The Gender Equality Council approved the Action Plan for 2021 providing the reservations and remarks. The Plan provides six directions:

• Formation of the main directions of the state gender policy;
• Creation and improvement of the legal base in the gender equality sphere;
• Improvement of the state gender equality mechanisms;
• Capacity building of the Gender Equality Council;
• Public awareness on gender equality;
• Monitoring of implementation of state gender policy.

Each direction consists of the tasks. The Plan provides the activities, indices, partner organizations, terms and responsible members for the activity of the Council.

“The Action Plan for 2021 reflects all urgent issues. We have already proactively started working on most of them to adhere to the terms. In cooperation with our donor organizations, led by NDI, we will develop the Action Plan for 2022-2024 to in detail reflect all challenges in this sphere”, - the Chair, Nino Tsilosani stated.

The GEC approved the initiation of the thematic inquiry “Women participation in the shadow economy and COVID impact thereon”.

Khatia Tsilosani was elected as the rapporteur and the Thematic Inquiry Group will be composed of Rima Beradze and Mariam Lashkhi. “This is a very sensitive problem revealed under the pandemic, including the complications for the informally employed persons. They appeared to encounter the acutest challenges due to the loss of their jobs after the offices moving to the remove mode and because they did not belong to any category of the employees eligible for the state compensation”, - Kh. Tsilosani stated.

The Thematic Inquiry Group will work on: development of the review on the state of women in the informal sector; study of the challenges they encounter; analysis of the legislation governing their rights and the compliance thereof with the international standards; development of the legal and policy recommendations.

“The report will overview the pandemic impact on such employment segments”, - she added.