinions of the European Commission. 1 Preface This study report on Women in Power and Decision-Making in the Eastern Partnership Countries, 2015 is part of the project Short term high quality studies to support activities under the Eastern Partnership – HiQSTEP, EuropeAid/132574/C/SER/Multi, carried out by an international consortium under the leadership of Kantor Management Consultants. This study has been carried out to support the activities of Platform I - ‘Democracy, Good Governance and Stability’ – of the Eastern Partnership at the request of the Government of Sweden, supported by Georgia and Moldova. Gender has been identified as priority area by the EaP Platform I Work Programme 2014-2017. The Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), the European Union External Action Service and the European Institute for Gender Equality are the driving forces in cooperation with EaP partner countries on this theme. The European Institute for Gender Equality has provided methodological support to the present Study to ensure comparability between the EU-28 and Eastern Partnership data. The Study has been implemented by the following team under the leadership of Serena Romano, Study Team Leader. Composition of the team: Kateryna Shalayeva, Study Team Coordinator Country Researchers: Sevan Petrosyan in Armenia Uliviyya Mammadova in Azerbaijan Iouri Zagoumennov in Belarus Georgeta Mincu in Moldova Nana Berekashvili and Tsisana Goderdzishvili in Georgia Sviltlana Repik in Ukraine. The overall supervision, quality check and management have been carried out by Przemysław Musiałkowski, Team Leader of the HiQSTEP Project. Special thanks to Kristaps Petermanis and Merle Paats of EIGE for their kind support and guidance with regard to EIGE methodology and indicators and to Emma Sandahl of the European Commission for her comments . November 30, 2015 2 The Study Team wishes to dedicate this report to the memory of Valeria Solesin, a twenty-eight- year-old researcher and student of demographics at the Sorbonne University who died in the Bataclan concert hall attack in Paris, on November 13, 2015, at the time when the drafting of this report was in its final stage. 3 CONTENTS 1 Executive summary ................................................................................................................ 6 1.1 Background and purpose ................................................................................................ 7 1.2 Description of the assignment, objectives and expected results ...................................... 9 1.2.1 Assignment ................................................................................................................. 9 1.2.2 Objectives ................................................................................................................... 9 1.2.3 Expected results ........................................................................................................12 2 Part A - Overview (Objective I) ..............................................................................................12 2.1 General legal framework, gender policies and parity institutions ....................................12 3 Review of the indicators .........................................................................................................17 3.1 In the bodies of public power..........................................................................................17 3.1.1 Women in politics .......................................................................................................17 3.1.2 Women in public administration ..................................................................................27 3.1.3 Women in the judiciary ...............................................................................................29 3.2 Economic decision-making ............................................................................................30 3.2.1 Women in financial decision-making positions ...........................................................35 3.2.2 Women in social partner organisations .......................................................................36 3.2.3 Women in business leadership...................................................................................38 3.3 Social decision-making ..................................................................................................39 3.4 Women's participation in conflict resolution and reconciliation .......................................42 4 Part B- Identification of good examples..................................................................................44 4.1 Armenia .........................................................................................................................44 4.2 Azerbaijan ......................................................................................................................44 4.3 Belarus ..........................................................................................................................44 4.4 Georgia ..........................................................................................................................44 4.5 Moldova .........................................................................................................................45 4.6 Ukraine ..........................................................................................................................45 5 Recommendations and conclusions ......................................................................................46 5.1 Recommendations .........................................................................................................46 5.1.1 Social .........................................................................................................................46 5.1.2 Political ......................................................................................................................46 5.1.3 Economic ...................................................................................................................46 5.1.4 Employment ...............................................................................................................47 5.1.5 Women in conflict areas .............................................................................................47 5.1.6 General ......................................................................................................................47 5.1.7 Proposal of new indicators for Women in Power ........................................................48 5.2 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................49 6 Methodology ..........................................................................................................................50 6.1 Data collection ...............................................................................................................50 6.2 Quality assurance ..........................................................................................................50 6.3 Literature Review ...........................................................................................................51 6.4 Mapping Tables .............................................................................................................51 6.5 Interpretation of indicators ..............................................................................................51 6.6 Statistical tables .............................................................................................................52 6.7 Limitations of the study ..................................................................................................52 Annex 1 – Country results .............................................................................................................53 Annex 2 - Mapping Tables ...........................................................................................................78 Annex 3 – Interpretation of Indicators ............................................................................................96 Annex 4 - Bibliography ................................................................................................................99 4 Abbreviations and acronyms BEIS Basic, Economy, Infrastructure, Social (Ministry) BPfA Beijing Platform for Action CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminations against Women EU European Union EaP Eastern Partnership HiQSTEP High Quality Studies for the Eastern Partnership IDP Internally Displaced Person MDGs Millennium Development Goals STL Study Team Leader Country codes AM Armenia AZ Azerbaijan BY Belarus GE Georgia MD Moldova UA Ukraine 5 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In the Eastern Partnership Countries, women are remarkably absent from the structures of power. In politics, 17 women are currently appointed to Senior Minister posts