Promoting IDPs' and Women's Voices in Post-Conflict Georgia

system has an important role to play in introducing female role models to children to encouragewomen’s leadership. As noted by the 2011 study, there is a clear lack of attention given to highlightingthe achievements of women in curriculum and textbooks. 404 Women’s invisibility in this context maycontribute to female students’ low self-esteem and lack of self-confidence. 405 It is therefore imperativethat women’s contributions to society, as scholars, businesspersons, politicians, and other influentialroles are incorporated into curricula.Opportunities to Encourage Political ParticipationIn recognition of these challenges, various stakeholders have highlighted a number of opportunities toaddress barriers to IDPs and women’s inclusion in institutional governance processes. Regarding thelocal NGO community, a host of actors believe IDP women’s organizations could be more systematic intheir advocacy efforts instead of maintaining an individualized and piecemeal approach. One suggestionto achieve this places the onus on international donors, whereby they would gather all donors to discusspromoting collaboration among NGOs. A forum could be created with the purpose of deciding upon andworking toward an overarching policy objective, with each organization sharing in the responsibility. 406As noted previously, the international donor community was recently successful in pushing forlegislative advancements in the area of women’s political representation. The Council of Europe’s VeniceCommission’s recommendations 407 on affirmative action, particularly those on party candidate lists,were instrumental in the Georgian Parliament’s adoption of the new ‘encouragement law.’ 408 While thislaw provides financial compensation for parties to include women candidates, it does not preventparties from placing them at the very bottom of the candidate list. Furthermore, it is essential thatwomen are made aware of this law and how they can access their rights. Recommendations on how tostrengthen the encouragement law will be provided in the final section of this report.404 Ibid. 31.405 Personal interview undertaken by Asatoorian et al. with Vepkhvadze, S. March. 2011.406 Manana Gabashvili, Personal Interview.407 Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR, “Joint Opinion on the Draft Election Code of Georgia,” CDL-AD(2011)043. 2011. 12.408 Tamuna Karosanidze, Personal Interview.77