Final Evaluation of the Project “A Joint Action for Women's Economic Empowerment in Georgia”

UN Women Georgia Final evaluation of the project “A Joint Action for Women’s Economic Empowerment in Georgia” Final report Marina Gurbo, International Consultant Medea Gugeshashvili, National Consultant The report is submitted in fulfillment of the Terms of Reference for the final external evaluation of the UN Women JAWE project on December 8, 2020. Table of Contents Acronyms and Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... 3 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 4 1. Introduction and Background ................................................................................................. 9 1.1. The project description .................................................................................................... 9 1.2. The socio-economic context of the project .................................................................... 11 1.3. The progress of the country towards achievement of SDGs .......................................... 12 1.4. Barriers and challenges to women’s economic empowerment ...................................... 13 2. Evaluation objectives, approach and methodology .............................................................. 17 2.1. Evaluation objectives ..................................................................................................... 17 2.2. Theoretical framework ................................................................................................... 18 2.3. The scope of evaluation ................................................................................................. 18 2.4. Limitations ..................................................................................................................... 20 2.5. Evaluation standards, criteria and evaluation questions ................................................ 20 2.6. Data collection and analysis........................................................................................... 22 2.7. Evaluation management ................................................................................................. 23 2.8. Ethical issues .................................................................................................................. 24 3. Findings................................................................................................................................. 25 3.1. Relevance ....................................................................................................................... 25 3.2. Coherence ...................................................................................................................... 31 3.3. Effectiveness .................................................................................................................. 33 3.4. Efficiency ....................................................................................................................... 49 3.5. Sustainability.................................................................................................................. 53 3.6. Innovativeness................................................................................................................ 56 4. Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 59 4.1. Relevance ....................................................................................................................... 59 4.2. Coherence ...................................................................................................................... 60 4.3. Effectiveness .................................................................................................................. 60 4.4. Efficiency ....................................................................................................................... 61 4.5. Sustainability.................................................................................................................. 62 4.6. Innovativeness................................................................................................................ 62 5. Lessons learned ..................................................................................................................... 63 6. Recommendations ................................................................................................................. 65 7. Annexes................................................................................................................................. 69 1 Annex 1 Evaluation Matrix ....................................................................................................... 70 Annex 2 Workplan .................................................................................................................... 75 Annex 3 List of documents reviewed ....................................................................................... 77 Annex 4 Stakeholders’ participation in the evaluation ............................................................. 80 Annex 5 Data collection tools ................................................................................................... 82 Annex 6 List of respondents ..................................................................................................... 91 Annex 7 SWOT results ............................................................................................................. 95 Annex 8 Implementations of WEPs by principle ..................................................................... 97 Annex 9 Status of indicators ................................................................................................... 100 Annex 10 Result Matrix .......................................................................................................... 104 Annex 11 Terms of Reference ................................................................................................ 108 List of Tables and Figures p # Figure 1 - JAWE Result Framework and Theory of Change 10 Figure 2 - Gender Pay Gap in Georgia 15 Figure 3 - JAWE ToC 19 Figure 4 - Data collection for final evaluation 22 Figure 5 - Results of the social mobilization component (per region) 30 Figure 6 Distribution of grants by Taso Foundation and GFA (per region) 30 Figure 7 Integration of WEPs 34 Figure 8 Representation of WEPs companies across the sectors 37 Figure 9 Participation in e-courses developed under the JAWE project 38 Table 1 Total disbursement of funds 51 Table 2 Budget allocation by partner 52 2 Acronyms and Abbreviations CDC Creative Development Center CiDA Civil Development Agency FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations GAC Gender Advisory Council GEWE Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment GFA Georgian Farmers’ Association GCCI Georgian Chamber of Commerce and Industry GITA Georgian Innovation and Technology Agency IEF Innovative Education Foundation IT Information Technology JAWE A Joint Action for Women’s Economic Empowerment in Georgia LELP Legal Entity of Public Law MTA Maritime Transport Agency NGO Non-Governmental Organization PGA Participatory Gender Audit PDO Public Defender’s Office SDG Sustainable Development Goals SHG Self-Help Group TASO TASO Foundation TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training UNCT United Nations Country Team UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNFPA United Nations Population Fund UN GTG United Nations Gender Theme Group UNSDCF United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework UN-SWAP UN System-wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women UN Women United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women VNR Voluntary National Review WEE Women’s Economic Empowerment WEPs Women’s Empowerment Principles: Equality Means Business W4T Business Leaders’ Federation “Women for Tomorrow” WISTA Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association 3 Executive Summary Introduction The UN Women project “A Joint Action for Women’s Economic Empowerment in Georgia” (JAWE) implemented in 2018 -2020 with the support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs aimed to promote economic empowerment of women, particularly the poorest and the most excluded ones, so that they are able to benefit from development in Georgia. Implemented in most disadvantaged regions of Georgia - Guria, Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi, Adjara, Shida Kartli and Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, the project focused on the grassroots social mobilization work and support to women’s employment and entrepreneurship through integration of Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) at the private sector in order to increase the responsibility of private enterprises for achievement of gender equality and women’ economic empowerment in the country. The project’s design integrated interventions at the policy, institutional and grassroots levels to facilitate achievement of the Project Outcome: Women fully realize their economic rights with the support of a gender-responsive private sector and an enabling State legislative and economic environment, which should further contribute to achievement of national strategies and plans that promote inclusive economic growth and help the Government meet undertaken international obligations and commitments including to the Agenda 2030. The project addressed important for the context of Georgia

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